Caitlín Brugha

Who was Caitlín Brugha?

Caitlín Brugha was an Irish Sinn Féin politician.

Born Kathleen Kingston, in Birr, County Offaly, she married Irish revolutionary Cathal Brugha in 1912. Her husband died in 1922 during the Irish Civil War and she was elected to Dáil Éireann as a Sinn Féin Teachta Dála at the 1923 general election for the Waterford constituency.

She was re-elected at the June 1927 general election. In accordance with Sinn Féin policy of the time she did not take her seat in Dáil Éireann. She stayed with the abstentionists of Sinn Féin when Éamon de Valera left to found Fianna Fáil. Sinn Féin was unable to raise the funds to contest the second election called that year, and Brugha did not contest the September 1927 general election.

She had established a drapery business, Kingston's Ltd, in 1924 and following her exit from politics devoted much time to the venture. Her continuing anti-Britishness was evidenced when in 1941 she was accused of harbouring a German spy who had parachuted into Wexford.

Her son, Ruairí Brugha later became a Fianna Fáil politician and was elected to Dáil Éireann at the 1973 general election.