Hot Press Books has announced the publication of Power To The People (The Hot Press Years) by Michael D. Higgins. The book is a collection of the powerful columns the future President wrote for Hot Press between 1983 and 1993, covering a huge range of the big issues of the time, including US foreign policy in South and Central America.

The author's royalties for the book – which is dedicated to the late Sally O’Neill Sanchez – will go to the Irish aid agency Trócaire, with whom Sally worked. 

The President said the discipline of writing that fortnightly piece for Hot Press required him to stand back and reflect deeply on the history and context of what he was doing, and why: "I put my heart and soul into the writing, developing and refining what I hoped to be a sense of immediate, human urgency. 

“The full interaction of my work as a concerned politician and activist was informed by what I was writing.  I am so glad to have had that opportunity – and it moves me greatly to have that work brought together now for everyone to see and read – and hopefully to enjoy," he said.

Hot Press editor Niall Stokes added: “Michael D's column was wide-ranging and free of conventional media constraints. It could be devastatingly critical on the one hand, and open-minded, warm and inspiring on the other.

“But it always reflected the deeply-felt commitment to human rights and to the equality agenda that would ultimately see Ireland modernise in the most impressive way socially and culturally. That makes it an essential document of modern Ireland in-the-making,” he said.

The hardback edition, signed by the author, is available only in a special limited edition, on pre-sale now.

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