Yes, I’m aware of that. It’s just encouraging to know there’s someone of his character over there. Kind of easy to think the whole system over there and all of its participants are as deluded and odious as the current incumbent.

I’m Irish. My heart swells with pride when I hear our President Michael D. Higgins speak. A wise and eloquent man of considered words. A man of integrity who was on more protests and picket lines than anyone. Whenever there was a cause worth fighting for, he was there. His life spent standing up for marginalised people, campaigning for social justice and legislative change, promoting the Irish language and the arts.

I feel very lucky to have him as our president and I despair when I look across the Atlantic and see that clown whose proposed wall at the Mexican border now surrounds him in the Whitehouse.

It’s good to see Bernie Sanders and people like him exist in the middle of what looks like a pivotal point in American history. He has qualities that remind me of Tony Benn in England and Joe Higgins in Ireland.

Worrying times but change never happens easy.