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2 November 2006 Edition

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Remembering the Past

In the autumn of 1920, at the height of the Tan War, with the IRA engaged in a bitter armed struggle against British forces of occupation, Irish republicans imprisoned in jails and camps throughout the country intensified their battle to be treated as Prisoners of War.

By August of that year, the British authorities in Ireland had withdrawn political status from Irish republican prisoners. Such status had been won after the death of Thomas Ashe in 1917 and a two-week, mass hunger strike in Mountjoy Jail in April 1920.

On 11 August a mass strike was again initiated, this time in Cork Jail. 60 IRA members, most of whom were being held without charge or trial, demanded reinstatement of political status and release. The British, having hardened their attitude against status following the April strikes, opted to risk the deaths of POWs rather than make concessions.

In the weeks that followed, the British released or transferred many of the 60 prisoners until only 11 were left. Three of these were Terence MacSwiney TD, the Sinn Féin Mayor of Cork who had joined the strike on 12 August, Michael Fitzgerald, and Joseph Murphy.

On 16 August, MacSwiney was brought before a court martial, charged with possession of incriminating documents and sentenced to two years. He defiantly told the court: "I wish to state that I will put a limit to the term of imprisonment you impose, because of the action I will take. I have taken no food since Thursday; therefore I will be free, alive or dead, in a month."

MacSwiney was deported that night to Brixton Prison in England, where his hunger strike continued.

On Monday, 17 October 1920, having endured 67 days on hunger strike, Michael Fitzgerald died. Thousands attended his funeral the following Thursday to Kilcrumper Cemetery in Fermoy, despite intimidation of mourners by British forces.

The following Monday, 25 October, Joseph Murphy died on the 76th day of his hunger strike. Flanked by guards of honour from the IRA and Cumann na mBan, his remains were brought through his native Cork City to the Church of the Immaculate Conception. The funeral took place in St Finbarr's Cemetery after Requiem Mass the following day.

Just hours before Joseph Murphy's death in Cork Jail, Terence MacSwiney died in Brixton Prison after 74 days on hunger strike.

Following an inquest on 27 October, MacSwiney's remains were delivered to his relatives and removed to Southwark Cathedral, where thousands filed past to pay their respects. On Thursday, 28 October, thousands of people followed the cortege - headed by IRA Volunteers and members of Dáil Éireann and Cork Corporation - to Euston station.

From Euston the remains were taken by train to Holyhead. But the British Government, fearing the response when MacSwiney's body arrived in Dublin, seized the body and transferred it by sea directly to Cork.

MacSwiney's body was brought to Cork City Hall for a lying in state. Thousands more filed past to pay their respects.

MacSwiney was laid to rest in the Republican Plot in St Finbarr's Cemetery beside his friend and comrade Tomás Mac Curtain, another Sinn Féin Mayor of Cork who had been assassinated.

Following MacSwiney's death, the hunger strike in Cork Jail continued for a further three weeks. The remaining nine prisoners on hunger strike ended their fast on 12 November.

Michael Fitzgerald died on hunger strike on 17 October and Joseph Murphy and Terence MacSwiney on 25 October 1920, 86 years ago.


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