A martyr for Irish freedom

By Theo Russell

A new committee was launched last Friday at the London Irish Centre in Camden, north London, to prepare for the centenary of the death of Terence MacSwiney, the mayor of Cork, who died after 73 days on hunger strike in Brixton prison, south London, in October 1920.

The hunger strike was launched in protest at his internment for possession of “seditious articles and documents" during the 1919–‘21 Irish War of Independence, and the fact that he was tried by a military court, and was joined by 11 other Irish Republican prisoners in Cork Jail.

MacSwiney, a playwright and author, took part in the 1916 Easter Rising in Cork. He was elected to the first Dáil Éireann as Sinn Féin TD for Mid Cork in 1918. After his friend Tomás Mac Curtain, Lord Mayor of Cork, was murdered by members of the Royal Irish Constabulary in March 1920, MacSwiney succeeded him as Lord Mayor.

The meeting was addressed by Martin Ferris, Sinn Féin member of the Irish parliament, the Dáil, since 2002, who described his own experience of being on hunger strike for 47 days in harrowing detail. Ferris was serving a 10-year sentence in Portlaoise prison, Ireland, for IRA membership.

Ferris said that MacSwiney “succeeded in criminalising the empire that tried to criminalise him” and asked: “Those who tried to criminalise us, where are they now? Maggie Thatcher is remembered now for her association with Pinochet and support for apartheid South Africa.”

Ferris also spoke about a major new book, {Ireland’s Hunger for Justice}, which for the first time brings together the stories of 22 Irish hunger strikers who gave their lives for Ireland’s liberation between 1917 and 1981, including two others who died in English prisons, Michael Gaughan and Frank Stagg, in 1974 and 1976.

MacSwiney's hunger strike in 1920 gained world attention and protests in his support were held in Germany, France, Australia and South America. In India, Jawaharlal Nehru, Mahatma Gandhi and the revolutionary Bhagat Singh were inspired by his example and writings.

The great Vietnamese national liberation fighter Ho Chi Minh famously said of MacSwiney: “A nation which has such citizens will never surrender.”