A German TV crew has been following Kerry Councillor Danny Healy-Rae around after his well-publicized views on drink driving.

Healy-Rae will be featured in a programme on RTL by documentary-maker Roman Lieberger. How the politician - and by extension the people of Ireland - will be portrayed is unclear for now apart from a wee clip that Tom Dunne managed to get his hands on.

But how are Irish public figures generally portrayed by some of the daily newspapers on the continent?

Taoiseach Enda Kenny

Spanish newspaper El Pais consistently refers to the Taoiseach as "un conservador" which translates as being the member of a conservative party.

Meanwhile in December, French daily Le Monde said that Kenny had "brought freshness" and was a "serious and composed" figure.

Previously though, in a profile piece titled 'Fine Gael's Grumpy Uncle' published just after the 2011 General Election, it claimed that Kenny was incapable of banter like Brian Cowen, nor did he have the "flamboyance" of Bertie Ahern. It also continued by saying that he was a "poor public speaker" and "reserved".

Just under one year ago, Germany's most read daily Süddeutsche Zeitung mentioned in passing that Kenny had climbed Craogh Patrick over 100 times, but another statement draws attention. The paper suggested that the Fine Gael leader was "a man of perseverance" who had earned the trust of the Irish people who "accepted most of the austerity measures."

President Michael D Higgins

Le Monde consistently desrcibes the Irish President as a "poet-president". Another article about the former TD is titled as "Mettre de l'éthique dans la société" which roughly translates as "Putting Ethics into Scoiety."

In a profile piece, it is claimed that the people of Ireland were slightly surprised by his election, while describing his physical characteristics as: "a high-pitched voice", "messy, white hair" and capable of passing for a "quiet grandfather" with a "good-natured" air.

His poetic side is also mentioned in an El Pais feature piece from last April which claims that Ireland has more poets per square mile than any other part of Europe.

When President Higgins spent time in Spain last year improving his Spanish, the newspaper emphasised his down-to-earth nature.

Süddeutsche Zeitung also mentioned the fact that the former Culture Minister was a poet in a report on the 2011 Presidential Election, which described Fine Gael's Gay Mitchell as a "colourless candidate."

Former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern

In the wake of Bertie Ahern's resignations Süddeutsche Zeitung said that Brian Cowen would replace "one of the most successful Taoiseachs in history of Ireland".

Around the time of Ireland's EU Presidency in 2004, El Pais said that the then-Fianna Fail leader had "demonstrated exceptional diplomatic skills to achieve agreement and unanimity invery complex matters."

However Le Monde saw Ahern in a different light. In an article from 2012, he was firstly described as the "antithesis" to Enda Kenny, while stating that he was "discredited" with the Irish people.

In another article he was said to symbolize the excesses of the Celtic Tiger years, specifically symbolizing the rapid rise and fall of modern Ireland.

Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams

Le Monde put the Sinn Fein President in the same box as other "leaders who fought for independence" like Nelson Mandela and Charles De Gaulle in an article on the concept of "terrorism".

When Martin McGuinness shook hands with the Queen, El Pais naturally drew comparisons with the problems between ETA and the Spanish state.

The analysis piece drew the conclusion that ETA nor the Basque movement had leaders like Adams and McGuinness who had "the fortitude to drag paramilitaries towards the road for peace."