Terence MacSwiney posthumously awarded medal for service during War of Independence

Lord Mayor of Cork Terence MacSwiney: writer, soldier, politician and hunger striker

Former Lord Mayor of Cork Terence MacSwiney, who died after 74 days of hunger strike in 1920, has been awarded the Service Medal for active service during the War of Independence.

The award was made on the back of newly-discovered information held on Mr MacSwiney in the Military Service Pensions Collection, the Department of Foreign Affairs said.

The medal was officially presented to Mr MacSwiney’s grandson, Professor Cathal MacSuibhne Brugha, today by defence minister Simon Coveney.

🔴Lord Mayor Cllr. Colm Kelleher attended a ceremony this morning to posthumously award the Service (1917 – 1921) Medal to the family of Terence MacSwiney in Collins Barracks.🇮🇪@KelleherColm pic.twitter.com/C9QGa46mib

— Cork City Council (@corkcitycouncil) October 29, 2021

The minister said delivering the posthumous award was “a great honour” for him, describing Mr MacSwiney as having been “a very prominent figure in the struggle for independence”.

Defence minister Simon Coveney presents the Service (1917-1921) Medal to Terence MacSwiney's grandson, Professor Cathal MacSuibhne Brugha.

Terence MacSwiney, who was elected to the first Dáil in 1918 as Sinn Féin representative for east Cork, came to international notice in August 1920 after being arrested during the War of Independence while serving as lord mayor for possession of seditious correspondence.

Upon his imprisonment for two years in England, Mr MacSwiney went on hunger strike, an act which gained worldwide attention.

He fell into a coma on October 20, 1920, and died five days later.

The Service Medal was first conceived in 1942 and was awarded to people in possession of a military service certificate entitling them to a pension who saw active service for Ireland’s cause between 1917 and the end of the War of Independence.

The Military Service Pensions Collection project is charged with digitising and releasing the archived files and records of the Department of Defence relating to members of the Irish Volunteers, the Irish Citizen Army, the IRA, and Cumann na mBan among others.

Since the first publication of that material in 2014, roughly 104,000 files have been catalogued by the MSPC.