05/06/2026
RNU Remembers
Óglach Ruairí Ó Brádaigh,
October 1932 – 5 June 2013
Ruairí was Chief of Staff of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) from 1958 to 1959 and again from 1960 to 1962
Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, born Peter Roger Casement Brady, was born into a middle-class republican family in Longford that lived in a duplex home on Battery Road. His father, Matt Brady, was an IRA volunteer who was severely wounded during an attack with the Royal Irish Constabulary in 1919.
His mother, May Caffrey, was a Cumann na mBan volunteer and graduate of University College Dublin, class of 1922, with a degree in commerce.
His maternal grandmother was a French-speaking Swiss Lutheran.
His father died when he was ten, and was given a paramilitary funeral led by his former IRA colleagues.
His mother, prominent as the Secretary for the County Longford Board of Health, lived until 1974.
Ruairí was educated at Melview National School at primary level and attended secondary school at St. Mel's College, leaving in 1950.
In 1954, he graduated from University College Dublin with a commerce degree like his mother, and certification in the teaching of the Irish language. That year he took a job teaching Irish at Roscommon Vocational School in Roscommon.
He joined Sinn Féin in 1950. While at university and in 1951, he joined the Irish Republican Army
He opposed the decision of the IRA and Sinn Féin to drop abstentionism and to recognise the Westminster parliament in London, the Stormont parliament in Belfast and the Leinster House parliament in 1969/1970.
On 11 January 1970, along with Seán Mac Stíofáin, he led the walkout from the 1970 Sinn Féin Ard Fheis (party convention) after the majority voted to end the policy of abstentionism
After suffering a period of ill-health, Ó Brádaigh died on 5 June 2013 at Roscommon County Hospital.
RNU Remembers
Óglach Ruairí Ó Brádaigh,
October 1932 – 5 June 2013
Ruairí was Chief of Staff of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) from 1958 to 1959 and again from 1960 to 1962
Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, born Peter Roger Casement Brady, was born into a middle-class republican family in Longford that lived in a duplex home on Battery Road. His father, Matt Brady, was an IRA volunteer who was severely wounded during an attack with the Royal Irish Constabulary in 1919.
His mother, May Caffrey, was a Cumann na mBan volunteer and graduate of University College Dublin, class of 1922, with a degree in commerce.
His maternal grandmother was a French-speaking Swiss Lutheran.
His father died when he was ten, and was given a paramilitary funeral led by his former IRA colleagues.
His mother, prominent as the Secretary for the County Longford Board of Health, lived until 1974.
Ruairí was educated at Melview National School at primary level and attended secondary school at St. Mel's College, leaving in 1950.
In 1954, he graduated from University College Dublin with a commerce degree like his mother, and certification in the teaching of the Irish language. That year he took a job teaching Irish at Roscommon Vocational School in Roscommon.
He joined Sinn Féin in 1950. While at university and in 1951, he joined the Irish Republican Army
He opposed the decision of the IRA and Sinn Féin to drop abstentionism and to recognise the Westminster parliament in London, the Stormont parliament in Belfast and the Leinster House parliament.
Along with Seán Mac Stíofáin, he led the walkout from the Sinn Féin Ard Fheis (party convention) after the majority voted to end the policy of abstentionism
After suffering a period of ill-health, Ruairi Ó Brádaigh died on 5 June 2013 at Roscommon County Hospital.
