PRESIDENT Michael D Higgins has confirmed that his hospitalisation earlier this year was due to having experienced a ‘mild form of stroke’.
The 83-year-old was admitted to St James’s Hospital in Dublin on February 29 after he became unwell.
At the time his office made a public statement, confirming that medical tests had determined he “experienced a mild transient weakness from which they expect him to make a full recovery”.
In an interview with the Irish Times this week, Mr Higgins explained that he had in fact experienced a “mild form of stroke”.
He confirmed that he was “fine now” adding that it didn’t affect his “cognitive abilities”.
“My left hand is fully back but [the stroke] somehow exacerbated stuff that I had in my lower back. I’m getting that fixed in the next week,” he added.
At the time, under this advice of his medical team, Mr Higgins stayed in hospital for a week – adding extra days so that his blood pressure could be monitored.
He returned to Áras an Uachtaráin on March 7.
This week he is in Manchester, where he was bestowed with an honorary doctorate by the University of Manchester on Tuesday, April 23.
President Higgins was conferred with the Degree of Doctor of Letters honoris causa by the Chancellor of the University of Manchester, Nazir Afzal.
Yesterday, Mr Higgins gave the inaugural lecture of the new John Kennedy Lecture Series.
A former student of the university, Mr Higgins attended as a postgraduate student from 1968 to 1971.
He told those gathered for his talk that “the invitation to deliver the inaugural lecture of the John Kennedy Lecture Series is a privilege that takes on an even more special significance for me having studied at Manchester more than 50 years ago”.