In the late 1920s and into the ’30s, the game of hurling enjoyed a golden period. There were across the country many great club sides, several counties had good teams, there were many outstanding individuals and crowds of30,000 were a feature of major fixtures at inter-county games. The parish of Newmarket and the County of Clare fitted very well into this overall pattern. Newmarket contested ten successive County finals in Clare from 1925 to ’34, winning five. At inter-county level this same period was arguably the greatest era for Clare hurling. Clare contested four Munster finals in this period, 1927, ’28, ’30 and ’32 – winning, of course, in 1932. A great Newmarket and Clare hurler of this time was Jimmo Higgins – greatness that has never been fully recognised in Newmarket. We will attempt to show some of his qualities and achievements in this article. Over the years I have spoken to many of Jimmo’s contemporaries about the man and his hurling; here are some comments:-
“Jimmo was the best full back I ever saw … in any county” – Mick O’Rourke
“A truly great hurler – Micko McMahon
“A brilliant full back and outstanding hurler who could play in any position”. – John Joe Doyle
“A hurler of enormous character and courage … a man’s man …you do not meet many of them” – Joe Mack
And the Clare Champion of July 1933 stated
“As a hurler Jimmo Higgins will be remembered for ever”.
INTER-COUNTY CAREER
It was first and foremost as an inter-county hurler with Clare that Jimmo distinguished himself. He played with Clare from 1920 to 1932. As already stated, Clare were very good at the time, especially from 1927 to 1932. In Munster, they had great battles with Tipperary and Cork. Cork beat Clare in the Munster finals of 1927 and 1928 – 1928 was after a replay. Tipperary beat them in 1930. But in 1932 Clare had the satisfaction of defeating Cork 5-2 to 4-1 in a final played at Thurles before a crowd of 30,000.
This brief digression is merely an attempt to highlight the quality of Clare at this time. And what was Jimmo Higgin’s role in all this? He was an outstanding full back for Clare throughout this period. He played with. apparent awesome power and strength that very few forwards could live with. He gave many outstanding performances for his county, but the brilliance of his play in the drawn 1928. Munster final seems to have been something special. John Joe Doyle tells us that he can still recall vividly the magnificent hurling of Jimmo on that day, and Mick O’Rourke in 1973 in a recorded interview stated as follows»
“In all I ever saw, and I think he never got the right credit, … Jimmo Higgins was the best full back I ever saw .. . in any county. He hurled a match one day below in Thurles … the drawn game in 1928 and all the auld Tipperary fellows … gave it up to him that he was the best man that ever went into Thurles …he went below in Thurles and the two Aherns, Gay and Baity, were in them days greats of Cork and he made lanes through the two of them … well he used to run out against high balls that day and drive them back 70 or 80 yards without a bit of trouble ..I think, I never saw better hurling … that was the first day John Joe Doyle shone out…there was no knowing the match the two of them played that was reckoned to be as good a match as was ever played in Thurles the drawn game in 1928... they beat us in the replay ... but I would say you would get nothing better for full-back than Higgins.”
The culmination of his career as an inter-county hurler was, of course, the winning of the 1932 Munster Championship and playing in the subsequent All-Ireland final.
CLUB HURLING
Jimmo just won two championships with Newmarket – 1916 and 1925. A great deal of his club hurling was outside the county as his career in the army took him all over the country. In the process, he won a Cork Championship with “The Barrs” and his photograph is today to be seen displayed in St Finbarr’s Clubhouse. By all accounts, he made a very big impression in Cork club hurling as he did in Dublin in the late 1920s when he hurled with his army colleagues for the Army Metro hurling club. While it was common· practice at this time for hurlers to play with their adopted county, Jimmo always played for Clare. He could have played with Dublin in 1927 and won an All-Ireland medal, and similarly with Cork in the early ’20s, but he stood by his native Clare and according to Joe Mack stated the only All–Ireland medal worth winning for him was one with Clare.
AN UNTIMELY ENDING
Jimmo was never to win that All-Ireland medal and the 1932 All-Ireland final was to be his last game of hurling as in July 1933, Jimmo died. The Clare Champion of the time carried a long piece on the funeral and paid a very warm tribute to him. It began as follows: “The news of the death of Jim Higgins, one of our bravest and best hurlers came as a great shock to the Gaels of Clare last weekend. It was not altogether unexpected for both his army medical officer and a private specialist engaged by his friends in Dublin had pronounced him suffering from a malignant tumour; yet when the end came it was to realize that the career of such a magnificent specimen of physical manhood was so prematurely terminated at the age of 33 years.” According to the Champion, there was a large turnout at all stages of the funeral and every section of the GAA with which he was associated was represented. The Champion writer concluded a fulsome tribute by stating, “He was one of the cleanest hurlers – fast and resourceful and could play with brilliancy in any position on the field ... he never lost his temper, took hard knocks as part of the game and in his long career was never cautioned by a referee.”
CONCLUDING
However inadequate these few lines may be, we are pleased to have recorded some words on the hurling career of such an outstanding hurler and sportsman. I am sure he would have been proud of the play of his great grandsons in the recent Under 16 Football Final – Derek Slattery and Ben Higgins.