Terence MacSwiney

His death there in October 1920 after 74 days on hunger strike brought him and the Irish Republican campaign to international attention.

Terence MacSwiney studied at University College Cork. The recorded working language is Irish and English. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are theatre. Places of work recorded in the authority are London. Positions recorded include Lord Mayor of Cork and member of the 31st Parliament of the United Kingdom.

• Office — Teachta Dála • Term Start — December 1918 • Term End — 25 October 1920 • Constituency — Cork Mid • Office2 — Lord Mayor of Cork • Term Start2 — March 1920 • Term End2 — October 1920 • Constituency2 — Cork County Council • Birth Name — Terence James MacSwiney • Born — 28 March 1879 • Birthplace — Cork, Ireland • Died — 25 October 1920 • Place of death — Brixton Prison, London, England • Death Cause — Hunger strike • Party — Sinn Féin • Resting Place — St. Finbarr's Cemetery, Cork • Relatives — * Mary MacSwiney (sister) • Seán MacSwiney (brother) • Ruairí Brugha (son-in-law) • Children — Máire

Born at 23 North Main Street, Cork, MacSwiney was one of eight children. His father, John MacSwiney, of Cork, who had volunteered in 1868 to fight as a papal guard against Garibaldi, 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. MacSwiney's mother, Mary (née Wilkinson), was an English Catholic with strong Irish nationalist opinions. Terence was educated by the Christian Brothers at the North Monastery school in Cork city but left at fifteen to help support the family. He became an accountancy clerk but continued his studies and matriculated successfully. He continued in full-time employment while he studied at Queen's College, Cork, graduating from the Royal University with a degree in Mental and Moral Science in 1907. In 1901 he helped to found the Celtic Literary Society, and in 1908 he founded the Cork Dramatic Society with Daniel Corkery and wrote a number of plays for them. His first play The Last Warriors of Coole was produced in 1910. His fifth play The Revolutionist (1914) took the political stand made by a single man as its theme. In addition to his work as a playwright, he also wrote pamphlets on Irish history.

Described as a sensitive poet-intellectual, MacSwiney's writings in the newspaper Irish Freedom brought him to the attention of the Irish Republican Brotherhood. In 1913, he was one of the founders of the Cork Brigade of the Irish Volunteers, and was President of the Cork branch of Sinn 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 the Fleischmanns. 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 the Gaelic League and Cumann na mBan. MacSwiney and Murphy continued to see each other after the night at the Fleischmanns. In April 1916, he was intended to be second in command of the Easter Rising in Cork and Kerry, but stood down his forces on the order of Eoin MacNeill. 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. Following the rising, MacSwiney was imprisoned until December 1916 in Reading and Wakefield Gaols by the British Government, under the Defence of the Realm Act. In February 1917, he was deported from Ireland and imprisoned in Shrewsbury and Bromyard 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 in Bromyard, 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. Muriel's bridesmaid was Geraldine O'Sullivan (Neeson), while Terence's best man was Richard Mulcahy. In November 1917, MacSwiney was arrested in Cork for wearing an Irish Volunteers uniform, and, inspired by the example of Thomas Ashe, went on a hunger strike for three days prior to his release. In the 1918 general election, MacSwiney was returned unopposed as the member for Mid Cork, representing Sinn Féin, succeeding the Nationalist MP D. D. Sheehan. However, along with 27 other elected members, MacSwiney joined the first Dáil Éireann rather than take up his seat in the UK Parliament. After the murder on 20 March 1920 of his friend Tomás Mac Curtain, the Lord 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). On 12 August 1920, MacSwiney was arrested in Cork for possession of "seditious articles and documents", and possession of a cypher key. He was summarily tried by a court on 16 August and sentenced to two years' imprisonment at Brixton Prison in England.

On 12 August, the day he was imprisoned in Cork, MacSwiney joined the prisoners there who had started the 1920 Cork hunger strike one day prior. However, he was transferred to Brixton Prison soon after, where he continued his hunger strike. 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." 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, and four South American nations appealed for Pope Benedict XV to intervene. Protests in support of the strikers were held in France and Germany, while the Australian MP Hugh Mahon was expelled from the Parliament 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, the Autonomous Center of Employees of Commerce and Industry (CADCI), a Catalan nationalist organization, sent a petition to British Prime Minister David Lloyd George calling for MacSwiney's release and the newspaper of the organization, Acció (Action in English), began a campaign in support of MacSwiney. Prison officials often placed food near MacSwiney to persuade him to give up the hunger strike. Attempts at force-feeding MacSwiney were undertaken in the final days of his strike. 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 in St George's Cathedral, Southwark, where 30,000 people filed past it. 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 of Sir Henry Wilson, 1st Baronet. MacSwiney's funeral in the Cathedral of St Mary and St Anne on 31 October attracted large crowds, and he was buried in the Republican plot in St. Finbarr's Cemetery, Cork. Arthur Griffith delivered the graveside oration.

• "It is not those who can inflict the most, but those who can suffer the most who will conquer." (Some sources replace "conquer" with "prevail") • "I am confident that my death will do more to smash the British Empire than my release." (On his hunger strike) • "I want you to bear witness that I die as a Soldier of the Irish Republic." His last words to a visiting priest. • "If I die the fruit will exceed the cost a thousand fold. The thought of it makes me happy. I thank God for it."

Terence MacSwiney was recorded at birth as Terence Joseph MacSwiney. The authorities additionally record the heading Terence James MacSwiney. His recorded languages were Irish and English. He was the child of John MacSwiney and Mary Wilkinson. He married Muriel MacSwiney. One child is recorded: Márie MacSwiney.

Terence MacSwiney is recorded as politician, writer and poet.