Royal Life Saving Australia President Terry Higgins, visited Ireland to attend the 2010 Ireland Medal ceremony at which Terry was presented with the 2008 Ireland Medal in recognition of his lifesaving work.

Arriving late into Ireland on Friday, due to an ill passenger delaying their flight, Terry and Gayle had little time to rest before meeting with Irish Chief Justice John Murray for afternoon tea and Australian Ambassador Bruce Davis for an early dinner. The day ended with an informal drinks reception in their hotel where they met with other guests attending the Ireland Medal and Ireland Seminar functions. These included recently retired RLSS Commonwealth Secretary General John Long who had flown to Ireland especially for the award ceremony.

Saturday was a busy day which started with a tour of the Dublin Fire Brigade Training Centre and Museum accompanied by Dublin Fire Chief Hugh O'Neill, Ambassador Davis, RLSS Commonwealth Deputy President John Barwick and RLSS Ireland Branch President Edward Duffy. Dublin Fire Brigade had been awarded the 2009 Ireland Medal in recognition of the 1000 plus persons Dublin fire fighters have rescued from drowning since the millennium. They were hosting the medal ceremony and seminar in their training centre.

The Ireland Medal is awarded to an Irish person or organisation or to a person of Irish descent in recognition of an exceptional contribution to saving lives from drowning. Previous recipients include Admiral Frank Golden (2004) for his work on hypothermia and Australian Professor John Pearn (2005) for his work in the field of child drowning prevention. Terry's citation was as follows;

Terence Higgins has been President of the RLSSA ACT Branch since 1993, has served as National President of RLSSA (1997 - 2003), after which he served as RLSSA's International Development Liaison Officer until beginning his second term as national President in 2009. He has been Legal Advisor to RLSSA since 1993.

During his first term as National President of the Royal Life Saving Society Australia he presided over a time of unprecedented growth of revenue, which increased by over 500%, and saw close to one million Australians taking part in RLSSA courses annually. He oversaw the development of national sponsorship and fundraising programmes and implemented significant changes to the governance structures of RLSSA which ensured that RLSSA was a driving force in the development and implementation of the Australian Water Safety Plan 1998 - 2003. In 2003 he was elected as the International Life Saving (ILS) Asia Pacific Regional Development Co-ordinator and interim chair of the ILS Development Aid Commission (2003 - 2004).

His mother's great grandfather, Patrick Casey of Co. Westmeath, was transported to Hobart Town for stealing a sack of grain. His father's great grandfather, John Hussey Higgins, emigrated to Victoria from Dublin.

The Ireland Medals were presented by The Honourable Mr. Justice Roderick Murphy. In his acceptance address Terry stated that he was accepting the medal on behalf of all the members and past members of the Royal Life Saving Society in Australia whose work had reduced the Australian drowning rate in 100 years from around 10 drowning deaths per 100,000 population to just over 1 per 100,000 population. Members of Royal Life Saving Australia were now supporting lifesavers in their neighbouring countries in South East Asia. He was very impressed by those speaking at the Ireland Seminar and urged them to share their expertise and experiences with the world's lifesaving community by offering to present papers at the forthcoming World Drowning Prevention Conference in Vietnam in 2011 which was being organised by RLSSA. The Saturday programme ended with a most enjoyable participation in the Dublin Musical Pub Crawl Tour during which Terry was serenaded with verses from the famous Irish song The Fields of Athenry which tells the story of a young man deported to Australia for stealing grain to feed his family during the Irish famine.

Terry and Gayle were guests of Westmeath County Council on the Sunday. The council were delighted to mark the visit to their county of a distinguished visitor with local ancestry. The day began with a tour of Locke's Distillery, a possible source of the grain stolen by Patrick Casey, where both guests were encouraged to sample the produce and introduced to the delights of Irish Coffee. Leaving the distillery the group drove to Belvedere House, a large country house outside of Mullingar, another possible source of the stolen grain, where a most enjoyable private tour of the house and grounds had been arranged by the council. Finally the group attended a reception in the County Building, headquarters of Westmeath County Council, hosted by Cathaoirleach (Mayor) Fintan Cooney who informed Terry that the new building they were in incorporated a part of the old prison where Patrick Casey would most likely have been incarcerated while awaiting transportation to Australia. Looking out certain windows it was clear that the building occupied part of the prison exercise yard.  Terry and Gayle were presented with gifts to mark the occasion of their visit. The group then returned to Dublin.

Prior to leaving Dublin for London on Monday, Gayle and Terry took part in an open bus tour of Dublin. Another of Terry's ancestors, John Hussey Higgins, emigrated to Victoria from Dublin.

John Connolly
Hon. CEO
The Irish Lifesaving Foundation