LATE CATHAL BRUGHA.

Grey River Argus, 20 July 1922, Page 3

LATE CATHAL BRUGHA.

FACTS OF HIS LIFE. FROM ONE WHO KNEW HIM. Our Hokitika correspondent writes that at St. Alary’s Church, Hokitika, to-morrow (Friday) morning Mass will be offered up for the late Cathal Brugha, the noted Irish Republican leader. It will be recalled that he was shot down while refusing to surrender. On Interviewing a friend, who was acquainted with Cathal Brugha, he gave ' me a brief outline of his life from 1916:—

Cathal Brugha (Charles Burgess) was badly wounded in 1916. Ho was well known as a great scholar and a military genius. Owing to the aptitude which he possessed in military organisation his “Chief” (De Valera) appointed him Minister of Defence in the Sinn Fein Cabinet. He was formerly Speaker of Dail Eircann. It is now well known that Brugha and Mcßride (the latter was executed in 1916) played a prominent part in trying to convince Connelly and others not to take the field openly against the English forces, his alternative being guerrilla warfare. Ho was the master mind in bringing about the flying Column. Of course, McKee- was equally responsible lor the latter scheme. The Flying Column wore composed of about. 3000, men, who flow about the country -engaging the Black and Tans in guerrilla warfare. ’This warfare was so effective that the British Government offered terms in 1920, similar to those which worn finally accepted in 1921.

The terms offered to Sinn Fein in 1920 .refused to give a safe conduct to Ca- , that Brugha. Regarding 1 lie convenj tion of 1917, Brugha declared that it was premeditated, foredoomed to failure, and was simply to throw dust in | the eyes of Europe and especially Amej riea. It consisted of 105 members, S 3 of whom were nominated by the • British Government. It was then proposed to give live seats to Labour and live seats to Sinn Fein. The latter refused to join in the Convention on the grounds that it was not a freely-elec-ted .assembly, and that it limited its demands to one for partial freedom. Naturally it broke up, and the old cry was again raised that Irishmen failed to agree among themselves. Brugha tracked down one Frank Hardy (alleged to be a British secret service , agon!) and banished him out of the country. Among others whom he traced were the murderers of McCurtain (Lord Mayor of Cork). As a result, Inspector Swanzy was shot at Lisburn. •Swanzy was Inspector of Police in the district where McCurtain was killed, and was afterwards transferred to Lisburn, where he met his fate. <>n another occasion he declared that Colonel Smyth was killed because of the policy action which propounded to the police, at Listowel. Brugha quickly answered Sir Ilamar Greenwood when the latter accused the LILA, of bi iug a murder gang, and declared that the I.R.A. were men of pure hands, men whose hands ■were unstained by English gold, whose characters were so transparent that one could see through them; men that feared no mortal, and no Government save that of God alone, and tho&e men wore carrying Ireland’s light to Victory! When Austin Stack, Commander Beasli and four others escaped from Manchester, Brugha and Collins played the principal parts. Brugha was mostly responsible, along with Harry Bolana and Collins, for De Valera’s escape from Lincoln prison. Asked what h-e thought of Dominion Status, Brugha declared, that the coherent national voice of Ireland had never admitted to the legal or moral right of English usurpation, and that whenever an opportunity had presented itself, Irishmen had resisted that usurpation by the force of arms. Since the English had planted themselves in Ireland, there had been nothing but wholesale slaughter, he said; specially planned murders, wholesale schemes of deportation, and soul-crushing penal law, and as a result of this policy, Dominion Status would be illusory. He concluded that English government was •essentially a flagrant usurpation of th-e rights of the Irish nation. On another occasion lie declared that the whole English system was directed at. destroying every vestige of the Irish nationality, or at least they were try- J ing to make- it inarticulate. After I the death of McSweeney, Brugha swore eternal enmity against England, and declared: “In the British Government’s insane attempts to extinguish the unquenchable fire of patriotism, they gave to my countrymen martial law for a government, and deliberately turned our country into a prison house.” Brougha was then silent until the signing of the Treaty. It may: be interesting - to note that Robert Barton, one of the signatories to Hie Treaty, a Protestant landowner in the south of Ireland, also a captain in the 1 English army, who fought against De Valera and Connelly in 1916, came un- . dor the powerful influence of Cathal < Brugha. and the intrepid Erskine Child - ers, and, as a result, turned his signature down. He is one of the most uncompromising Republicans in Ire- 1 land to-day. When the Dail Eircann i met to consider the London Treaty, he 1 candidly declared:—“l stand for ab- i solute and complete independence,” - and his voice was that of a man stand- < ing over the graves of those ho loved 1 above all else in the world. During i the same session he attacked Collins, I and uttered the following statement: “I have been asked what position Col- < Jins occupied in the l.R.A.—whether ho 1

held any position, or if hr had ever j fired a shot at the British forces. 1 ( as Afinister of Defence, declare, that ; Collins never was commander-in-chief , of the 1.R.A., and I am doubtful if he . ever fired a shot at the British army. ; He was a subordinate officer in the department of defence.” When the , vote on the Treaty went against Do , Valera and Brugha, the chief (De Va- ; lera) stood up and said: “I want to. utter my last words, The world is looking at us now’,”—a pause, and the chief fell back in his chair. The man who had defied the might of an Em- . pire, faced its armies, and nutTe fools of his critics, had broken down. Both De Valera and Brugha were brokenhearted statesmen! He did all that human intelligence could do for his country, and although most of us do ; not agree with his action, one cannot ( help but admire him, because he died in the belief that he was doing right. Anyone who is prepared to lay his life down for what he preaches (like Ca- , Dial Brugha), deserves admiration even , if his doctrines be wrong. He has passed from the Irish stage, as several | before him have done, and his memory will live on us that of the patriots w ho w’ent before him has done.