By Steve Kelly
It is with great sadness that I learned of the passing of Brian Higgins. He passed away last weekend. Brian was a legend, to put it mildly. Deepest condolences to his wife Helen and his daughters and grandson Conor who was loved and cared for by Brian and the rest of the family.
I first met Brian on the Jubilee Line where he was the guest speaker at one of our shop meetings and he certainly set the house ablaze that evening!
Brian was an incredible speaker in his hey day. Passionate, full of energy and would always inspire a group of workers to hit the gate. He was determined and a man of principle and he believed that the workers could not fail. That was guaranteed!
He was instrumental in organising workers across the country, through the building worker group, a Rank and File organisation, and their magazine, The Building Worker was a great read, when it was handed out on various sites. Brian was the first to attack dodgy union full-time officers who might be stitching us up and was proved to be right all along when the blacklist scandal came to light. Brian had the biggest file of all. He was massively involved in the Blacklist Support Group and we are so grateful for that.
His other passion was football and he was a life long supporter of Celtic, being from Glasgow and a Catholic. Enough said.
Brian, you will be sadly missed. It was a pleasure to have known you, comrade. May you rest in peace, my dear friend.
June 8, 2019
