Sinn Féin M.P. Arrested
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FOR GIVING HIS NAME IN IRISH
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Our Thurles correspondent wiring last night said - A sensation was caused here this afternoon by the arrest at Thurles Railway Station of Mr Cathal Brugha, the newly elected Sinn Féin M.P. for County Waterford. He was just entering a train for Dublin, when Constable Barrett, R.I.C., Thurles, asked him his name,, and was told 'Brugha'. 'Is that Irish?' the constable asked, and being told that it was, he asked 'what is your Christian name? Cathal was the answer. The constable said that unless the name was given in English he should detain him. Some Thurles friends who accompanied Mr. Brugha explained that the Waterford Sheriff accepted the Irish form of the name, but the constable persisted, and as Mr. Brugha refused his name in English, he was brought to the barracks and detained. When searched he had on him a receipt for £150 from the Waterford Sheriff in the name of Cathal Brugha.
Our, Dublin, correspondent wired yesterday: - This morning, Richard Cotter, of Dublin, was arressted[sic] by the Dublin police. He was one of the men deported to England after the rebellion. His brother Joseph, is at present interned in England- "Cork Examiner."
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Blog Author note:
Cathal Brugha would go on to become the first Ceann Comhairle of the Irish Dail. Due to the absence of Éamon de Valera and Arthur Griffith, Brugha presided over the first meeting of Dáil Éireann on 21 January 1919.
At the time of his arrest he was the Chief of Staff for the Irish Republican Army.
