Ó hUiginn's family were based on Father Griffin Road, on the west bank of the Corrib.
At the same time, he was co-opted to serve on the city council to fill the vacancy left by his father's death.
His last official function for that term was to welcome President of Ireland Erskine Childers to Galway on 29 June 1973, to open the Leisureland complex, which had cost IR£1.3m.
On Sunday 30 September 1979 the Pope arrived in Galway, celebrating mass for at Ballybrit racecourse for three hundred thousand people.
His third term was plagued with problems concerning the long-overdue and controversial sewage treatment plant on Mutton Island, which had been dragging on since 1982.