Assassinated strongman was not the Free State’s chief executioner

WITH negotiations going on to form a new government in Northern Ireland, this week’s RTÉ documentary on the life of Kevin O’Higgins seemed particularly timely.

The programme concluded with a poignant piece of advice from his daughter, Una O’Higgins-O’Malley, calling on people in the North and South to “gaze into the faces of their children, and not their ancestors, when planning for the future”.

For almost 90 years we have glorified the violence of 1916. Others around the world have glorified the violence of the First World War, and they continue to commemorate it each November 11.