Ruairí Brugha

Ruairí Brugha was born in Dublin in 1917, the son of Cathal Brugha, who died during the Civil War before his own fourth birthday. He grew up speaking Irish, joined the IRA at sixteen, and spent years on the run or detained before marrying Máire MacSwiney in Cork. Only later did he leave revolutionary doctrine behind, work in his mother’s menswear shop, and enter elected politics with Clann na Poblachta and Fianna Fáil. His life moved from grief and resistance to public service, carrying the weight of two families into ordinary Dublin life.