Terence James MacSwiney
Irish, 1879 - 1920
Born at 23 North Main Street, Cork,[4] MacSwiney was one of eight children. His father, John MacSwiney, of Cork, 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, he emigrated to Australia in 1885 leaving Terence and the other children in the care of their mother and his eldest daughter.[5]
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.[7] His first play The Last Warriors of Coole was produced in 1910.[8] His fifth play The Revolutionist (1915) took the political stand made by a single man as its theme.[6] In addition to his work as a playwright, he also wrote pamphlets on Irish history.
Described as a sensitive poet-intellectual,[9] MacSwiney's writings in the newspaper Irish Freedom brought him to the attention of the Irish Republican Brotherhood.[8] He was one of the founders of the Cork Brigade of the Irish Volunteers in 1913, and was President of the Cork branch of Sinn Féin. He founded a newspaper, Fianna Fáil, in 1914, but it was suppressed after only 11 issues. 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.[10]
Following the rising, he was imprisoned by the British Government under the Defence of the Realm Act in Reading and Wakefield Gaols until December 1916. In February 1917 he was deported from Ireland and imprisoned in Shrewsbury and Bromyard internment camps until his release in June 1917. It was during his exile in Bromyard that he married Muriel Murphy of the Cork distillery-owning family.[10] In November 1917, he was arrested in Cork for wearing an Irish Republican Army (IRA) uniform, and, inspired by the example of Thomas Ashe, went on a hunger strike for three days prior to his release.[11]
In the 1918 general election, MacSwiney was returned unopposed to the first Dáil Éireann as Sinn Féin representative for Mid Cork,[12] succeeding the Nationalist MP D. D. Sheehan. After the murder of his friend Tomás Mac Curtain, the Lord Mayor of Cork on 20 March 1920, MacSwiney was elected as Lord Mayor. On 12 August 1920, he was arrested in Cork for possession of “seditous articles and documents", and also possession of a cipher key. He was summarily tried by a court on 16 August and sentenced to two years' imprisonment at Brixton Prison in England.[7]
A collection of his writings, entitled Principles of Freedom, was published posthumously in 1921. It was based upon articles MacSwiney contributed to Irish Freedom during 1911–1912. MacSwiney's life and work had a particular impact in India. Jawaharlal Nehru took inspiration from MacSwiney's example and writings, and Mahatma Gandhi counted him among his influences.[6][14] Principles of Freedom was translated into various Indian languages including Telugu.[6] The Indian revolutionary Bhagat Singh was an admirer of MacSwiney and wrote about him in his memoirs.[15] When Singh's father petitioned the British Government in India to pardon his son, Bhagat Singh quoted Terence MacSwiney and said "I am confident that my death will do more to smash the British Empire than my release" and told his father to withdraw the petition. He was executed on 23 March 1931 with two other men for killing a British officer.[citation needed]
Accessed https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terence_MacSwiney#Political_activity 11/23/2021 SM
Person TypeIndividual
Last Updated8/7/24
Terms
Wavertree, England, 1850 - 1933, London
Brentwood, England, 1858 - 1908, Sunninghill, England
Marshfield, England, 1767 - 1837, Stockport, England