Early Life
One of nine children of a small farming family, he was born in 1949 in Lispole, part of the Dingle gaeltacht in County Kerry. He went to school in the Dingle Christian Brothers School, and after finishing he enrolled in the priesthood. As part of his training he was sent to a Catholic seminary school in Minnesota, U.S. in the 1960s.
It was against the backdrop of anti-Vietnam War protests and the civil rights movement that Higgins was politicised.
He is a brother of Liam Higgins who played football with the Kerry GAA senior team in the 1960s and 1970s.
Higgins is bilingual in English and Irish.
Read more about this topic: Joe Higgins
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