1. Thomas Francis O'Higgins was an Irish Fine Gael politician, barrister and judge who served as Chief Justice of Ireland and a Judge of the Supreme Court from 1974 to 1985, a Judge of the European Court of Justice from 1985 to 1991, a Judge of the High Court from 1973 to 1974, Deputy leader of Fine Gael from 1972 to 1977 and Minister for Health from 1954 to 1957.
Tom O'Higgins served as a Teachta Dala from 1948 to 1969.
Part of a new generation of Fine Gael leaders who emerged in the 1950s and 1960s, Tom O'Higgins worked alongside Declan Costello and Garret FitzGerald to liberalise the conservative Fine Gael.
In 1973, Tom O'Higgins became a High Court judge and the following year was named Chief Justice of Ireland and a Supreme Court judge.
In 1985, Tom O'Higgins became a member of the European Court of Justice following his nomination by Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald and his government.
Tom O'Higgins served on the court in Luxembourg until his retirement in 1991.
In 1923, Dr Thomas Higgins was killed by members of the Anti-Treaty IRA during a raid and in 1927, Kevin O'Higgins was assassinated by Irish republicans in a revenge killing; Kevin O'Higgins had been the Minister for Justice during the Irish Civil War who signed the death warrants of 77 members of the IRA.
Tom O'Higgins was educated at St Mary's College, Dublin, Clongowes Wood College and University College Dublin, where he became auditor of the Literary and Historical Society.
Tom O'Higgins did not stand in the snap general election of 1944, instead choosing to campaign on behalf of his father.
Additionally, Tom O'Higgins began to write for the policy review magazine The Forum.
In 1950, Tom O'Higgins was one of eight members of the Oireachtas chosen to represent Ireland on the Council of Europe; it was the start of a lifetime interest in European politics.
Tom O'Higgins inherited a department mired by the aftermath of the failed Mother and Child Scheme and was now tasked with implementing the 1953 Health Act, which had been introduced by Fianna Fail.
In 1956, Tom O'Higgins began to advocate internally in Fine Gael that the party needed to move away from the fiscal conservatism of the minister for finance, Gerard Sweetman, and managed to secure significant initial support.
Tom O'Higgins's manoeuvring was further damaged when Clann na Poblachta left the government coalition.
Nonetheless, in the years afterwards, Tom O'Higgins began closely working with fellow second-generation Fine Gael members Garret FitzGerald and Declan Costello to shift Fine Gael ideologically leftwards.
Tom O'Higgins supported this move; additionally, Tom O'Higgins attempted to win over fellow party members to this move.
Tom O'Higgins attempted to build bridges with members of the Labour Party.
When Liam Cosgrave succeeded James Dillon as leader of Fine Gael in April 1965, Tom O'Higgins was promoted to party spokesman on finance and economic affairs, replacing the conservative Sweetman.
Tom O'Higgins was not content with this and attempted to rally Fine Gael to support the Irish republican Sean MacBride in a presidential bid.
However, Tom O'Higgins did not give up on the idea that de Valera should be challenged.
Tom O'Higgins was not able to convince Costello, who was now nearing the end of his political career, to run.
Tom O'Higgins' campaign was met with immediate difficulty when, at the outset, de Valera declared that he would not conduct a campaign himself, believing that the office of President should be above party politics.
Tom O'Higgins carried out a grassroots campaign that saw him attend over 130 public meetings across the Republic of Ireland, covering an estimated 22,000 miles around the country over 5 weeks, reportedly attending as many as 3 rallies a night.
Campaign ads for Tom O'Higgins prominently featured images of Tom O'Higgins surrounded by Terry and their 7 children in shots designed to evoke the spirit of Camelot that had earned the Kennedys much popularity earlier in the decade.
The general thrust of the Tom O'Higgins campaign was that Tom O'Higgins represented the future in contrast to the nostalgia of de Valera.
An example of the Tom O'Higgins attempting to emulate modern American politics could be seen on 28 May 1966, when a small light aircraft dropped ballons with Fine Gael slogans on them down onto the city of Limerick during an Tom O'Higgins motorcade procession.
Paraphrasing the Duke of Wellington's remarks about the battle of Waterloo, Tom O'Higgins described the race as "a close run thing".
In 1973, Tom O'Higgins was again chosen as the Fine Gael candidate in the presidential election.
Shortly afterwards Tom O'Higgins was appointed a Judge of the High Court.
Tom O'Higgins was Chief Justice until 1985 when he was appointed a Judge of the European Court of Justice.
Tom O'Higgins died on 25 February 2003, at the age of 86.