Lawyer To Try To Oust De Valera

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31074, 1 June 1966, Page 17

Lawyer To Try To Oust De Valera

(N.Z.P.A. Reuter—Copyright) DUBLIN, May 31. A jovial barrister, Thomas O’Higgins, aged 45, today neared the end of an Americanstyle election tour of the Republic of Ireland in his bid to oust ageing Mr Eamon De Valera from the post of President.

Mr O’higgins’s huge motorcade, his family of seven and his vivacious auburn-haired wife, Terry, have likened him in Irish eyes to another President John Kennedy.

Mr O’Higgins, a front bencher of the main Opposition party. Fine Gael, hopes the young vigorous approach and his appeal to forget the past will win him the largely honorary post from the 83-year-old veteran of the Irish rebellion.

He has literally spoken himself hoarse in a meet-the-people campaign that has taken him to almost every corner of Ireland. His wife took over the microphone when he lost his voice completely on one occasion.

Mr O’Hlgglns expresses dissatisfaction with Mr De Valera’s dream of restoring ancient Gaelic as the nation's language. He calls this campaign irrelevant in a modern Ireland beset by industrial unrest and economic problems.

He and his wife have told the nation’s 1,700,000 voters: “Forget the past and its bitterness and look with confidence to the future.” But most observers stilt believe Mr De Valera’s image as a leader of the 1916 uprising against Britain, who escaped the firing squad because of his American birth and went on to become Prime

Minister for 30 years, will return him for another five years.

Much depends on how many voters can be persuaded to Wednesday’s polls. In the last Presidential election in 1959, only 54 per cent of the electorate turned out.