PROFILE TERENCE MacSWINEY Triumph of blood sacrifice

Cathal Billings on how the republican’s martyrdom inspired revolutionaries around the world

“If I die I know the fruit will exceed the cost SNAPSHOT a thousand fold. The thought of it makes me happy. I thank God for it. Ah, Cathal, TERENCE MacSWINEY the pain of Easter week is properly dead Born: Cork, March 28, 1879 at last.” Educated: North Mon, Royal ERENCE MacSwiney wrote University (UCC) these words in a letter to Affiliation: IRB, on September 30, 1920, the 39th day of his Career: TD, Lord Mayor . The pain he Died: Brixton Prison, , T refers to is that caused by October 25, 1920 his failure to partake in the 1916 . Contradictory orders from Dublin and the failure of the arms ship, the Aud, Society which adopted a broad nationalist Above: the to land arms in Tralee left the Volunteers programme. In 1908, with his friend graduation in Cork unprepared for insurrection. , he co-founded the Cork photograph Instead, they heeded Eoin MacNeill’s Dramatic Society for which he wrote five of Terence countermand and called off Easter plays. They were not written for art’s sake MacSwiney. manoeuvres. Only later on Easter Monday but, as Corkery put it, “for the sake of UCD ARCHIVES did MacSwiney learn of the Rising Ireland”. in Dublin and was haunted by guilt, MacSwiney was opposed to Home Inset above: resolving to make his own blood sacrifice Rule, describing it as a “half-measure” Cathal Billings for Ireland. and instead pursued the republican ideal. of UCD. His poem A Prayer, written while He did not join the Irish Republican Left: Irish in prison in July 1916, reveals this Brotherhood until just prior to the priests outside determination: Rising but wrote a series of articles for Brixton Irish Freedom between 1911 and 1912. Prison during Because I have endured the pain He believed that secret societies such as the inquest Of waiting when my comrades die the IRB were divisive, preferring to keep into Terence Let me be swept in war’s red rain the fight for independence “straight and MacSwiney’s And friends and foes be justified. consistent”. death He explored this theme in his play, GETTY IMAGES Terence MacSwiney was born into The Revolutionist, written in 1914 but a staunchly nationalist, Cork Catholic not produced until after his death; also in late 1913. His own publication Fianna immediately began his first hunger strike. family. His father emigrated to Australia evident is MacSwiney’s fascination with Fáil, ‘A Journal for Militant Ireland,’ was He was released four days later. This in 1885 leaving behind martyrdom, even prior suppressed in December 1914 after only action was inspired by who eight children with their to Easter 1916. Set in a 11 issues due to its extreme republican became the first republican prisoner to mother. To help support fictional Ireland after the and anti-British content. Throughout this die while on hunger strike that September his family, Terence, or “ enactment of Home Rule, time he worked tirelessly recruiting and in Mountjoy, after being forcibly fed by Terry, left school at 15 and the protagonist, Hugh organising Volunteer companies all over prison officials. found employment as an MacSwiney’s O’Neill, is an idealistic the county in preparation for the Rising in MacSwiney’s internment in March accountancy clerk. determination to separatist who pursues which he would take no active part. 1918 caused him to miss two major life He continued to study in a more radical form of He was interned in its aftermath, in events – the birth of his daughter, Máire, his free time, matriculating martyr himself was nationalism, stating the May 1916, and would spend the remaining in June, and his election to the first Dáil as in 1899 and gaining a need for “soldiers, not four years of his life in and out of jail. TD for Mid Cork, in December. Released degree in mental and moral apparent from the conspirators.” He was imprisoned in Wakefield, moved in Spring 1919, he took his seat. He served sciences from the Royal Attempting to unite his to Frongoch, known as ‘The University on the Foreign Affairs committee and was University, Cork in 1907. outset, declaring revolutionary colleagues, of Revolution,’ and finally to Reading, active in areas of education, forestry and In 1899 he joined he works himself to death. remaining there until December 1916. commerce. He also played a significant the Gaelic League and during his hearing: Hugh’s last words are On his return to Ireland he again role in organising the Dáil loan, a key remained an active prophetic: “What’s the became active with the Volunteers and source of finance for the republican supporter of the Irish “I shall be free, good of being alive if we was interned from February to June 1917, government. language throughout his give in?” during which time he married Muriel MacSwiney’s friend and comrade Tomás life. alive or dead, MacSwiney was among Murphy, of the famous Cork brewing Mac Curtain was elected as Lord-Mayor In 1901, he co-founded the founders of the Cork family. He was arrested in November 1917 of Cork in January 1920 after Sinn Féin’s the Cork Celtic Literary within the month” Brigade of the Volunteers for wearing an IRA uniform in public and success in local elections, but three

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Above: The front page of French newspaper Le Petit Journal from September 1920 showing MacSwiney on hunger strike. Below: MacSwiney’s funeral procession through London drew huge crowds. GETTY IMAGES Right: Typed extracts from The Principles of Freedom written by Terence MacSwiney, printed in 1912. UCD ARCHIVES

months later was murdered by disguised himself was apparent from the outset, “deeply religious”, he received daily Terence MacSwiney was by no means Royal Irish Constabulary men in his home. declaring during his hearing: “I shall be communion and a papal blessing before the only republican hunger striker of his MacSwiney succeeded him as mayor and free, alive or dead, within the month.” He his death; it was even suggested that time to die, yet it was his ‘triumph’ that also assumed command of the 1st Cork died 74 days later, on October 25, 1920. supernatural forces sustained him brought hunger striking to the forefront Brigade of the IRA. He was arrested after MacSwiney’s status as an elected official through his ordeal when death seemed of public consciousness and proved an a meeting in Cork City Hall on August and as Lord-Mayor ensured his hunger imminent. Though the nature of his death examplar for others. 12 along with 10 others, on charges of strike reverberated in international press, raised moral issues for the Church, he was In 1923, approximately 8,000 anti- sedition and for allegedly possessing an playing out like a poignant drama; the granted a full Catholic funeral and burial treaty prisoners began a hunger strike RIC cipher. New York Times described it as “a gesture – his death was not perceived as a suicide, lasting, in the longest case, more than MacSwiney immediately began his of deep tragedy on a stage where all but a tragedy caused by the cruelty of the 40 days, resulting in two deaths. Indian fateful hunger strike, protesting the mankind looks on”. English oppressor. anti-colonialist quoted authority of the British court in the His ordeal fixed international attention As many as 30,000 passed his coffin on MacSwiney when faced with his own Republic. on the fight for Irish independence and October 27 in Southwark before his body execution in 1931: “I am confident that my Four days later he was sentenced by cast “a stain on the name of England”. was brought home to his native Cork. death will do more to smash the British court martial to two years in prison. Demonstrations were held in Boston and The hanging of 18-year-old Empire than my release.” The 1913 Prisoners Act, or ‘the Cat-and- Buenos Aires, demanding his release. one week later added fuel to the fire. The MacSwiney’s symbolic personal stand Mouse Act’, set a precedent for the release Longshoremen in New York downed tools. period immediately after their deaths against the empire was also cited as of gravely ill prisoners, but the British Trade unions and youth groups rioted in saw violence throughout Ireland reach its inspirational by , Ho Chi government was determined to stand their Catalonia. British parliament was divided climax, finally culminating in a truce in Minh and Nelson Mandela. ground with MacSwiney, fearing mutiny and public opinion quickly turned against July 1921. Dr Cathal Billings is a lecturer in in Ireland. This despite requests by King their government’s Irish policy. When The Revolutionist was shown modern Irish in the UCD School of George V for his release. MacSwiney’s martyrdom took on for the first time on stage, at the Abbey in Irish, Celtic and Folklore MacSwiney’s determination to martyr religious connotations. Described as February 1921, it was a smash-hit.

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