The death of Terence MacSwiney: A pivotal point in Irish Independence

Hunger Strike, Self Sacrifice, Propaganda and the making of a Martyr 

Over the last number of years I have worked with a variety of people and events researching, writing and talking about Ireland's revolutionary decade. Commemoration of the decade of centenaries began with the Lock-out of 1913 and will culminate at the end of the Civil War in 1923 incapsulating a huge array of persons, events, uprisings, attacks, atrocities and curfews. With so many moments of history to engage with it, pinpointing pivotal key happenings that affected real significant change is difficult at best and controversial at worst. Yet today the 25th of October 2020 is the most important event of Irelands revolutionary past. This is the centenary of the day Terence MacSwiney died.

Vigil held outside Brixton prison

 Not only is he the most significant hero of Irish Independence to remember but the events which led to his hunger strike and the legacy and propaganda generated after his passing, position his struggle, sacrifice and death on hunger strike as thee most effectual single event in Irish history. I can almost hear the ripples of descent travel across the island, as Dublin and Tipperary historians pipe up that a Cork man should steal the podium.

Terence MacSwiney was a city boy who grew up in that climate of change that harboured Irish cultural appreciation, promoted national pride and agitated for self-determination. Despite leaving school at 15 to support his family, he received a degree, studying on a part-time basis. In December 1913 Macswiney attended the inaugural meeting of the Irish Volunteers, remained with them after the split, operated as a full time agent from 1915 and ultimately was arrested after the 1916 Rising. He resisted the initial sign up for Sinn Fein yet once full Irish Independence was indoctrinated as its mandate he rallied to the call.

Although Cork never rose during the Easter Rising it compensated by becoming the main centre of resistance during the War of Independence, making up for lost time so to speak. Over the next few years he was arrested and released on three separate occasions for illegal activities and served time.

For both the 1917 and 1919 elections he won his seat. An eloquent writer and orator he emulated a staunch political ideology in all his poetic and political writings. With the onset of the War of Independence marked by the establishment of the Dail and the attack on a munitions move by rebels in Tipperary, MacSwiney and his friend the commander of the Cork Brigade of the IRA, Thomas MacCurtain were centred in thick of Munster rebel activity.

 Black & Tan notice for restrictions of movements of men later on during crisis in 1921

Hit squads, assassinations, barracks attacks are the hallmarks of the guerrilla warfare tactics of the rebels through-out the War, secret missions to effect the stability and munition holds of the Royal Irish Constabulary were common place through-out 1919 to 1921. Munster was a hot bed of activity dealing sensitive blows to an already insulted constabulary and government. Much of the tactics of those seeking Independence manifested in a two-pronged attack: political representation at all levels and surprise military hits on barracks and arms movements. By 1920 the might of the British Empires control over the hearts and minds of the people of Munster was well and truly waning. Several barracks closed due to guerrilla attacks, the majority of seats held in parliament were held by Sinn Fein elected representatives and even the Lord Mayor Tomas Mac Curtain was now the first elected Republican Lord Mayor in Ireland.

March of 1920 saw tensions escalate. In Glanmire on the 12th a RIC officer Timothy Scully is ambushed and shot dead. A reprisal attack on homes in Cork city is initiated. On the 19th Joseph Murtagh another RIC Constable is assassinated as he returns home from his colleague’s funeral. At 1.10 am on the morning of the 20th of March Thomas MacCurtain's wife described the scene:

 

                                Thomas &Lizzie MacCurtain a few days before he was shot

"At about 1.10 I heard knocking on the door downstairs, sometime afterwards a noise came as if the door was being broken in. I looked out the window and asked who was there. The answer 'Come down'. Thomas got up and told me 'I'll go down myself Lizzie. I with a candle in hand, headed down the stairs. When I opened the door a man rushed in with a black face and eyes shining like a demon. 'Where’s Curtain?' I told them he was upstairs. Six men rushed past me. four tall and two small men. the two small had rifles but I don’t know what the others had as I didn’t see them.. One gave orders 'Hold that one', meaning me.... I was held at the door.. the men rushed passed me up the stairs.. Almost immediately before i thought they could have gone two steps up the stairs I heard the shots. the shots that killed my husband."

 Following the killing of his close friend and comrade Tomás MacCurtáin, Terence MacSwiney took over as commanding officer of Cork No. 1 Brigade of the IRA. The office of Lord Mayor of Cork had also been left vacant by MacCurtáin’s death and, on the evening of 30 March 1920, the members of Cork Corporation gathered in the City Hall to elect his successor, Liam de Róiste nominated MacSwiney as Lord Mayor and as there were no other nominations MacSwiney was deemed to be elected.

 

                                                          Above: The Funeral procession of Thomas Mac Curtin

During his inaugural speech as Lord Mayor Terence MacSwiney uttered the infamous enduring words:

 "I stand here more as a soldier stepping into the breach, than as an administrator to fill the first post in the municipality.... This contest of ours is not on our side a rivalry of vengeance, but one of endurance - it is not they who can inflict most but they who can suffer most will conquer.’

 One of his first acts as Mayor was to initiate an inquest into the death of his friend and comrade. The RIC initially stated that the killing of MacCurtain was linked to extreme elements within the Republican movement. In the following weeks the coroner examined evidence from ninety-seven witnesses, sixty-four police, thirty-one civilians and two military. The inquest concluded on the 17th April:

                                                       Crowds gather to read the notice of the killing of MacCurtain

 We find that the late .. MacCurtain, Lord Mayor of Cork, died from shock and haemorrhage caused by bullet wounds, and that he was wilfully murdered under circumstances of the most callous brutality, and that the murder was organised and carried out by the Royal Irish Constabulary, officially directed by the British Government, and we return a verdict of wilful murder against David Lloyd George, Prime Minister of England; Lord French, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland; Ian McPherson, late Chief Secretary of Ireland....

The list implicated everybody within the British administration and by its nature placed MacSwiney in increasingly dangerous territory from all the named parties above. MacSwiney slept in safe houses from here on in, even though each day he attended to his office as Lord mayor at City Hall.

On the evening of 12 August 1920, 300 British soldiers from Victoria Barracks surrounded Cork City Hall and conducted a search of the building. Following their raid 11 IRA officials and Terence were arrested and brought to the Barracks to be charged with holding seditious material and documents.

Six days later he was tried by a military tribunal under the Defence of the Realm Act. He received a two-year sentence to be served at Brixton rather than Cork due to the volatility and tensions in the area. After sentencing he declared that within a month, he would be a free man, alive or dead.  He immediately began a hunger strike.

Hunger strike holds a special place in Irelands fight for Independence, the notion of principled self-sacrifice was revered amongst many particularly, since the death by force feeding of Thomas Ashe whilst he was on hunger strike in 1917. 

Propaganda activity was a primary function of Cumann na mBan from its inception and was vital to Sinn Féin and the IRA during the 1919-21 period. The publication of the Irish Bulletin and its circulation around the globe succeeded due to their movements with humorous anecdotal references to the concealment of documents in ladies’ undergarments. The Irish Bulletin along with other pamphlets and newspapers circulated the trial, sentencing and hunger strike of MacSwiney which the international media embraced with empathy and wide-spread support.

The last and final days of Terence MacSwiney are recorded by his sister in a diary documenting the vigil held by his wife and sisters outside and inside Brixton prison.

Holding vigils, masses and prayer gatherings outside prisons became an increasingly popular device by women during the revolutionary years. Martial Law, curfews and restrictions would be issued to prevent political protest or resistance thus enabling the authorities to arrest suspected individuals without grounds simply due to their breach of curfew laws. Women played a unique role by transforming these events into religious vigils thus inhibiting the capacity of the authorities to inter them or suppress their voice.

                                                           Father Dominic outside Brixton
Within days, thousands of his supporters flocked to Brixton and rallied outside the prison on Brixton Hill. On August 25th, a riot broke out between the crowd and the police. The case divided British politics, with some MPs urging that MacSwiney be released. Even the king favoured clemency but refrained from public interference.

The government held true to its stance, and so did MacSwiney. Messages of support poured in from all over the world. Marcus Garvey sent a message of solidarity, “the sympathy of 400,000,000 Negroes”. Ten thousand people demonstrated 

                                                                
                                            Outside Brixton Prison

After 74 days without food, MacSwiney died on October 25^th with the support of his wife, sisters, and brothers at Brixton prison.

Even after his death the Government refused to release his body unconditionally. The Coroner argued that he had no power to give release of the body for burial outside England. Muriel hoped for a state funeral in Dublin. The Home Office offered financial support in transferring his body only if he was brought directly to Cork.

On the coffin was an Irish inscription, which was translated as “Murdered by the Foreigner in Brixton Prison, London, England on October 25th 1920. The fourth year of the Republic. Aged 40 years. God have mercy on his soul”.

MacSwiney’s body was taken to St George’s Cathedral, Southwark. Thousands came to pay their respects; the coffin was carried to Euston Station in a procession which stretched more than a mile. It was led by mounted police, followed by members of the Irish Volunteer movement and hundreds of priests. Many police officers wore black gloves as a sign of respect, and they saluted the coffin as it passed. The body was put on a train bound for Holyhead, where it was transported by boat to Cork. In Dublin on the 29^th of October a funeral procession without a body lined the city streets before the final massive public gathering for his official funeral in the city of Cork. Instead of down-playing MacSwineys publicity by positioning him in Brixton, they escalated his popularity which resulted in not just one funeral but three.

His death and subsequent funeral received coverage in over 45 newspapers across the globe, sparking riots, lobbying and descent against Britain and their policies towards Ireland. Even in New York, MacSwiney’s death provoked mass public gatherings. Some 40,000 people crowded into the Polo Grounds, a baseball stadium in Upper Manhattan, to pay tribute to MacSwiney in an event presided over by Éamon de Valera.

Muriel before her testimony to the American Conference on Conditions in Ireland

After Terry's death as they called him, Mary and Muriel MacSwiney embarked on a journey to America to highlight the injustices inflicted on the Irish in their campaign for Independence. Their sheer perseverance in speaking, soliciting solidarity and relentless petitioning rallied huge support with both high ranking political office holders and ordinary everyday dockers. Mary MacSwiney’s eight-month long campaign encompassed fifty-eight cities in which she addressed over 300 meetings created a Commission, a relief committee and enquiry which resulted in a damning report on Britain, cargo strikes on British goods and American political pressure.   

In the self-fulfilling words of Terence MacSwiney from his book Principles of Freedom

" We fight for freedom – not for the vanity of the world, not to have a fine conceit of ourselves, not to be as bad, or if we prefer to put it so, as big as our neighbours. The inspiration is drawn from a deeper element of our being. We stifle for self-development individually and as a nation. If we don’t go forward, we must go down. It is a matter of life and death; it is our soul’s salvation. If the whole nation stands for it, we are happy; we shall be grandly victorious. If only a few are faithful found, they must be the more steadfast for being but a few. One man alone may vindicate it, and because that one man has never failed, it has never died."