In July 1927, at just thirty-five years old, Kevin O’Higgins was assassinated on his way to Mass in Booterstown, Co. Dublin. A reviled figure for anti-Treaty republicans, O’Higgins became the target of particular venom for his vocal support of the Free State government’s execution policy during the Civil War, which saw seventy-seven IRA men executed, including the best man at his wedding, Rory O’Connor.
In Walled in by Hate, Arthur Mathews examines not just the life and death of O’Higgins, focussing on that most acrimonious time in his life, but also those of his contemporaries, such as O’Connor and Erskine Childers, who shaped the course of events around him. Unusually, he also delves deep into O’Higgins’s relationships with the women around him and chronicles the reactions of the men who killed him, subjects that, until now, have remained largely unexplored.
One of the most compelling characters to have emerged from the conflict, someone still the target of vitriol today, the tragic story of Kevin O’Higgins encapsulates the bitter divisions of a time in Irish history that continue to echo in today’s Ireland.
