![]() When Michael was old enough to relate to his father, he found a man ‘terribly wounded by life’. ![]() Later the girls were sent to relations in England, the boys to St Flannan’s College, Ennis. The children would run outside and bring in the turf for her’ and silently vow ‘that for her at least, they would escape this life of poverty’. ![]() But now her spirit was broken: ‘She was bent, and leaning towards the fire’. She was an educated women who played the violin, and had books in her house. She had lived her early life over her family’s shop in Liscarroll, Co Cork. All the details are vividly remembered by the President. The children were taken away in a black Ford 8 car. An ‘encounter with poverty’ had begun, as Michael D describes it. With no money coming in the family was destitute. But when his past allegiences were discovered, he was informed that ‘there would be no jobs here for Republicans’. After years of difficuty, he eventually got a job in Charleville. He had been an intelligence officer with the North Cork Brigade. John had abandoned a successful career in the drapery business because he believed in a republic. John had been on the Republican side, his brother was a Free Stater, while their sister was in the middle as an ex-Cumann na mBan member. John Higgins, his brother, and sister, were all involved in the War of Independence and in the Civil War which followed. But visits to their mother, and news of their father’s wanderings were harrowing. After the break up of their home in Limerick, Michael, his brother, and twin sisters were taken into their uncle and aunt’s home, near Newmarket-on-Fergus, who loved and guided them as their own. She was plunged into povery and depression. The children’s mother’s simple ambitions for a house and respectability were denied her. The President’s father lost everything, even his wife and children because of his commitment. It struck me that as we approach the significant anniversaries of our country’s freedom, I need to remind myself that the men and women who made that commitment to fight, and who let their idealism spill over into the Civil War, often did so at great personal cost. During his recent and very meaningful state visit to Britain, and his address to the joint Houses of Parliament, President Michael Daniel Higgins slipped in the fact that his father, John, had fought in Ireland’s struggle for Independence.* ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |