Terence MacSwiney | |
|---|---|
 MacSwiney in his mayoral robes, 1919 | |
| Teachta Dála | |
| In office December 1918 – 25 October 1920 | |
| Constituency | Cork Mid |
| Lord Mayor of Cork | |
| In office March 1920 – October 1920 | |
| Constituency | Cork County Council |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Terence James MacSwiney (1879-03-28)28 March 1879 Cork, Ireland |
| Died | 25 October 1920(1920-10-25) (aged 41) Brixton Prison,London, England |
| Cause of death | Hunger strike |
| Resting place | St. Finbarr's Cemetery, Cork |
| Political party | Sinn Féin |
| Spouse | |
| Children | Máire |
| Relatives |
|
Terence James MacSwiney (/məkˈswiːni/;Irish:Toirdhealbhach Mac Suibhne; 28 March 1879 – 25 October 1920)[1] was an Irish playwright, author and politician. He was elected asSinn FéinLord Mayor of Cork during theIrish War of Independence in 1920.[2] He was arrested by theBritish Government on charges ofsedition and imprisoned inBrixton Prison. His death there in October 1920 after 74 days onhunger strike[3] brought him and theIrish Republican campaign to international attention.
Born at 23 North Main Street,Cork,[4] MacSwiney was one of eight children.[5] His father, John MacSwiney, of Cork, who had volunteered in 1868 to fight as apapal guard againstGaribaldi, had been a schoolteacher in London and later opened a tobacco factory in Cork. Following the failure of this business, John emigrated to Australia in 1885 leaving Terence and the other children in the care of their mother and the eldest daughter.[6]
MacSwiney's mother, Mary (née Wilkinson), was an English Catholic with strong Irish nationalist opinions. Terence was educated by theChristian Brothers atthe North Monastery school in Cork city but left at fifteen to help support the family.[7] He became an accountancy clerk but continued his studies and matriculated successfully. He continued in full-time employment while he studied atQueen's College, Cork, graduating from theRoyal University with a degree in Mental and Moral Science in 1907.[8]
In 1901 he helped to found the Celtic Literary Society, and in 1908 he founded the Cork Dramatic Society withDaniel Corkery and wrote a number of plays for them.[8] His first playThe Last Warriors of Coole was produced in 1910.[9] His fifth playThe Revolutionist (1915) took the political stand made by a single man as its theme.[7] In addition to his work as a playwright, he also wrote pamphlets on Irish history.
Described as a sensitive poet-intellectual,[10] MacSwiney's writings in the newspaperIrish Freedom brought him to the attention of theIrish Republican Brotherhood.[9] In 1913, he was one of the founders of the Cork Brigade of theIrish Volunteers, and was President of the Cork branch ofSinn Féin. In 1914, he founded a newspaper,Fianna Fáil, which was suppressed after only 11 issues.
At Christmas 1915, MacSwiney spent a night at the home of theFleischmanns. While there, he met a friend of his sisters,Muriel Murphy. She was from a rich brewing family in Cork with conservative politics, but in 1915 she became a member of theGaelic League andCumann na mBan. MacSwiney and Murphy continued to see each other after the night at the Fleischmanns.[11]
In April 1916, he was intended to be second in command of theEaster Rising in Cork and Kerry, but stood down his forces on the order ofEoin MacNeill.[12] Amongst the confusion about whether to mobilise his forces or not, Muriel Murphy brought him food and information as his forces held up at Volunteer Hall in Cork City.[11]
Following the rising, MacSwiney was imprisoned until December 1916 inReading andWakefield Gaols by theBritish Government, under theDefence of the Realm Act. In February 1917, he was deported from Ireland and imprisoned inShrewsbury andBromyard internment camps until his release in June 1917. Muriel followed Terence to England to support him and, upon his release, the two were married on 9 June 1917 inBromyard, England, one day after Murphy's 25th birthday, and one day after she was eligible for her inheritance, ensuring the independence of the couple from the Murphy family, which had disapproved of the relationship every step of the way.[11][12] Muriel's bridesmaid was Geraldine O'Sullivan (Neeson), while Terence's best man wasRichard Mulcahy.
In November 1917, MacSwiney was arrested in Cork for wearing anIrish Volunteers uniform, and, inspired by the example ofThomas Ashe, went on ahunger strike for three days prior to his release.[13]
In the1918 general election, MacSwiney was returned unopposed as the member forMid Cork, representingSinn Féin, succeeding theNationalistMPD. D. Sheehan. However, along with 27 other elected members, MacSwiney joined the firstDáil Éireann rather than take up his seat in theUK Parliament.[14] After the murder on 20 March 1920 of his friendTomás Mac Curtain, theLord Mayor of Cork, MacSwiney was elected Lord Mayor.Richard Mulcahy wrote to MacSwiney on 8 April 1920 to warn him he was in danger and asking him to agree to have Mulcahy's men protect him at all times, "after what has happened in Cork" (likely a reference to MacCurtain's death less than a month earlier).[15] On 12 August 1920, MacSwiney was arrested in Cork for possession of "seditious articles and documents", and possession of acypher key. He was summarily tried by a court on 16 August and sentenced to two years' imprisonment at Brixton Prison in England.[8]
On 12 August, the day he was imprisoned in Cork, MacSwiney joined the prisoners there who had started the1920 Cork hunger strike one day prior. However, he was transferred toBrixton Prison soon after, where he continued his hunger strike.[16] On 26 August, the British cabinet stated that "the release of the Lord Mayor would have disastrous results in Ireland and would probably lead to a mutiny of both military and police in south of Ireland."[13]
MacSwiney's hunger strike gained world attention. In response to the strike, 3,000 longshoremen in the United States pledged to refused to load goods for British-flagged merchantmen until all British forces were withdrawn from Ireland,[17] and four South American nations appealed forPope Benedict XV to intervene. Protests in support of the strikers were held in France and Germany, while the Australian MPHugh Mahon was expelled from theParliament of Australia for "seditious and disloyal utterances at a public meeting" after claiming that the sobs of MacSwiney's widow would one day shake the foundations of "this bloody and accursed Empire". Two weeks later, theAutonomous Center of Employees of Commerce and Industry (CADCI), a Catalan nationalist organization, sent a petition toBritish Prime MinisterDavid Lloyd George calling for MacSwiney's release and the newspaper of the organization,Acció (Action in English), began a campaign in support of MacSwiney.[18]
Prison officials often placed food near MacSwiney to persuade him to give up the hunger strike. Attempts atforce-feeding MacSwiney were undertaken in the final days of his strike.[13] On 20 October 1920, he fell into a coma and died five days later after being on hunger strike for 74 days. His body was laid inSt George's Cathedral, Southwark, where 30,000 people filed past it.[13] MacSwiney's family planned on having his body taken to Dublin, but as they feared it would lead to large-scale demonstrations British authorities diverted his coffin directly to Cork, reportedly on the insistence ofSir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet.[19] MacSwiney's funeral in theCathedral of St Mary and St Anne on 31 October attracted large crowds, and he was buried in the Republican plot inSt. Finbarr's Cemetery, Cork.Arthur Griffith delivered the graveside oration.[13]
A collection of his political writings, entitledPrinciples of Freedom, was published posthumously in 1921. It was based upon articles MacSwiney contributed toIrish Freedom during 1911–1912. His collected works, prose, plays and poetry,The Art and Ideology of Terence MacSwiney: Caught in the Living Flame, were published in 2023.
MacSwiney's life and work had a particular impact in India.Jawaharlal Nehru took inspiration from MacSwiney's example and writings, andMahatma Gandhi counted him among his influences.[7][20]Principles of Freedom was translated into various Indian languages includingTelugu.[7] The Indian revolutionaryBhagat Singh was an admirer of MacSwiney and wrote about him in his memoirs.[21] When Singh's father petitioned the British colonial authorities to pardon his son, Bhagat Singh quoted Terence MacSwiney and said "I am confident that my death will do more to smash the British Empire than my release" and told his father to withdraw the petition. He was executed on 23 March 1931 with two other men after being convicted of a murdering a British police officer.[citation needed]
Other figures beyond India who counted MacSwiney as an influence includeHo Chi Minh, who was working in London at the time of MacSwiney's death and said of him, "A nation that has such citizens will never surrender".[21] On 1 November 1920, the Catalan organization CADCI held a demonstration in Barcelona, where the poet and politicianVentura Gassol delivered an original poem extolling MacSwiney.[18] Chinese poetGuo Moruo wrote a poem about MacSwiney.[22]
In Ireland MacSwiney's sisterMary MacSwiney took on his seat in the Dáil and spoke against theAnglo-Irish Treaty in January 1922. His brotherSeán MacSwiney was also elected in the1921 elections for another Cork constituency. He also opposed the Treaty.[23]
MacSwiney's hunger strike set an example for future hunger strikers with nationwide strikes taking place during the1923 Irish Hunger Strikes.
In 1945 his only child,Máire MacSwiney, marriedRuairí Brugha, son of the nationalistTeachta DálaCathal Brugha. Ruairí later became a TD,Member of the European Parliament, andSenator. Máire MacSwiney is the author of a memoirHistory's Daughter: A Memoir from the Only Child of Terence MacSwiney (2006). She died in May 2012.[24]
A collection of artefacts relating to MacSwiney's life is held atCork Public Museum. His portrait, and a painting of his funeral mass, bySir John Lavery, are exhibited in Cork'sCrawford Art Gallery.[25] There is also a secondary school named after him on the north side of Cork City, with a room dedicated to his memory.[26]
On 28 October 2012, there was a friendship tree planting in memory of MacSwiney in Southwark.[27] The Paris-based Irish-American composerSwan Hennessy (1866–1929) dedicated his String Quartet No. 2, Op. 49 (1920) to the memory of MacSwiney ("à la Mémoire de Terence McSwiney,Lord Mayor de Cork"). It was first performed in Paris, on 25 January 1922, by an Irish quartet led byArthur Darley.[28]
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forCork Mid 1918–1920 | Vacant |
| Oireachtas | ||
| New office | Teachta Dála forCork Mid 1918–1920 | Vacant |
| Civic offices | ||
| Preceded by | Lord Mayor of Cork 1920 | Succeeded by |
