An Phoblacht/Republican News   ·   Thursday October 26 1995

The legacy of Terence MacSwiney

THE MONTHS of October and November 1920 were among the most tragic and bloody of the Black and Tan War in Ireland. The policy of ruthless repression of the Irish national claim to independence by Lloyd George's British government was at its height and in those months events in Ireland were to make headlines around the globe.

No Irish name became better known than that of Terence MacSwiney. News of his death on hunger strike in Brixton Prison 75 years ago this week on 25 October 1920 was flashed around the globe. He was the Lord Mayor of Cork, a Sinn Féin Teachta Dála and Officer Commanding the First Cork Brigade of the Irish Republican Army and had been arrested while presiding at a republican court in Cork.

His comrade republican and predecessor Tomás MacCurtáin had been assassinated in his home in March 1920 by RIC men in disguise. The inquest jury returned a verdict of "wilful murder" against the RIC and Lloyd George. MacSwiney took over as Mayor and five months later was arrested in the City Hall. He never saw freedom again. His funeral after 75 days on hunger-strike saw massive demonstrations in London and Cork. A week later on 1 November Kevin Barry was executed in Dublin's Mountjoy Jail. Far away in India the next day a young Westmeath man, James Daly, was executed for leading a mutiny by soldiers of the Connaught Rangers regiment of the British Army, who revolted in protest at Black and Tan atrocities in Ireland and in support of the Republic.

MacSwiney is now remembered mainly because of his death but he left a body of idealistic writings which were collected in his book Principles of Freedom and which demanded the highest standards of Irish revolutionaries and placed their struggle in a world context. Here are some of his ideas.

The Irish language

The language is at once our frontier and our first fortress, and behind it all Irishmen should stand, not because a particular branch of our people evolved it, but because it is the common heritage of all.

Neutrality

No one is so foolish as to suppose, being free, we would enter quarrels not our own. We should remain neutral. Our common sense would so dictate, our sense of right would so demand. The freedom of a nation carries with it the responsibility that it be no menace to the freedom of another nation. The freedom of all makes for the security of all.

Friendship with England

Strange as it may seem, separation from England will alone make for final friendship with England. For no-one is so foolish as to wish to be for ever at war with England. It is unthinkable. Now the most beautiful motive for freedom is vindicated. Our liberty stands to benefit the enemy instead of injuring him.

The British Empire

The Empire as we know it and deal with it, is a bad thing in itself, and we must get free of it and not be again trapped by it, but must rather give hope and encouragement to every other nation fighting the same fight all the world over.

Endurance

One armed man cannot resist a multitude, nor one army conquer countless legions; but not all the armies of all the Empires of earth can crush the spirit of one true man. And that one man will prevail.

Nationalism and Internationalism

If Ireland is to be regenerated, we must have internal unity; if the worlds is to be regenerated we must have worldwide unity - not of government, but of brotherhood. To this great end every individual, every nation has a duty; and that the end may not be missed we must continually turn for the correction of our philosophy to reflecting on the common origin of the human race, on the beauty of the world that is the heritiage of all, our common hopes and fears, and in the greatest sense the mutual interests of the peoples of the earth.

BY MICHEAL MAC DONNCHA