Eoin Higgins

Sir Eoin Higgins (14 June 1927 – 2 September 1993), known as "The Honourable Mr. Justice Higgins", was a judge of the High Court of Northern Ireland. He was knighted in 1988.

Born as John Patrick Basil Higgins at Town Parks, Magherafelt, County Londonderry and described as a "devout Roman Catholic", he studied at St Columb's College and at Queens University Belfast. In 1948 he was called to the Bar and in 1967 became Queen's Counsel, having served in the county courts of Armagh, Fermanagh and Antrim. He was first named to a judgeship in 1971.

In 1982 he became Recorder of Belfast. He became a judge of the High Court of Northern Ireland in 1984, and was in charge of the Family Division. He was a frequent target of assassination attempts by the Irish Republican Army ever since his first judgeship in 1971 on a lower court.

The Times reported that "he was on almost every hit list they compiled, despite (or because of) his Irish nationalism. Higgins "wanted Ireland and Northern Ireland to become united, but only through peaceful methods."

In 1989, he tried loyalist paramilitary Michael Stone, who had killed six Catholics, including three attending an outdoor funeral service for the Gibraltar Three. He sentenced Stone to life imprisonment with a recommendation that Stone serve at least thirty years, calling him a "dangerous and ruthless criminal".