Remembering the hero

One of the men who gave his life for the cause, Terence MacSwiney: The Hunger Strike That Rocked An Empire, is the subject of a new book by Dave Hannigan.

MacSwiney, arrested while Lord Mayor of Cork at the height of the War of Independence in 1920, died after a 74-day hunger strike which was followed closely all over the world. It was that media coverage which sparked Hannigan’s interest.

“In researching my last book, De Valera in America, I came across the New York Times covering MacSwiney’s hunger strike as a front page story every day for the duration,” says Hannigan. “I was amazed at how big the story was in America and then when I scratched the surface I realised it was the same the world over, from Barcelona to Buenos Aires, from Australia to the Vatican. I felt that while many people knew the basics of the strike and MacSwiney’s death, hardly anybody was aware of what an international event it had been.”

Hannigan was in possession of the basics. Having grown up in Togher, a few hundred yards from St Finnbarr’s Cemetery in Glasheen, he passed MacSwiney’s grave every day on the way to secondary school in Coláiste an Spioraid Naoimh.

“I knew the outline of how he was arrested and shipped off to die in Brixton, and that he was a Cork martyr, but not much more than that really,” says Hannigan. “I felt that too many generations had grown up in Cork and Ireland not knowing very much at all about his sacrifice.”

MacSwiney’s lengthy decline in Brixton Prison is the centrepiece of Hannigan’s book. His bravery in extremis struck the author.

“I think I was impressed by how spiritual he was,” says Hannigan. “For solace in the bed in Brixton Prison, he would read a copy of Thomas á Kempis’s Imitations of Christ and towards the end when his eyes were gone, his sisters and wife and chaplain Father Dominic would read from it to him.

“It was ironic that as British and Irish clerics fought in the Vatican to get the Pope to condemn or approve the strike, they were quarrelling about a man with a deep, deep faith.”

Meeting MacSwiney’s daughter was a particularly enjoyable part of the research for Hannigan.

“The highlight of writing this book was an afternoon spent in Dublin with Máire MacSwiney Brugha.

“After months working with archive material and newspaper reports from 1920, here was a living, breathing link to the man himself. Just a toddler really when her father died, she is an extraordinary woman who has lived an incredible life and was so generous with her time and memories.”

Asked if this particular story should be more widely known, Hannigan widens the context. “I think this story is just one of many from that whole era that have been allowed to fall through the cracks of history.

“In the 90 years since MacSwiney’s death, there was just one other serious book about his life. We are terribly cavalier and casual about the incidents and events that shaped the future.

“I don’t know whether it’s a post-colonial hangover or what, but we seem afraid to properly chronicle so much of what went on in the period between 1916 and 1923.

“The deeper I got into this story I think I realised just how that whole period was hallmarked by ordinary men and women being forced by circumstances into doing extraordinary things.

“Aside from MacSwiney’s own fortitude, the manner in which those around him, his sisters, brothers and his wife, handled themselves in the face of international media attention was incredible. They were thrown into this situation and yet were soon fighting a skilled propaganda war against the British government and elements of the London press.”

How did it feel to flesh out such a fascinating chapter in the Ireland’s s history?

“It’s always fascinating to research and then write something about the city where you grew up,” said Hannigan.

“You get a sense of how much people sacrificed for the city and the country long before we ever walked those streets.

“Of course, the downside to that is now you get to wonder what were all those sacrifices for given the mess subsequent leaders have made of the nation.”

A fair point, and one occupying many minds at present.