Top Issue 1-2024

25 July 2012

Resize: A A A Print

Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny unveils plaque to ‘war criminal’

Enda Kenny pays tribute to the man who signed the death warrants for 77 prisoners

O’Higgins responded coldly: 'I stand by the 77 executions – and seven hundred and seventy-seven more if necessary'

TAOISEACH ENDA KENNY last night unveiled a plaque in Booterstown in memory of a Justice Minister who ordered the execution of dozens of Irish republican prisoners during the Civil War.

Kevin O’Higgins (below) signed the execution orders for 77 prisoners, including Rory O'Connor, who had been best-man at O’Higgins’s wedding!

KevinOHigginsO’Higgins was shot dead by three IRA members in July 1927.

Questioned in Sligo two years prior to his death as to whether he regretted the killings of so many defenceless prisoners, O’Higgins responded coldly: “I stand by the 77 executions – and seven hundred and seventy-seven more if necessary.”

A commemoration marking 85 years since his death was held last night in the south Dublin townland of Booterstown. Some callers to Joe Duffy on RTÉ's Liveline radio show yesterday expressed their opposition to the memorial with one caller describing O’Higgins as “a war criminal”.


Follow us on Facebook

An Phoblacht on Twitter

An Phoblacht Podcast

An Phoblacht podcast advert2

Uncomfortable Conversations 

uncomfortable Conversations book2

An initiative for dialogue 

for reconciliation 

— — — — — — —

Contributions from key figures in the churches, academia and wider civic society as well as senior republican figures

GUE-NGL Latest Edition ad

An Phoblacht
44 Parnell Sq.
Dublin 1
Ireland