Alex Higgins: Daughter's moving farewell to Hurricane

Close to tears, she read a tribute poem to her father at St Anne’s Church of Ireland Cathedral in Belfast.

“In life I loved you dearly, in death I love you still. “In my heart you hold a place that no one could ever fill.

“It broke my heart to lose you but you did not go alone. For part of me went with you the day God took you home.

“Things will never be the same, and although I hurt so bad, I will smile whenever I hear your name, and be proud you were my Dad.”

Snooker star Jimmy White recalled watching his close friend play and travelling the world with him.

He said: “It angers me that he never listened to anyone, close friends or family, but that

was Alex, he was an individual, his own man.”

Speaking about Higgins’ skill at the snooker table, White said: “He was mind-blowing, he did things I’d never seen before.

He was The Hurricane, I will miss him to the end.”

The Dean of Belfast, the Very Rev Dr Houston McKelvey, addressed 400 mourners, including snooker greats and

famous faces from the world of entertainment.

Among past and present stars of the game were Stephen Hendry, Ken Doherty, Willie Thorne, Shaun Murphy and John Virgo. Thousands more people gathered outside to pay their respects.

Dr McKelvey told the mourn- ers that Higgins had struggled to cope with the early pressures thrust upon him.

He said: “Alex at a very young age encountered two of the greatest temptations possible – fame and fortune.

“He found it difficult to cope with both. He was not the first to find this difficult and he  certainly will not be the last.”

He warned against judgmental comments on the life of the at- times irascible champion. Higgins was credited with

creating the modern game but famously had an explosive temper and his drinking often attracted negative headlines.

“Many people, informed and ill-informed, have commented publicly on Alex, his life and his lifestyle over the past few days,”

Dr McKelvey said. “Since Alex’s death many have been judgmental despite the fact that there are few Irish families that I know of who don’t have their own ‘character’ to cope with in the family system.

“The only difference being that their character was not quite so famous.”

The service followed emotional scenes as a tearful White helped carry the coffin of the troubled snooker genius who was found dead in his sheltered flat just over a week ago after a long battle with cancer and alcohol. Higgins was

in his bed and it is believed he had been dead for several days.

A cortege led by a horse-drawn carriage had wound its way through the centre of Belfast from the Higgins’ family home in the south of the city.

Hundreds who gathered in the Sandy Row area, where 61-year- old Higgins had grown up and where he died, applauded as his funeral procession passed. Higgins, one of the finest snooker players of all time, took up the sport at 11, and became the youngest World Champion- ship winner at his first attempt at 22, in 1972. He won the title again a decade later.

A controversial figure, he was banned from five tournaments and fined £12,000 in 1986 when he head-butted UK Championship tournament director Paul Hatherell. He married and divorced Cara Hasler and Lynn Avison, and had two sons and two daughters. Higgins earned £4million during his career but was living in sheltered housing at the end, after years of ill health linked to heavy smoking. He competed occasionally but his physical decline was evident.

Higgins was buried at Carnmoney Cemetery on the outskirts of north Belfast.