The year ahead of us, 2025, will see the departure from office of two presidents, the President of the United States Joe Biden, and the President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins.
Biden will take his leave on January 20, handing over to Donald Trump. Higgins will depart Áras an Uachtaráin in November.
Biden will have served one term of four years, Higgins two terms of seven years each.
The two jobs are very different of course. The American presidency is an executive office and the holder carries the additional responsibility of being Commander in Chief. The Irish presidency is a constitutional office. Executive power rests with the Taoiseach and the Cabinet.
Both Biden and Higgins are in their 80s. We don't know yet who will succeed Higgins. There will be an election to decide this.
Both presidents are spending their final Yuletides in office in their respective official abodes, both houses that are white.
President Joe Biden in Ireland and here being greeted by crowds in Ballina, County Mayo in April, 2023. RollingNews.ie photo.
The Washington White House, designed by an Irishman, is the center of the most powerful political office in the world.
The Irish white house, Áras an Uachtaráin, wasn't burned to the ground by the British like the American one was in the War of 1812. It was in fact designed by English architects, completed in the 1750s, and later used by the British as the then Viceregal Lodge.
While President Higgins has lacked the political, economic and military power that the occupant of the American White House can bring to bear, he has a record of applying words carrying moral force to critical issues, not only in Ireland, but around the world.
President Higgins, in this regard, had much to say in 2024, a year that will not go down in history as being one of the more peaceful ones. We can expect that he will have much to say in 2025, given that he will remain in office for most of it.
So, hopefully, will President Biden, from the White House, albeit for just a few days.
Biden visited with President Higgins during his visit to Ireland in April, 2023. The nation's 46th president places great store in his familial connections to Ireland. We can assume he will draw upon those connections, and the spirit within them, in the months ahead as he faces into his retirement. Perhaps he will visit Ireland again. He would be most welcome.
And if Biden visits before November he could visit President Higgins in that other white house.
Presidents apart, as we celebrate Christmas and look forward to the New Year we should embrace all the hope and optimism that we can muster for a coming twelve months that will be, one way or another, of enormous consequence. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all.
