Today at 08:34
President Michael D Higgins has told of how he had a stroke during the health scare which resulted in him being hospitalised in early March.
A statement at the time from the President’s office described his health issue as a “mild transient episode”.
He was taken to hospital on February 29th and stayed there for seven nights.
Mr Higgins said he has been left with some mobility issues after the “form of mild stroke”.
“It didn’t affect any of my cognitive abilities,” he told the Irish Times.
“It affected simply my motor side, which was on the left hand side.
“My left hand is fully back. But the stroke somehow exacerbated stuff that I had in my lower back.”
The President is due to receive further treatment on his back over the next week and described the health scare as “little episode”.
He is currently in Manchester where he received an honorary doctorate yesterday.
He was conferred with an honorary doctorate from his alma mater the University of Manchester, which he said he accepted not just for himself but “for all migrants and for those who study and care for them”.
Mr Higgins studied at the university during the late 1960s, times he described as full of “hope and promise” as he discussed his family links to the city on Tuesday evening.
He was conferred with the Degree of Doctor of Letters honoris causa by the Chancellor of the University of Manchester, Nazir Afzal, in recognition of his contributions to literature and public life.
“This honour that you have bestowed on me has a particularly personal resonance, given my family connections with Manchester,” he told guests at the Whitworth Gallery.
“My two sisters came to Manchester in the late 1950s and married and reared their families here. This was followed by my experience as a postgraduate student at this University in the late 1960s, which were times of hope and promise in so many parts of the world.”
Mr Higgins paid tribute to those who have researched and documented the Irish connection to the city, telling those gathered about the many Irish who “lived and died” building the Manchester Shipping Canal.