Thomas Higgins (Irish politician)

Thomas Higgins (died 26 January 1906) was an Irish nationalist politician and auctioneer, who as member of the Irish Parliamentary Party was posthumously declared elected Member of Parliament of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1906.

Higgins, who was chairman of Tuam Board of Guardians and a member of Galway County Council, was selected as the Irish Parliamentary Party candidate by the United Irish League (UIL) convention on January 5 1906 to contest the 1906 general election. He had been President of the constituency branch of the UIL since 1900.

Taken ill on the night of the election (January 25 1906), he died as the result of a heart attack in Guy's Hotel, Tuam, at 1.30am the following morning (26 January 1906).

As was widely expected, Higgins topped the poll at the election count, which was held later on the day of his death, beating the incumbent MP, John Philip Nolan, who had ran as an Independent Nationalist. Higgins was posthumously declared elected by the county sheriff, the returning officer. ["Deceased Candidate Elected", "Irish Independent", 27 January 1906, p. 4.]

The remarkable circumstances surrounding the election lead the "Irish Independent" to comment that "candidates have died before the actual election, but we doubt if ever such a case as the present has occurred before, where a candidate has died after the poll has been taken and before the result has been declared". ["Irish Election Sensation", "Irish Independent", 26 January 1906.] However, this circumstance occurred again to Noel Skelton in 1935, and to Sir Edward Taswell Campbell and Leslie Pym in 1945.

ee Also

List of United Kingdom MPs with the shortest service
###@@@KEY@@@###succession box |title=MP for North Galway|before=John Philip Nolan|after=Richard Hazleton|years=26 January 1906
"posthumously"

References

External links

* [http://www.angeltowns.com/town/peerage/gcommons1.htm Entry on Rayment's Commons page]