Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

The Fine Gael family is deeply saddened by the death of Michael J O'Higgins. On behalf of Fine Gael I welcome Michael's widow, Brigid Hogan, who was herself an esteemed member of this House, their children and extended family who join us in the Distinguished Visitors Gallery. Though they miss Michael, they can be proud of his extraordinary commitment to the Oireachtas, to politics and to his country. They know, better than we do, that in many ways politics was Michael O'Higgins's life, because politics was in his blood.

The O'Higgins family were "comfortable" people who could have opted for a quiet, privileged life in the professions. Instead, they chose public service, at a time when serving your country could have meant death, and in their case it did mean death. Michael was only ten years old when his uncle Kevin O'Higgins, then Minister for Justice, was assassinated, an historic and tragic event, which made the political resolve of the O'Higgins family stronger and more potent with the advent of Michael's father, Dr. Tom O'Higgins to the Dáil two years later in 1929. Twenty years later, the O'Higgins's made history of a happier kind when Michael, his father, Tom, and brother, Tom, were elected to the Dáil on the same day, a proud record that still stands.

Michael O'Higgins was passionate about politics, passionate about Fine Gael and passionate about public service and the duty he believed was his, not alone as an elected representative but also as an O'Higgins. Politics, public service and Christianity were innate to Michael O'Higgins. Anyone who worked with him was aware of his overwhelming belief that he could, and would, make a difference to his country. They witnessed his public affirmation of private, deeply held beliefs and, even if they did not agree with him or his beliefs, at least they could be sure he was speaking and acting according to his conscience because Michael O'Higgins was, above all, a deeply religious man, a man of standards and values.

Michael had a distinguished career in the service of the people of Dublin South-West and Wicklow and, indeed, in the service of the people of Ireland when he became a Member of Seanad Éireann. In 1973, for example, the then Senator O'Higgins was integral to drawing up a common programme with Labour, which helped Fine Gael back to power for the first time since 1957. Michael was also director of elections at that time and his success was rewarded with a Taoiseach's nomination to the Seanad and appointment as Leader of the House, a post he kept until his retirement in 1977.

Michael is known and remembered as a man of vision, courage and conviction but his family, members of which are present, knew him best and miss him most in the roles that really mattered to him: husband and father. As a Deputy and the daughter of the first Minister for Agriculture, Brigid Hogan knew exactly what she was taking on when she married Michael. She shared with him love of her country, passion to serve and the desire to make a difference to people's lives. Michael and Brigid had nine children to whom they passed on the honour and integrity that will be forever synonymous with the names Hogan and O'Higgins in Irish politics.

Michael lived through turbulent times in Ireland, Europe and the world. Born during the First World War, at the time of the Russian Revolution, he was a member of a political dynasty that gave their lives — even life itself — to our fledgling State and for that we are forever in his debt. I offer my sincere sympathy to Brigid, Irene, Hilary, Maeve, Deirdre, Michael, Mark, Brian and Cahir and their families.

Only a few Members can recall his service in the Oireachtas. I do and I recall his contributions at Fine Gael parliamentary party meetings in the mid-1970s. He was always a person of quiet but deep conviction and his advice was always sincerely given and his views sincerely held. He was a person with a view on the world and on life similar to other members of his family. I found a short poem on the idea of eternity, which I think is powerfully connected with Michael's view of the world and what he now knows comes after it:

I think that maybe

I will be a little surer

Of being a little nearer.

That's all.

Eternity

is in the understanding

that that little is more than enough.

Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dílis.

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