An Cosantóir

49 team, which was being housed in Cathal Brugha Bks in advance of its fixture against the DF the following day, had departed that morning for training in McKee Bks, providing an unplanned recall of their part in the handover 100 years previous. After this great occasion, the barracks was ready for a more poignant ceremonial event, as we commemorated the 100 year anniversary of our namesake, Cathal Brugha on the 7th of July. In his youth, Cathal Brugha lived in Upper Rathmines and is recorded as having taken part in competitions in a shooting club in Rathgar, against officers stationed in Portobello Barracks, prior to 1914. On the 100th anniversary of his death at the outset of the Civil War, units of Cathal Brugha Bks gathered at the front of the West Square with invited members of his family, to commemorate him and to officially unveil the memorial built in his honour. Two months later, the annual Michael Collins commemoration took place on the 22nd August, the centenary of his death at Béal na mBláth. A formal commemoration of this event first took place in Cathal Brugha Bks in 2015 on foot of research by Cpl Noel McDonnell, isolating the exact spot where the famous photograph of Gen Collins and a boy of Fianna Éireann in pipe band uniform, Alphonse Culleton, was taken. This was the first such commemoration with full attendance of the garrison and invited guests since 2019, after much reduced affairs in 2020 and 2021 in line with regulations on ceremonial events due to COVID 19. As always, members of Michael Collins family were present as was the Chief of Staff, Lt Gen Seán Clancy. In addition to these major ceremonial events, Cathal Brugha Bks also hosted other events reflecting on the organisation's part in the life of the nation, such as the Civil War Conference hosted by Military Archives and the recent launch of the documentary "In the Service of the State", produced by DF PR Branch. With the completion of the commemorative programme this year, our perception of time is thrown into light again. In a little over three months, this barracks had seen the handover to the National Army, the establishment of that army as a regular force with its headquarters here in Portobello, the beginning of the Civil War with the occupation and shelling of the Four Courts, and the deaths of Cathal Brugha, Arthur Griffith and Michael Collins. In addition, Maj Gen Emmet Dalton had overseen the successful land and sea borne invasion of the South, decisively swinging the progress of the war in the Pro- Treaty forces' favour. These events would take up different chapters of the history books, as they covered the transition of our country from the end of the War of Independence through the Treaty Debates in Dáil Éireann and well into the ensuing Civil War. However, we in Cathal Brugha Bks had seen them all come and go this year over the course of the good weather associated with the school holidays of one summer. Astonishing to think that so much change had come to pass in such a short space of time, with our place of work at the centre of so much of it. We marched from the Leinster Cricket Club up the Rathmines Road before turning onto Military Road and into the barracks through the Main Gate, on that overcast May day, a century after the first Irish soldiers did so. How the mind can play tricks on you with its view of time passing? This came into consideration in another way. With crowds of curious onlookers watching from the side of the main thoroughfare through Rathmines village, as well as cheering schoolchildren let out to watch us from St Louis' and St Mary's schools, one couldn't help but think of our forebears doing the same one hundred years ago. A century is a long time and, while there is a direct link from us to those who came before us, it is difficult to feel any personal connection to the pioneers of our Defence Forces who took part in these momentous events. However, months later, as I was introduced to Gen Emmet Dalton's daughter, now in her 90s, whose father had been at Gen Collins' side as he died one hundred years previous, I was reminded of the old adage, that you are only a couple of handshakes away from history. Our past, unattainably distant as it may seem, is much closer in reality than we think. HANDOVER OF CATHAL BRUGHA BARRACKS Veterans on parade National Flag after being raised on the day Army Band on route to Cathal Brugha Bks Minister Coveney receiving a Guard of Honour

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