Brian O'Higgins | |
|---|---|
 O'Higgins,c. 1914 | |
| President of Sinn Féin | |
| In office 30 April 1931 – 1933 | |
| Vice President | |
| Preceded by | John J. O'Kelly |
| Succeeded by | Michael O'Flanagan |
| Leas-Cheann Comhairle ofDáil Éireann | |
| In office 26 August 1921 – 28 February 1922 | |
| Ceann Comhairle | Eoin MacNeill |
| Preceded by | John J. O'Kelly |
| Succeeded by | Pádraic Ó Máille |
| Teachta Dála | |
| In office May 1921 – June 1927 | |
| Constituency | Clare |
| In office December 1918 – May 1921 | |
| Constituency | Clare West |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1882-07-01)1 July 1882 Kilskeer,County Meath, Ireland |
| Died | 10 March 1963(1963-03-10) (aged 80) Clontarf, Dublin, Ireland |
| Party | Sinn Féin |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 7 |
| Occupation | Politician, writer and poet |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance | |
| Years of service | 1913–1923 |
| Rank | Volunteer |
| Battles/wars | |
Brian O'Higgins (Irish:Brian Ó hUigínn; 1 July 1882 – 10 March 1963), also known asBrian na Banban, was an Irish writer, poet, soldier and politician who was a founding member ofSinn Féin and served asPresident of the organisation from 1931 to 1933. He was a leading figure within 20th centuryIrish republicanism and was widely regarded for his literary abilities.
Brian O'Higgins was born in 1882, the youngest of fourteen children of small farmers inKilskeer,County Meath.[1] His great-grandfather, Seán Ó Huiginn, was a poor scholar fromCounty Tyrone who was travelling to Munster before he encountered a group of men who were rushing to Tara to fight in theRising of 1798.[2] He promptly decided to partake in the rebellion and fought in theBattle of Tara Hill, where he was wounded and carried away to the small glen of Kilskeer to recuperate, but in Kilskeer he married and remained for the rest of his life. His father and uncles were members of theIrish Republican Brotherhood and took part in the abortiveFenian Rising, and later were supporters ofCharles Stewart Parnell.
In 1886, O'Higgins began his education at the Kilskeer National School and his principal teacher was a young man named James Raleigh, a Limerick native whom O'Higgins described as a 'devoted lover of Ireland'. Raleigh taught his students Irish history and numerous patriotic ballads such as "My Land" byThomas Davis, which undoubtedly had a lasting impact on O'Higgins. His childhood reading consisted ofYoung Ireland-influenced text such asIrish penny readings andSpeeches from the dock, and nationalist story papersThe Shamrock andThe Emerald. When he was twelve, he had aspirations of becoming a journalist but for a poor family in rural Ireland, such things were unheard of, and so when he left school at fourteen, he became a draper's apprentice at nearby Clonmellon.
It was during his time in Clonmellon, in 1898, that he published his first article for the Irish Fireside Club and a year later, began writing poetry. Throughout this period, he would become a regular contributor to local newspapers such as theMeath Chronicle. One of the first poems he wrote, at the age of seventeen, was a eulogy dedicated to FatherEugene O'Growney, an Irish language activist and Gaelic scholar whom O'Higgins admired greatly. The poem was published under the title,The Dying Sagart, and achieved widespread popularity.
In 1900, O'Higgins published his first poem in theUnited Irishman, edited byArthur Griffith andWilliam Rooney. It was entitledBe Men To-day, and aimed at urging the people along the road to an independent Irish-speaking Ireland. After completing his apprenticeship, O'Higgins had no desire to continue working in drapery so he moved to Dublin in 1901 to work as a barman, and during his time there he joined the O'Growney Branch of theGaelic League and Saint Finians Hurling Club.[3] His health declined in 1903 and he returned to live in his native Meath. It was during his recuperation at home that he co-founded the local hurling club, whose grounds were later named in his memory (Páirc Uí hUigín).
O'Higgins was present at the first annual convention of the National Council of Sinn Féin on 28 November 1905, and wrote its first party anthem entitled 'Sinn Féin Amháin'. The song was sung at all gatherings of the organisation for a number of years.
After attending an Irish-language summer college at Ballingeary, County Cork, O'Higgins received a language teacher's certificate in 1906 and began work as a múinteoir taistil (travelling teacher) for the Gaelic League. During this time he founded Coláiste Uí Chomhraidhe, an Irish language college in Carrigaholt,County Clare.[4] He became a good friend ofPádraig Pearse, after they first met in 1906.
In September 1908 he had married Anna Ní Chionnaigh (Kenny) and they had seven children.[1]
He first published his poetry in book form in 1907 as The Voice of Banba: Songs and Recitations for Young Ireland. Some of O'Higgins' work is anodyne and sentimental stuff, as per his Christmas Stories and Sketches (1917), Hearts of Gold (1918) and Songs of the Sacred Heart (1921). These works were commended by theBishop of Killaloe, the Sinn Féin-supporting Michael Fogarty, as being 'full of simple and profound religious feeling'.
O'Higgins' poem "Who is Ireland's Enemy?", was first published in September 1914 inIrish Freedom, in an edition entitledGermany Is Not Ireland's Enemy; it became popular during the1918 Irish conscription crisis. According to Christopher M. Kennedy, the poem was "perhaps the most blatant example of using past wrongs committed by England to keep the old hatreds alive".[5]
O'Higgins was a founding member of theIrish Volunteers in 1913, which organised to work for Irish independence. On Easter Monday of 1916 he was in a group of Volunteers who were held at 41 Parnell Square as reserves, on account of their age, health or physical condition. This group was called to the GPO at six o'clock that evening. He was put on guard duty at the main entrance to the GPO and he later served under Quartermaster Michael Staines. He assisted in the evacuation of the wounded from the GPO on Friday evening and spent the night in a shed off Moore Street. He was deported toStafford Gaol on May 1 and interned inFrongoch internment camp until February 1917.[3]
In May 1918 he was arrested and deported to Birmingham Prison, and was elected as the Sinn Féin MP forClare West at the1918 general election.[6]
In January 1919, Sinn Féin MPs who had been elected in the Westminster elections of 1918 refused to recognise theParliament of the United Kingdom and instead assembled inDublin as a revolutionary parliament calledDáil Éireann. He was involved in the establishment of theRepublican courts inCounty Clare.[2]
At the1921 elections he was returned unopposed for the new 4-seatClare constituency. He opposed theAnglo-Irish Treaty andvoted against it. During theIrish Civil War, he was imprisoned in Oriel House, Mountjoy Jail and Tintown and went on hunger strike for twenty-five days.[2]
He was re-elected as an Anti-Treaty Sinn FéinTeachta Dála (TD) at the1922 and1923 elections for theClare constituency.[7] He lost his seat at theJune 1927 general election.
He resigned from Sinn Féin in 1934[2] along withMary MacSwiney in protest against the election ofFr. Michael O'Flanagan as president citing that O'Flanagan had a state job and was "on the pay-roll of a usurping government".[citation needed]
In December 1938, O'Higgins was one of a group of seven people, who had been elected to theSecond Dáil in 1921, who met with theIRA Army Council underSeán Russell. At this meeting, the seven signed over what they believed was the authority of the Government of Dáil Éireann to the Army Council.[8] Henceforth, the IRA Army Council perceived itself to be the legitimate government of theIrish Republic and, on this basis, the IRA and Sinn Féin justified their rejection of the states of theRepublic of Ireland andNorthern Ireland and politicalabstentionism from their parliamentary institutions.
Today, thedissident republican organisationContinuity IRA claim to be the heirs of this legitimacy and believe to be the legitimate continuation of the originalIrish Republican Army orÓglaigh na hÉireann.[9]
O'Higgins wrote the lyrics of the song "A Stór Mo Chroí" ("Treasure of My Heart"), which subsequently entered the Irish music oral tradition,[4] set to the tune of the traditional Irish airBruach na Carraige Báine.[10][11] He also wrote 'The Boy from Tralee' about the execution ofCharlie Kerins.[12]
From the late 1920s, he ran a successful business publishing greeting cards, calendars and devotional materials decorated with Celtic designs and O'Higgins' own verses.
Following the suppression ofAn Phoblacht in 1937, he founded and edited theWolfe Tone Weekly from 1937–1939 until it was also banned by the Free State Government. From 1932 to 1962 he published theWolfe Tone Annual, from his business at 56 Parnell Square, Dublin. This popular series of volumes gave popular accounts of episodes in Irish history from a republican viewpoint and he intended to cheer and inspire those true to 'the Separatist Idea and devoted to the vindication of all those who have sacrificed themselves for the full Independence and Gaelicisation of Ireland'. O'Higgins wrote numerous ballads and poems about Ireland throughout his lifetime. Many are still sung at Feiseanna and Fleadh Ceoils.
He was a devout Catholic and was heavily critical of those who tried to link the Republican struggle with socialism and communism. Several of his children became Catholic priests.
Higgins died while praying in Saint Anthony's Church in Clontarf, on 10 March 1963.[13] He is buried inGlasnevin Cemetery.
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forClare West 1918–1922 | Constituency abolished |
| Oireachtas | ||
| New constituency | Teachta Dála forClare West 1918–1921 | Constituency abolished |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by | President of Sinn Féin 1931–1933 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Artists | |
| People | |
| Other | |
