Book review: Kevin O’Higgins was man of contradictions

Signing the death warrant of best man at his wedding, Rory O’Connor, has historically defined the life and reputation of O’Higgins

'Walled in by Hate' is an attempt by Arthur Mathews to go beyond the violence of the Civil War and explore other aspects of Kevin O’Higgins. 

• Walled in by Hate: Kevin O'Higgins, His Friends and Enemies
• Arthur Mathews 
• Merrion Press, 17.99 

This book opens in 1919 at the Department of Local Government, with two men whose personalities clicked. 

They become friends to the extent that one of them, Kevin O’Higgins, asks the other, Rory O’Connor, to be his best man at his wedding. The wedding took place in October of 1921.

The timing meant that O’Higgins had to decline an invitation to attend the Anglo Irish Treaty negotiations. 

O’Connor developed reservations about the treaty and these reservations grew to a conviction. 

In April 1922, O’Connor led a large group of anti-treaty proponents, who barricaded themselves into the Four Courts in Dublin.

Three months later, they were bombed out and O’Connor was arrested and imprisoned.

Six months later, on December 7, while O’Connor was still in prison, Sean Hales, a Government TD, was assassinated. 

The Cabinet met that evening. It decided to take out four prisoners and shoot them in retaliation for Hales’ murder. O’Connor was one of the four.

At the time, O’Higgins was minister for home affairs (now known as justice) and vice-president of the Cabinet.

We are told that he reluctantly agreed with the Cabinet decision, before signing the death warrant of his best man, O’Connor, as well as those of Dick Barrett, Joe McKelvey, and Liam Mellows.

It is that signing that has historically defined the life and reputation of O’Higgins.

Walled in by Hate is an attempt by Arthur Mathews to go beyond the violence of the Civil War and explore other aspects of O’Higgins. 

The book is a departure for Mathews, whose previous works include co-creating and writing the Father Ted television series and co-writing the musical I Keano.

Mathews tells us that his grandfather was elected a TD for Meath in the second general election of 1927; an election that was called following the killing of O’Higgins in July of that year.

Walled in by Hate explores the life of O’Higgins. He was born in 1892 to a middle-class family. He was a pupil of Clongowes Wood College, before going on to become a student for the priesthood at Maynooth, where he was expelled for persistent smoking.

Arthur Mathews: 'Walled in by Hate' represents a change of pace for ‘Father Ted’ writer.

He continued his priesthood studies in Carlow, until he was expelled ‘for mischief’. At that point, his vocation appears to have deserted him, and he moved to University College Dublin, where he received “an unimpressive arts degree”.

O’Higgins heard Pearse’s oration at the graveside of O’Donovan Rossa at Glasnevin in 1915 and this triggered his interest in nationalism. He joined Sinn Féin and was elected an MP in 1918. 

Sinn Féin abstained from going to the London parliament and set up a provisional government in Dublin. 

O’Higgins was appointed an assistant minister for local government. He would remain a member of the Cabinet of each successive government from then until his death.

Mathews explores and expands on several aspects of O’Higgins’s life. O’Higgins remained a devout Catholic. He married Bridget Cole, known to all as Birdie. 

Mathews tells us that O’Higgins was devoted to Birdie and his two daughters, even though he was intolerant of any women who dared to intrude on what he saw as the man’s world of business and politics.

His friendship with Lady Hazel Lavery is another conundrum. Mathews believes that there is no evidence to suggest that O’Higgins’s “all-consuming passion for her” stretched beyond long conversations and the exchange of countless letters. 

And yet the Irish Cabinet ensured that all of Hazel Lavery’s letters to O’Higgins were destroyed; so that Birdie would never know about them. 

And, if it were not for the discovery of O’Higgins’s letters to Lavery after her death in 1935, the world may never have known of the liaison at all.

O’Higgins’s death, in July 1927, is explored in depth. The killing was a combination of opportunity and chance rather than a planned assassination. O’Higgins was on his way to Mass when he was fired upon. 

Although badly wounded, he lived long enough to be taken back to his house and, in the hours before his death, the house filled with family, friends, and associates.

O’Higgins made it clear to everyone that he forgave his killers.

Mathews portrays this forgiving as an illustration of the other side of O’Higgins’ character. It is undoubtedly so; but the shadow of December 8, 1922 had already stretched across the reputation of O’Higgins and this was reflected in his obituaries. 

The New York Times said “[O’Higgins] had a caustic tongue”; another American paper described him as “the most hated man in Ireland”.

Arthur Mathews has put forward many reasons as to why the assassination of Rory O’Connor should not be the summation of Kevin O’Higgins’ life. 

He shows us these aspects as well as the checks and balances. While it is not proper that any person be branded for ever by one incident; many people are.

For some, it has been for the good of their reputation, for others, it has not. It is up to the reader to decide if Walled in by Hate expands on or detracts from the reputation of Kevin O’Higgins.