For an actor and activist, Sabina Higgins is notoriously private. In a rare interview, Ireland’s philosophical first lady tells ANNE HARRIS how her background in drama and devotion to the arts, benefits her work at the Áras
The foyer of the Fitzwilliam Hotel is dominated by twin portraits of women in resplendent garments but no faces. I was rather pleased with myself for spotting the potential here. What could be more guaranteed to exercise a strong-minded First Lady than faceless women? What better than a spot of feminism to break the ice at lunch in Thorntons at the Fitzwilliam with Sabina Higgins? Her response, when I mentioned it, was indeed wholehearted. “What an interesting idea. Rather like those children’s toys with no faces. The thing is, you can project anything you like on to it.”
I should have realised that our first lady defies pigeonholing. The first time I saw her up close was at the Irish Book Awards a few weeks after President Higgins’ inauguration. She was the picture of poise and perfection, but peering closer I saw she had kicked off her shoes under the table. If there was to be a battle between protocol and free spirit here, I felt certain protocol would be the loser. But back then, as with the faceless ladies now, I knew little about the complex emotional make up of the actor and activist that is Sabina Higgins.
Our meeting is immediately after her return from the Climate Conference in Paris where the President stepped up in the vanguard of world leaders on climate change. The big question for any interview with his spouse would surely be about life with the Great Man: a man given, in personality and politics, to the cosmic paradoxes of a Tolstoy, devoting his all for the good of mankind. But I was already beginning to see that things would not be that simple.
For more of our exclusive interview with Sabina Higgins, see our September issue of THE GLOSS Magazine, which is out today, free with The Irish Times — don’t forget to pick up your copy.