[1] Born at Town Parks, Magherafelt, County Londonderry and described as a "devout Roman Catholic", he studied at St Columb's College and at Queen's University Belfast.
[2] 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 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.
"[6] Sir Eoin Higgins died on 2 September 1993, aged 66, of an aneurysm in Belfast, where he resided.