Poet as president
October 29, 2011
Ireland has chosen a poet, human rights campaigner and Labour Party politician as its ninth president.
Michael D. Higgins, a former culture minister from the country's junior coalition partner, won victory over a reality TV judge and an ex-IRA commander.
Higgins won a 56.8 percent share of votes.
His biggest rival, businessman and TV personality Sean Gallagher, came second. Ex-guerilla fighter Martin McGuiness from the Sinn Fein opposition party was in third place.
The campaign was full of personal mud-slinging between Higgins' two opponents. Higgins himself was not involved.
Largely ceremonial
Higgins will be inaugurated into office on November 11. He will take over from Mary McAleese, who served two terms as president.
The post of president in Ireland is a mostly ceremonial one. The president is elected for seven years and can serve a maximum of two terms.
In addition to his political career, the 70-year-old Higgins is known as a broadcaster, author and poet.
Pop song subject
He also served as mayor of the town of Galway for two periods in 1982–1983 and 1991–1992.
Higgins has another claim to fame: as the subject of a pop song by the band The Saw Doctors.
Ireland's Labour Party had another success on Friday, winning a 38th parliamentary seat in Dublin. This makes it the first ruling party to win a by-election since 1982.
Author: Timothy Jones (Reuters, AP, AFP, dpa)
Editor: Andreas Illmer