Which Northern Irish snooker player was also known as the 'Hurricane'?

Nicknamed the 'Hurricane' or 'Hurricane Higgins' because of his fast play, Alex Higgins was a snooker player from Northern Ireland. Born in Belfast in 1949, Higgins started playing snooker at the age of 11. He became a professional player in 1972 at the age of 22 and won the World Snooker Championship the same year. He also won the competition in 1982.

Higgins retired from professional snooker in 1997 and the following year was diagnosed with throat cancer. He had been a heavy smoker all his life, smoking up to 60 cigarettes a day. He eventually overcame throat cancer but died in 2010 at age 61 from a combination of malnutrition, pneumonia, and a bronchial condition.

Alex Higgins has been an inspiration to many younger snooker players. In the 2002 documentary 'The Story of Snooker', English snooker player Steve Davis described Higgins as the "one true genius that snooker has produced". Similarly, English player Ronnie O'Sullivan said Higgins was "the greatest snooker player I have ever seen".

Following Higgins' death, the 2011-2012 Players Tour Championships renamed one of the rounds the 'Alex Higgins International Trophy'. It was won by the Australian player Neil Robertson.