Christmas Greeting from President Michael D. Higgins and Family 2018

Of utopias Old utopias never die nor do they fade away.

Born of possibility out of ancestor traces, memory gives birth to imagination.

From a whisper it grows, and makes a music, in the quiet places of the heart, where a new song is made, soaring above the lesser sounds of false inevitabilities, it makes an echo.

Nor is it the vain cry of a child of reason.

It is a shout at the future, that is there for the making, becomes a song shared by the many in joyous anticipation.

Michael D. Higgins, New and Selected Poems, 2011 Liberties Press

With every good wish for a peaceful and happy Christmas and New Year Beannachtaí na Nollag agus Athbhliain faoi shéan is faoi shonas

UACHTARÁN NA hÉIREANN President of Ireland 2018

Áras an Uachtaráin, Phoenix Park, D08E1W3. @PresidentIRL

Áras an Uachtaráin, D08E1W3 www.president.ie @PresidentIRL

Image ‘The Virgin and Child’, 1503 Albrecht Dürer