7 July 1922: The death of Cathal Brugha T.D. in the Mater Hospital on this day. He had been shot in Dublin two days before by Free State soldiers as he emerged from the blazing Hammam Hotel [O’Connell St] with a gun in his hand. A hero of the 1916 Rising his death sent shock waves across Ireland as he was the 1st senior Republican to die in the Irish Civil War.

He was born Charles William St John Burgess in 1874. In 1899 he joined the Gaelic League, and he subsequently changed his name to Cathal Brugha. He met his future wife, Kathleen Kingston  at an Irish class in Birr County Offaly & they married in 1912. They had 6 children, 5 girls & 1 boy. He became actively involved in the IRB in 1913 & became a lieutenant in the Irish Volunteers. He led a group of twenty Volunteers to receive the arms smuggled into Ireland in the Howth gun-running of 1914.

He was second-in-command at the South Dublin Union under Commandant Éamonn Ceannt in the Easter 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.

Brugha was elected Ceann Comhairle of Dáil 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 ministry pro tempore. He retained this position until 1 April 1919, when Éamon de Valera took his place. He rarely attended Sinn Féin meetings and concentrated on arming and reorganising the Irish Volunteers, serving as their chief of staff (October 1917–April 1919). He was given the role as ‘Minister of Defense’ but how much day to day control he exercised in active operations is problematical.

When the Treaty was signed in December 1921 he came out against it and spoke with some anguish and anger at those who accepted it in Dail Eireann when it was debated in the famous ‘Treaty Debates’ [Dec. 1921-Jan.1922]. By this stage he stated that he was ‘sick of politics’, and wished only to see both sides unite and mount an expedition to defend embattled northern nationalists. On 16 June he was elected TD for Waterford–Tipperary East for the Anti-Treaty side in the General Election on that day.

Though he was against the prospect of a Civil War when the fighting began in late June 1922 he joined the Republican Forces in Dublin and helped defend the Hammam Hotel fronting O’Connell St. After the structure was shelled and set ablaze he ordered the remaining members of the garrison out & decided to die rather than surrender. Stepping out into the laneway at the back of the hotel on Thomas Lane he was immediately spotted by Free State soldiers who opened fire and he was cut down, sustaining what proved to be a fatal wound to a leg artery. Rushed to the Mater Hospital he lingered for two days surrounded by his wife and members of his family.

He was survived by his wife, Caitlín Brugha, who was elected Sinn Féin TD for Waterford (1923–7), five daughters, and a son, Ruairí (b. 1917), who became Fianna Fáil TD for South Co. Dublin (1973–7) and married Máire, daughter of Terence MacSwiney.