Cathal Brugha | |
|---|---|
 Brugha c.1920s | |
| Minister for Defence | |
| In office 1 April 1919 – 9 January 1922 | |
| President | Éamon de Valera |
| Preceded by | Richard Mulcahy |
| Succeeded by | Richard Mulcahy |
| Ceann Comhairle ofDáil Éireann | |
| In office 21 January 1919 – 22 January 1919 | |
| Deputy | John J. O'Kelly |
| Preceded by | Office established |
| Succeeded by | Count Plunkett |
| President of Dáil Éireann | |
| In office 21 January 1919 – 1 April 1919 | |
| Preceded by | New office |
| Succeeded by | Éamon de Valera(as President of the Irish Republic) |
| Chief of Staff of the Irish Republican Army | |
| In office 27 October 1917 – 23 March 1918 | |
| Preceded by | New office |
| Succeeded by | Richard Mulcahy |
| Teachta Dála | |
| In office May 1921 – 7 July 1922 | |
| Constituency | Waterford–Tipperary East |
| In office December 1918 – May 1921 | |
| Constituency | Waterford County |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Charles William St John Burgess (1874-07-18)18 July 1874 Dublin, Ireland |
| Died | 7 July 1922(1922-07-07) (aged 47) Dublin, Ireland |
| Resting place | Glasnevin Cemetery,Glasnevin, Dublin, Ireland |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 6, includingRuairí |
| Education | Belvedere College |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance | |
| Years of service | 1913–1922 |
| Rank | Chief of Staff |
| Battles/wars | |
Cathal Brugha (Irish pronunciation:[ˈkahəlˠˈbˠɾˠuː]; bornCharles William St John Burgess; 18 July 1874 – 7 July 1922) was anIrish republican politician who served asMinister for Defence from 1919 to 1922,Ceann Comhairle ofDáil Éireann in January 1919, the firstpresident of Dáil Éireann from January 1919 to April 1919 andChief of Staff of the Irish Republican Army from 1917 to 1918. He served as aTeachta Dála (TD) from 1918 to 1922.[1]
He was active in theEaster Rising, theIrish War of Independence and theIrish Civil War, and was the firstCeann Comhairle (chairperson) ofDáil Éireann as well as the president of Dáil Éireann, the then title of thehead of government.
Brugha was born inDublin, of mixedRoman Catholic andProtestant parentage. He was the tenth child in a family of fourteen. His father, Thomas, was a cabinet maker and antique dealer who had been disinherited by his family for marrying an Irish Catholic, Maryanne Flynn.[2]
Brugha attended Colmcille Schools on Dominick Street[3] until 1888 when he moved toBelvedere College. He had intended to study medicine but this did not come to fruition after his father's business failed in 1890. Brugha was seen as an austere figure, not very different fromÉamon de Valera, and was known not to smoke cigarettes, swear or drink alcohol.[4]
In 1899, Brugha joined theGaelic League, and he subsequently changed his name from Charles Burgess to Cathal Brugha.[5][6] He met his future wife,Kathleen Kingston, at an Irish class inBirr, County Offaly, and they married in 1912 in the Church of Three Patrons in Rathgar (where fellow Belvederean James Joyce had sung in the choir before leaving for Europe).[2] They had six children, five girls and one boy. Brugha became actively involved in theIrish Republican Brotherhood (IRB); in 1913, he became a lieutenant in theIrish Volunteers. He led a group of twenty Volunteers to receive the arms smuggled into Ireland in theHowth gun-running of 1914.[2]
Brugha started work with Hayes & Finch, a firm supplying churches with candles. In 1909 he and two of his workmates, Anthony and Vincent Lalor, founded Lalor Ltd, a candlemaking and church supplies firm based at 14 Lower Ormond Quay; Brugha became a director and travelling salesman. Caitlín Kingston came from a family of large shopkeepers; later she ran Kingston's drapery, one of Dublin's central draperies.
He was second-in-command at the South Dublin Union under CommandantÉamonn Ceannt in theEaster Rising of 1916. On the Thursday of Easter Week, being badly wounded, he was unable to leave when the retreat was ordered. Brugha, weak from loss of blood, continued to fire upon the enemy, and was found by Eamonn Ceannt singing "God Save Ireland" with his pistol still in his hands. He was initially not considered likely to survive. He recovered over the next year, but was left with a permanent limp.[5] Brugha was electedCeann Comhairle ofDáil Éireann at its first meeting on 21 January 1919, and he read out the Declaration of Independence in Irish, which ratified "the establishment of the Irish Republic". On the following day, 22 January, he was appointed president of the ministrypro tempore. He retained this position until 1 April 1919, when Éamon de Valera took his place.[7]
He proposed a Republican constitution at the 1917 Sinn Féin convention, which was unanimously accepted. In October 1917, he becameChief of Staff of the Irish Republican Army and held that post until March 1918. All through the War of Independence, Brugha continued to run his business as a candle maker. He never went on the run.[8]
He was elected as aSinn FéinMember of Parliament (MP) for theCounty Waterford constituency at the1918 general election.[9] In January 1919, Sinn Féin MPs refused to recognise theParliament of the United Kingdom and instead assembled at theMansion House in Dublin as a revolutionary parliament called Dáil Éireann. Owing to the absence of Éamon de Valera andArthur Griffith, Brugha presided over the first meeting of Dáil Éireann on 21 January 1919.[10]
He had differences withMichael Collins, who, although nominally only the IRA's Director of Intelligence, had far more influence in the organisation as a result of his position as a high-ranking member of the IRB, an organisation that Brugha saw as undermining the power of the Dáil and especially the Ministry for Defence. Brugha opposed the oath of allegiance required for membership of the IRB; in 1919, his proposition that all Volunteers should swear allegiance to theIrish Republic and the Dáil was adopted.[2]
At a top-level IRA meeting in August 1920, Brugha argued against ambushes of Crown forces unless there was first a call to surrender, but it was dismissed as unrealistic by the brigade commanders present. Brugha also had the idea of moving the front line of the war to England, but was opposed by Collins.[citation needed] Brugha worked to maintain strict rules of conduct for members of the army and for the treatment of prisoners.[11]
On 7 January 1922, Brughavoted against theAnglo-Irish Treaty. During theTreaty Debates, he pointed out that Collins had only a middling rank in theDepartment for Defence, which supervised the IRA, even though Griffith hailed him as 'the man who had won the war'. It has been argued[by whom?] that, by turning the issue into a vote on Collins' popularity, Brugha swung the majority against his own side.Frank O'Connor, in his biography of Collins, states that two delegates who had intended to vote against the Treaty changed sides in sympathy with Collins. After the vote, the anti-Treaty TDs moved into opposition and Brugha was succeeded as Minister for Defence byRichard Mulcahy.
In the months between the Treaty debates and the outbreak ofCivil War, Brugha attempted to dissuade his fellow anti-treaty army leaders includingRory O'Connor,Liam Mellows andJoe McKelvey from taking up arms against the Free State.[2] When the IRA occupied theFour Courts, he andOscar Traynor called on them to abandon their position. When they refused, Traynor ordered the occupation of the area aroundO'Connell Street in the hope of easing the pressure on the Four Courts and of forcing the Free State to negotiate.[2]
On 28 June 1922, Brugha was appointed commandant of the forces in O'Connell Street. Theoutbreak of the Irish Civil War ensued in the first week of July when Free State forces commenced shelling of the anti-treaty positions.
Most of the anti-Treaty fighters under Oscar Traynor escaped from O'Connell Street when the buildings they were holding caught fire, leaving Brugha in command of a small rearguard. On 5 July 1922, he ordered his men to surrender but refused to do so himself.[12] In Thomas Lane he then approached the Free State troops, brandishing a revolver and sustained a bullet wound to the leg which 'severed a major artery causing him to bleed to death'. Two members of the Irish republican women's paramilitary organisationCumann na mBan were with Brugha when he died -Kathleen Barry Moloney (the sister of executed IRA manKevin Barry) andLinda Kearns.[13] He died on 7 July, eleven days before his 48th birthday. He had been re-elected as an anti-TreatyTD at the1922 general election but died before the Dáil assembled.[14] He is buried inGlasnevin Cemetery.
His wifeCaitlín Brugha served as a Sinn FéinTD from 1923 to 1927. His sonRuairí Brugha later became a politician, firstly supportingClann na Poblachta and laterFianna Fáil, and was elected toDáil Éireann at the1973 general election. Ruairí marriedMáire MacSwiney, the daughter ofTerence MacSwiney, the RepublicanLord Mayor of Cork who had died on hunger strike in 1920.[2]
Cathal Brugha Street andCathal Brugha Barracks inDublin and Cathal Brugha Street inWaterford are named after him. As of 2016, he is survived by his grandsonCathal MacSwiney Brugha and his great-grandson, Air Corps lieutenant Gearóid Ó Briain.[15][16]
His wife, Caitlín Brugha, survived him, along with their five daughters and his son, Ruairí Brugha. Caitlín was elected as aSinn Féin TD forWaterford; Ruairí would follow in his father's and mother's footsteps and become aFianna Fáil TD in Dublin from 1973 to 1977.[4]
Brugha is mentioned by name in "The Foggy Dew" with the lyrics:
"Oh had they died by Pearse's sideOr fought with Cathal Brugha"
He is also mentioned in the song "Soldiers of '22" where the lyrics say:
"When their praise you sing let the echoes ring with the memory of Cathal Brugha"
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| New constituency | Member of Parliament forWaterford County 1918–1922 | Constituency abolished |
| Oireachtas | ||
| New constituency | Teachta Dála forWaterford County 1918–1921 | Constituency abolished |
| Political offices | ||
| New office | Ceann Comhairle ofDáil Éireann 21–22 January 1919 | Succeeded by |
| President of Dáil Éireann Jan–Apr 1919 | Succeeded by | |
| Preceded by | Minister for Defence 1919–1921 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
