Brian O'Higgins 1882-1963

Born 1 July 1882 in the parish of Kilskyre, four miles west of Kells.

He worked in a shop in Clonmellon for three years from 1896 and afterwards in bars in Dublin.

He joined the O'Growney Branch of the Gaelic League in Dublin in 1901.

In 1906 he became a travelling teacher of Irish for the Gaelic League in Counties Meath and Cavan.

He served in the General Post Office in the 1916 Rising.

Interned in Stafford Jail and Frongoch, he was released in February 1917.

Elected for West Clare in 1918, he attended the first meeting of the First Dail on 21st January 1919.

He was a justice of Dail Eireann courts in West Clare.

He voted against the Treaty and took the Republican side in the Civil War and again found himself interned in Mountjoy and the Curragh.

From 1924 until his death in 1963 he devoted most of his time to publishing, which included Wolfe Tone Annual, Wolfe Tone Weekly and his series of christmas cards.

(Extract from Life and Times of Brian O'Higgins, by Padraig O Tuile, S.P.)