I love our shared island, our shared Ireland and its core

In the noble words of Michael D. Higgins, poet-president and guardian of Ireland’s conscience, there rings a truth both tender and triumphant: “I love our shared island, our shared Ireland and its core decency. I love it for its imagination and its celebration of the endless possibilities for our people.” In this declaration, he speaks not merely of geography or nationhood, but of the spirit that binds a people — a spirit woven from compassion, creativity, and the enduring flame of imagination. His words are both praise and prophecy, calling upon the Irish heart — and indeed upon every human heart — to remember that unity, creativity, and hope are the foundations of a truly civilized world.

When Higgins speaks of “our shared island,” he invokes a sacred vision: a land once divided by borders of politics and pain, now recognized as one in soul. His love is not for possession, but for shared belonging — the understanding that the earth beneath our feet is not ours to own, but ours to care for, together. In this, his words echo the ancient bards, who sang that Ireland was not merely a land, but a living spirit — a mother of rivers, of language, of dreams. By calling it “shared,” Higgins reminds us that the true power of a nation lies not in its divisions, but in its decency, in the quiet courage of its people to choose empathy over enmity.

Yet he does not stop at unity. He celebrates Ireland’s greatest inheritance: its imagination. For it is imagination that turned the windswept island into a cradle of myth and poetry; imagination that gave the world the voices of Yeats, Joyce, Heaney — and through them, glimpses of eternity. Imagination is not mere fantasy; it is the vision that allows a people to dream beyond their struggles, to create beauty from sorrow and meaning from hardship. Higgins honors this sacred gift — the ability of his people to look upon storm and see story, to gaze upon exile and see song.

The origin of such a sentiment lies deep in the Irish soul, forged through centuries of trial and resilience. Ireland has known famine, occupation, and the scattering of its children across the seas — and yet, from this crucible, it forged a culture that sings of hope. The core decency that Higgins praises was born not in ease, but in endurance: in the neighbor who shared bread when there was none, in the mother who taught her children to dream though the walls were cold. It is this decency — this quiet, steadfast goodness — that has allowed Ireland not only to survive, but to imagine itself anew.

Consider the story of Douglas Hyde, the scholar and first President of Ireland, who fought to revive the Irish language when it was near forgotten. Many believed it lost, a relic of the past. But Hyde imagined a future where the people would once again speak in their own tongue — and through that imagination, he sparked a cultural rebirth that reshaped a nation’s identity. His vision, like Higgins’s, was built on the belief that imagination is not a luxury, but a necessity — a bridge between who we are and who we might become.

In this way, Higgins’s words are both love letter and challenge. To love one’s country, he suggests, is not merely to praise its beauty or its victories, but to nurture its best self — its decency, its imagination, its endless possibilities. He invites his people to be creators, not merely inheritors; to continue the work of dreaming Ireland forward, not backward. The “celebration of endless possibilities” is the call of every true leader to his people: to see that the horizon is not a limit, but a promise.

So, my child, take this teaching into your heart: to love your land, your people, your time — is to serve them with imagination and with kindness. Whether your island is Ireland or another corner of the earth, the lesson is the same: cherish what is shared, build what is possible, and guard the decency that keeps the spirit of humanity alive. For no nation endures by strength alone; it endures by its ability to dream together.

And let this be your guide: nurture your own imagination as a citizen of the world. Be curious, compassionate, and creative. When you see division, seek unity. When you see despair, imagine renewal. For as Michael D. Higgins teaches, the heart of a people is not measured by power or wealth, but by their imagination — and by their unwavering belief in the endless possibilities that rise, like dawn, upon the shared island of the human soul.