Civilian Michael Higgins

Civilian Michael Higgins (aged about 20) of Midleton (Ballycrenane near Midleton) 

Date of incident: 13 March 1923

Sources: CE, 14 March 1923; II, 14 March 1923; CW OPS/04/01, Daily Report of 13 March 1923, Patrol from ‘Ballinacraha, Lisgoold, to Ballycrana’ (Military Archives). 

Note: Commandant Egan of the National Army at Fermoy received an anonymous letter stating that Irregulars were staying in a certain vacated farmhouse at ‘Ballycrana’ [probably Ballycrenane], located two miles outside Midleton and belonging to Mr Murnane. The letter-writer also mentioned that an extensive supply of explosives lay hidden in the house. When Egan and six of his men arrived, they found a tragic scene. Anti-Treaty forces had laid a trap mine in the house with the intent of blowing up National Army Soldiers when they came to raid the premises. Instead, Michael Higgins, the caretaker of the house, seeking shelter from the rain, had sometime earlier opened the door of the farmhouse and immediately been killed when the mine exploded. Egan and his men ‘had arranged to visit and surround the house, but luckily for them, poor Higgins had already exploded the trap at the cost of his life. The military discovered a second mine on the premises.’ Michael Higgins was well known in Midleton: ‘Many people assembled at the removal of the remains to Midleton this evening [13 March] and sympathetically recited the Rosary in Irish. [The] deceased was very popular and inoffensive and held no political views.’ See CE, 14 March 1923. The military patrol headed by Commandant Egan had found the headless and badly shattered body of Michael Higgins suspended from the ceiling of the vacated farmhouse. See CW OPS/04/01, Daily Report of 13 March 1923, Patrol from ‘Ballinacraha, Lisgoold, to Ballycrana’ (Military Archives).