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On 10 July 1927, Kevin O'Higgins was shot dead in Booterstown, County Dublin. He fell under a rain of bullets and died forgiving his enemies. He was thirty-five years of age.
Born in Stradbally, he came to Dublin to study law, and, caught up in the national struggle that started in 1916, joined the Volunteers. He stood as a Sinn Féin candidate in the General Election of 1918 and was elected; in the first government of the new Free State he became Minister for Home Affairs. A dominant personality in successive Executive Cabinets, he was second in command to W.T. Cosgrave by the age of thirty. He was a formidable debater and tough negotiator, and at one time Ireland's external policy was under his direction. Shortly before he died, he discussed with Edward Carson the setting yp of a united Ireland under a dual monarchy.
An uncompromising character who always spoke his mind and was recognized as the 'strong man' of the Government, he described himself as 'walled in by hate'. He was blamed for seventy-seven executions during the Civil War, including the reprisal shooting of his old friend and best man, Rory O'Connor. He was, in fact, one of the last of the Cabinet to agree to the reprisal shootings.
His principal antagonist was Eamon de Valera. They were at opposite poles of the compass, and O'Higgins believed that de Valera would play down to 'the weakness of the people'.
First published in 1948, Terence de Vere White's masterly biography fully records the life and death of Kevin O'Higgins, and contains a comprehensive account of the Black and Tan period and the Treaty debates.
This reprint edition from Anvil Press, 1986, age tanning to page block. Small closed tear repaired with yellowing tape to page edge of page 246.
