Maire Higgins (40) passed away after a short illness. She had been teaching at Gaelscoil Charman since 2004.
THE SCHOOL community of Gaelscoil Charman is in mourning this week as it bids farewell to a popular young teacher who sadly passed away following a short illness at just 40 years of age.
Maire Higgins, who is originally from Elphin, Roscommon, moved to Wexford in 2004 where she took up a teaching role with the school where she was extremely popular with teachers, parents and pupils alike.
At her funeral mass in Wexford yesterday, the Principal of Gaelscoil Charman, Aine Gannon said that she and all of the school community were thankful that Ms. Higgins’ husband Breen had taken a job in Wexford as it had brought Maire into their lives.
“We are all the richer for the time that we got to spend with her. She lived a wonderful, full life. She was a beautiful, funny, vivacious and popular woman – a loyal friend to us all.”
She described Ms. Higgins as a gifted teacher and lovely person who loved Irish and teaching in the school, adding that all of the children loved her and were the better for having been under her guidance. Ms. Higgins, she said, was a very personable woman, who spoke to teenagers and children in the same way as she would to an adult.
The young mother was a keen gardener and was very concerned with the environment, a trait which drove her to spearhead the Green Flag programme in the school, one which the school will now focus on even more keenly, just as their teacher would have wanted.
Ms. Gannon added that Ms. Higgins’ passing was a huge loss to the school community and to the community in general where she had integrated so well into life in Wexford.
“We are devastated by this loss – we have lost a helpful, kind and cheerful colleague, as well as a loving, loyal friend. On behalf of the school, I want to extend our deepest sympathies to Maire’s family and her huge circle of friends.”
Ms. Higgins’ funeral mass took place in Wexford yesterday (Monday). She will repose at her parents’ home in Elphin on Tuesday before funeral mass at noon on Wednesday with burial afterwards at the New Cemetery in Elphin.
Ms. Higgins is survived by: her parents Siobhan and Paddy; her husband Breen; sons Donnacha and Donal; daughter Laoise; sister, Kate; brothers Thomas and Dennis; mother-in-law Mary; father-in-law Eamon; sisters and brothers-in-law; aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, cousins; staff and students of Gaelscoil Charman; and a large circle of friends.
The Echo extends its sympathy to the bereaved.
