Cathal Brugha

Cathal Brugha

Cathal Brugha ( ˈkahəɫ̪ bˠɾˠuː ; * July 18, 1874 in Dublin as Charles William St. John Burgess ; † July 7, 1922 there ) was an Irish revolutionary . He was an active participant in the Easter Rising and fought in the Irish War of Independence and the Irish Civil War . He was also from 19 to 22 January 1919 first Ceann Comhairle (chairman) of the Irish House of Commons Dáil Éireann and from January to April 1919 with the unequivocal title of Príomh Aire (President) of Dáil Éireann first head of government of Ireland.

youth

Born in Dublin into the mixed denomination of an Irish Catholic and an English Protestant, Brugha was accepted into the Jesuit Belvedere College at the age of 15 and did not go to the Irish Christian Brothers , who taught most of the later insurgents and guerrillas . A year later, however, he was forced to leave college and look for a job because his father ran into financial problems.

Easter Rising

In 1899 Brugha joined the Gaelic League and in 1913 he became a lieutenant with the Irish Volunteers . During the Easter Rising in 1916 he was second in command of the 4th Battalion under Éamonn Ceannt . During the fighting, he was so badly injured by a hand grenade and several gunshot wounds that initially he was not given much chance of survival.

Irish Republican Army

Memorial plaque for Cathal Brugha on O'Connell Street , Dublin. (The bullet holes in the wall can still be seen.)

After the general amnesty of 1917, Brugha successfully took care of the establishment and organization of the IRA . In October 1917 he became Chief of Staff of the IRA and remained so until March 1919. In the 1918 election he was elected as a representative of the Waterford constituency and shortly thereafter received the post of Secretary of Defense. He chaired the first meeting of the revolutionary lower house of Dáil Éireann (First Dáil) on January 21, 1919 , as Eamon de Valera was still in prison and Arthur Griffith was also absent. Thus, from January 22nd until de Valera's return in April 1919, he remained the latter's president (Príomh Aire) and, as such, head of government under the provisional constitution.

He was known for his bitter hostility to Michael Collins , who, although nominally only IRA chief intelligence officer, had significantly more influence in the organization since he was also a senior IRB member. Brugha accused this organization of undermining the power of the Dáil, and especially its Ministry of Defense. At a leadership meeting of the IRA in August 1920, Brugha suggested that British forces should no longer ambush without first asking them to surrender. However, this was dismissed as unrealistic by the brigade commanders. Brugha also had the idea of ​​bringing the war to England, which Collins rejected.

Cathal Brugha's grave

In 1922 he sided with the opponents of the Anglo-Irish Treaty . He was then replaced as Defense Minister by Richard Mulcahy and left the Dáil. During previous treaty debates, he pointed out that Collins ranks relatively low in the Defense Department, and that the newspapers are now hailing him as "the man who won the war."

In the Irish Civil War that followed, he fought on the side of the contractors who had taken buildings on O'Connell Street . In the first week of July 1922, the armed forces of the newly founded Free State began to take the positions of the contracting parties under artillery fire. After most of the fighters under Traynor escaped from O'Connell Street in this attack, they left Brugha in command of a small rearguard. On July 5th, he ordered his men to surrender. When he threatened the Free State troops with his revolver, they fired in response and he was shot in a main artery in his leg. He was taken to hospital, where he succumbed to his injury two days later, on July 7, 1922 - 11 days before his 48th birthday. He is buried in Glasnevin Cemetery (also known as Prospect Cemetery) in Dublin.

Web links

• A song about Cathal Brugha (English)
• Entry on the side of the Oireachtas