{"id":111325,"date":"2025-10-09T14:27:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T14:27:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/111325\/"},"modified":"2025-10-09T14:27:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T14:27:09","slug":"michael-d-higgins-welcomes-south-african-president-to-aras-an-uachtarain-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/111325\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael D Higgins welcomes South African president to \u00c1ras an Uachtar\u00e1in \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall b-it-article-body__text--left\">President <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/michael-d-higgins\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/michael-d-higgins\/\">Michael D Higgins<\/a> welcomed the president of the Republic of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/south-africa\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/south-africa\/\">South Africa<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/cyril-ramaphosa\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/cyril-ramaphosa\/\">Cyril Ramaphosa<\/a>, to lunch and bilateral talks at \u00c1ras an Uachtar\u00e1in on Wednesday. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall b-it-article-body__text--left\">The two heads of state have known each other for years. In his address to Mr Ramaphosa, President Higgins noted their relationship was based on \u201ca shared commitment to freedom and justice\u201d. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">In an address which covered their individual searches for equality and cultural ties between the two countries, Mr Higgins said: \u201cIreland and South Africa have a special relationship.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">He noted the relationship was \u201cone that can be traced back to struggles for independence based on the brave efforts of a principled opposition of racism and the legacies of exclusion and domination\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall b-it-article-body__text--left\">Mr Higgins recalled the Forum for Peace and Reconciliation in Dublin Castle, established after the 1994 ceasefires, in which Mr Ramaphosa participated, offering advice based on his own contributions to negotiations ending apartheid in South Africa four years earlier.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall b-it-article-body__text--left\">Mr Ramaphosa also took part in the peace process as an inspector for the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning and Mr Higgins recalled how he had gained the trust of diverse groups, \u201ca trust earned from your role in the struggle against apartheid and as a senior negotiator in the transition away from the tyrannical apartheid regime\u201d.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Mr Higgins said: \u201cIreland, for its part, stood firmly against the racist policies of the apartheid regime imposed on black South Africans and supported the global Anti-Apartheid Movement, establishing a connection based on the shared goals of freedom and equality.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall b-it-article-body__text--left\">Having been welcomed to the \u00c1ras, Mr Ramaphosa signed the distinguished visitors\u2019 book and inspected a guard of honour. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"President Michael D Higgins welcomed the president of the Republic of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, to lunch and&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":111326,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,63532,13,14,6,11,12,15,16,1874,5,5258,7,8,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-111325","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-cyril-ramaphosa","11":"tag-featured-news","12":"tag-featurednews","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-latest-news","15":"tag-latestnews","16":"tag-main-news","17":"tag-mainnews","18":"tag-michael-d-higgins","19":"tag-news","20":"tag-south-africa","21":"tag-top-stories","22":"tag-topstories","23":"tag-world","24":"tag-world-news","25":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111325\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}