restoring what had been previously removed during Anglicisation in previous generations. Military career O'Higgins supported the Anglo-Irish Treaty and enlisted in the National Army of the Irish Free State in 1922 during the Irish Civil War. There he was appointed captain in the medical corps, and subsequently became Medical Corps Deputy Commander and Director of Medical Services with the rank of colonel. The killing of his father and his brother On 11 February 1923, his father was killed by the Anti-Treaty IRA during a raid on his fathers' home. On 10 July 1927, his brother Kevin O'Higgins, at this point the Cumann na nGaedhael Minister for Justice, was assassinated by the IRA. During the Civil War Kevin, as Minister for Justice, had brought in severe measures to crack down on the IRA, including the introduction of the death penalty. Kevin confirmed the death sentences of 77 captured Republicans, including that of Rory O'Connor, who had been the best man at Kevin's wedding. Both the deaths of Thomas Senior and Kevin were believed to have been in retaliation for those death sentences. Political career O'Higgins resigned his army commission to stand as a Cumann na nGaedheal candidate for Dublin North at the 14 March 1929 by-election. It was there he won a narrow victory over Fianna Fáil's Oscar Traynor. At the 1932 general election, he switched constituencies and this time stood for Leix–Offaly, he was elected again. This was the beginning of a sixteen-year stint as a TD for Laois–Offaly. With the Blueshirts The political atmosphere of the early 1930s in Ireland was becoming increasingly divisive. The 1920s had seen the Labour Party as the main opposition in the Dáil but in 1927 Fianna Fáil dropped their abstentionism and entered the chamber, becoming the main opposition, and were much more vocally opposed to Cumann na nGaedhael than Labour had been. Fianna Fáil had been pressured to drop their abstentionism partially after Kevin O'Higgins as Minister for Justice brought forward a law that requiring all political candidates to swear that they would take the Oath of Allegiance if elected to the Dáil. Fianna Fáil eventually agreed to do so after dismissing the Oath as an "Empty formula". The onset of the Great Depression further increased tensions as the economy tanked. It was the midset of this that Fianna Fáil won the 1932 general election. Upon entry into government, Fianna Fáil set about