Tribute To Rita Higgs (by Rosheen Callender)
RITA HIGGS – Labour activist, trade union researcher, lifelong socialist – and much, much more!
Rita McNulty (later Rita Higgs) was born on June 28, 1953 in Gortahork, Co. Donegal. She was a native Irish speaker and the youngest of nine siblings who inherited the incurable, terminal lung condition of Pulmonary Fibrosis which ended her life on February 15, 2025. But her keen intellect and her warm and lively personality will remain in the hearts of all who knew her – the people in her large family and in her many circles of friends in Ireland, England, Brussels and elsewhere around the world.
Rita was a scholarship student who did her Leaving Certificate in 1971 but did not go straight to university, preferring instead to work in Dublin, first in the civil service and then in an accountancy firm (SKC). She then went to Trinity College, Dublin to do a degree in Irish, before moving to London to take up a job in the Research Department of the Transport and General Workers Union (the T&G) there.
I first met Rita when I was living in Belfast in the early 1970s, with my then husband Len Callender. We were both involved in left-wing politics and at the time she was romantically involved with Séan O’Cearnaigh, a dynamic Donegal activist who I knew well through our mutual involvement in the Irish Communist Organisation (ICO), later to become the British and Irish Communist Organisation (B&ICO). But our friendship far outlived both her involvement with Séan and my marriage to Len.
From the time I first met her, I saw Rita as a gentle but quietly determined person, whose unassuming demeanour concealed a sharp intellect. Although she was quite young at that time, I felt that she always ‘had her own mind’ and a certain strength of mind – unlike many of us in our early days of left-wing politics. She had a strong idea of what was right and wrong, personally and politically, and acted accordingly. That continued, over all the five decades and more that I knew her.
In the early 1970s, Rita and I were both involved in an organisation with the snappy little title of ‘The Workers Association for the Democratic Settlement of the National Conflict in Ireland’ – known for obvious reasons as the ‘Workers Association’ or simply the ‘W.A.’. The picture below shows us distributing and selling some literature produced by that organisation, including a pamphlet titled ‘Why a Divided Working Class?’, at the W.A’s AGM on June 9, 1973, in Liberty Hall, Dublin. (The picture shows, left to right, Rita McNulty, Linda Jones, Annette McDonald and Rosheen Callender.)
Rita went to work in the Research Department of the T&G in London in the 1980s, collating relevant information for the union and writing papers on a range of topics of importance to its work. During that time, we managed to keep in touch and occasionally see each other, if she was coming home to Ireland on visits or I was in London. I worked in the Research Department of the ITGWU/SIPTU from 1973 until my retirement in 2008, mostly on economic and social policy, so for many years we did similar kinds of work.
During her time in the T&G, Rita became involved with another union official there, Fred Higgs; and they were married on March 18, 1989. Later, Fred was offered the job of Head of the International Chemical Workers’ Federation, based in Brussels, which he accepted. Rita then also left the T&G and in 1997 they went to live in Brussels, where they stayed until Fred’s retirement in 2006. While she was in Brussels, Rita worked with Proinsias De Rossa, then an M.E.P., helping him to run his busy office there from 2002 to 2006. She and Fred greatly enjoyed their work in Brussels, the people they met there and the many friends they both made during those years.
When Fred retired in 2006, he and Rita moved back to England and lived in Leigh-on-Sea in Essex, to be near Fred’s children and grandchildren. They spent nine very happy years there, making frequent visits to Ireland to see Rita’s family and friends here, until Fred’s death on March 15, 2015. After that, Rita moved to Dublin and bought a house in Blackrock, to be close to some of her friends in Ireland, making frequent trips to Donegal, Britain and elsewhere to visit family and friends.
As well as keeping in touch with her existing friends and family members – including many former colleagues from her years in the T&G in London – Rita made many new friends during her ten years in Dublin. She became an active and committed member of the Blackrock Branch of the Labour Party. She worked hard to help and support her friend Jane Dillon-Byrne for as long as Jane was able to remain a Labour Councillor in Dún Laoghaire. She was an avid reader and joined a book club. She remained an active and energetic walker for as long as possible and was part of a trekkers group and a ‘Sunday walkers’ club. Rita also organised me, Des and other friends to go to the theatre, to films and to various exhibitions; and of course to many very enjoyable dinners of different nationalities – Chinese, Greek, Indian, Irish, Italian, Malaysian, Thai and probably others. She didn’t like cooking but loved eating out with friends, discussing politics and many other things besides; and we had many memorable meals together, until last year when her decline became evident and then, this year, so rapid. For as long as possible, Rita (with her sister Tina) participated in a research project on Pulmonary Fibrosis that is ongoing, in an attempt to gain a greater understanding of this incurable disease in order to develop better treatments. Rita donated her body to science in an attempt to further assist this research. There was therefore no wake or funeral after her death last month. However Tina, who lives in Donegal, but had stayed at Rita’s side throughout her last weeks, organised a gathering for some of Rita’s Dublin friends before returning home to Donegal.
The large number of friends and family members who managed to turn up on that occasion, soon after Rita’s death, with about one day’s notice, was a measure of how many people, from different circles, held Rita in huge regard and wanted to mark her passing in some way. She will long be remembered, not only as a lifelong socialist and trade union activist, but a gentle, thoughtful person so widely loved and respected.
Rosheen Callender,
March 2025.