On This Day / October 26, 1920
Go BackReproduced with permission from The Irish News.
19201026
Reference Date
19201026
Publication Date
Listen Along in Éamons Voice
Summary: On This Day – 26th October 1920, Cork Lord Mayor Terence MacSwiney died on the 74th day of his hunger-strike in Brixton Prison, galvanising Irish and US opinion. Edited by historian Dr Éamon Phoenix.
Mayor Dies on Hunger-Strike | On This Day – 26th October 1920
ALDERMAN Terence MacSwiney, Lord Mayor of Cork, died in Brixton Prison at 5.40 yesterday morning on the 74th day of his hunger-strike.
During the past week the imprisoned man had been subjected to fits of delirium and his condition had become steadily worse.
The late Mr MacSwiney was born in Cork city in 1881 and received his early education at the Christian Brothers’ North Monastery.
On leaving school he was employed by a firm of wholesale distributors in Cork but it was not his metier and he continued to read ardently.
He took his BA degree in the Royal University of Ireland, abandoned trade and accepted the post of teacher of commercial subjects.
When the Sinn Fein movement began to make itself felt, Mr MacSwiney became one of its leading lights. Mr MacSwiney first attained political prominence as Commandant of the Sinn Fein Volunteers in Cork.
MacSwiney’s death, after a prolonged hunger-strike, captured world attention and galvanised support for the republican struggle at home and in the US.
Devlin Accuses Carson and Craig
IN the House of Commons yesterday, Mr Joseph Devlin [Nationalist] said Sir Edward Carson was not only an eminent lawyer but a splendid actor.
One would imagine he was the most conservative apostle of law and order.
He was as much against the murder of policemen as Sir Edward Carson.
He was different to the right hon. gentleman in that he had never inspired murder. … Sir Edward was an organiser of the rebellion in Ulster and the gun-running there.
The ‘lambs’ who followed Sir Edward Carson drove countless men and women and children into starvation…
Mr Devlin spoke of ‘hypocrites’ on the Ministerial Bench who day after day were thrilled by the tragedies of the murder of policemen, yet he had not heard a single word of sympathy for men against whom crimes had been perpetrated worse than murder – the crime of driving them from their work.
The Chief Secretary [Sir Hamar Greenwood] went to Belfast recently but never from his lips fell one word of protest against this scandalous conduct….
The gentleman who held the position of Parliamentary Secretary to the Admiralty (Sir James Craig) went there and said ‘he thought it was only fair that he should be asked did he approve of the action the boys had taken in the past’, and he said ‘Yes’.
That gentleman was the spokesman of their Government…
(Editor’s note: McSwiney’s death, after a prolonged hunger-strike, captured world attention and galvanised support for the republican struggle at home and in the US.)
On This Day – 26th October 1920
Further Reading on Irish History:
List of other On This Day columns
Other resources: National Library of Ireland Irish News CAIN Archive
19201026
Reference Date
19201026
Publication Date
Listen Along in Éamons Voice
Listen Along in Éamons Voice
Summary: On This Day – 26th October 1920, Cork Lord Mayor Terence MacSwiney died on the 74th day of his hunger-strike in Brixton Prison, galvanising Irish and US opinion. Edited by historian Dr Éamon Phoenix.
Mayor Dies on Hunger-Strike | On This Day – 26th October 1920
ALDERMAN Terence MacSwiney, Lord Mayor of Cork, died in Brixton Prison at 5.40 yesterday morning on the 74th day of his hunger-strike.
During the past week the imprisoned man had been subjected to fits of delirium and his condition had become steadily worse.
The late Mr MacSwiney was born in Cork city in 1881 and received his early education at the Christian Brothers’ North Monastery.
On leaving school he was employed by a firm of wholesale distributors in Cork but it was not his metier and he continued to read ardently.
He took his BA degree in the Royal University of Ireland, abandoned trade and accepted the post of teacher of commercial subjects.
When the Sinn Fein movement began to make itself felt, Mr MacSwiney became one of its leading lights. Mr MacSwiney first attained political prominence as Commandant of the Sinn Fein Volunteers in Cork.
MacSwiney’s death, after a prolonged hunger-strike, captured world attention and galvanised support for the republican struggle at home and in the US.
Devlin Accuses Carson and Craig
IN the House of Commons yesterday, Mr Joseph Devlin [Nationalist] said Sir Edward Carson was not only an eminent lawyer but a splendid actor.
One would imagine he was the most conservative apostle of law and order.
He was as much against the murder of policemen as Sir Edward Carson.
He was different to the right hon. gentleman in that he had never inspired murder. … Sir Edward was an organiser of the rebellion in Ulster and the gun-running there.
The ‘lambs’ who followed Sir Edward Carson drove countless men and women and children into starvation…
Mr Devlin spoke of ‘hypocrites’ on the Ministerial Bench who day after day were thrilled by the tragedies of the murder of policemen, yet he had not heard a single word of sympathy for men against whom crimes had been perpetrated worse than murder – the crime of driving them from their work.
The Chief Secretary [Sir Hamar Greenwood] went to Belfast recently but never from his lips fell one word of protest against this scandalous conduct….
The gentleman who held the position of Parliamentary Secretary to the Admiralty (Sir James Craig) went there and said ‘he thought it was only fair that he should be asked did he approve of the action the boys had taken in the past’, and he said ‘Yes’.
That gentleman was the spokesman of their Government…
(Editor’s note: McSwiney’s death, after a prolonged hunger-strike, captured world attention and galvanised support for the republican struggle at home and in the US.)
On This Day – 26th October 1920
Further Reading on Irish History:
List of other On This Day columns
Other resources: National Library of Ireland Irish News CAIN Archive
19201026
Reference Date
October 26, 2020
Publication Date
Listen Along in Éamons Voice *
Summary: On This Day – 26th October 1920, Cork Lord Mayor Terence MacSwiney died on the 74th day of his hunger-strike in Brixton Prison, galvanising Irish and US opinion. Edited by historian Dr Éamon Phoenix.
Mayor Dies on Hunger-Strike | On This Day – 26th October 1920
ALDERMAN Terence MacSwiney, Lord Mayor of Cork, died in Brixton Prison at 5.40 yesterday morning on the 74th day of his hunger-strike.
During the past week the imprisoned man had been subjected to fits of delirium and his condition had become steadily worse.
The late Mr MacSwiney was born in Cork city in 1881 and received his early education at the Christian Brothers’ North Monastery.
On leaving school he was employed by a firm of wholesale distributors in Cork but it was not his metier and he continued to read ardently.
He took his BA degree in the Royal University of Ireland, abandoned trade and accepted the post of teacher of commercial subjects.
When the Sinn Fein movement began to make itself felt, Mr MacSwiney became one of its leading lights. Mr MacSwiney first attained political prominence as Commandant of the Sinn Fein Volunteers in Cork.
MacSwiney’s death, after a prolonged hunger-strike, captured world attention and galvanised support for the republican struggle at home and in the US.
Devlin Accuses Carson and Craig
IN the House of Commons yesterday, Mr Joseph Devlin [Nationalist] said Sir Edward Carson was not only an eminent lawyer but a splendid actor.
One would imagine he was the most conservative apostle of law and order.
He was as much against the murder of policemen as Sir Edward Carson.
He was different to the right hon. gentleman in that he had never inspired murder. … Sir Edward was an organiser of the rebellion in Ulster and the gun-running there.
The ‘lambs’ who followed Sir Edward Carson drove countless men and women and children into starvation…
Mr Devlin spoke of ‘hypocrites’ on the Ministerial Bench who day after day were thrilled by the tragedies of the murder of policemen, yet he had not heard a single word of sympathy for men against whom crimes had been perpetrated worse than murder – the crime of driving them from their work.
The Chief Secretary [Sir Hamar Greenwood] went to Belfast recently but never from his lips fell one word of protest against this scandalous conduct….
The gentleman who held the position of Parliamentary Secretary to the Admiralty (Sir James Craig) went there and said ‘he thought it was only fair that he should be asked did he approve of the action the boys had taken in the past’, and he said ‘Yes’.
That gentleman was the spokesman of their Government…
(Editor’s note: McSwiney’s death, after a prolonged hunger-strike, captured world attention and galvanised support for the republican struggle at home and in the US.)
On This Day – 26th October 1920
Further Reading on Irish History:
List of other On This Day columns
Other resources: National Library of Ireland Irish News CAIN Archive
On This Day is a daily column in the Irish News looking back either 50 or 100 years. The column was compiled by Dr Éamon Phoenix from the mid 1980s until autumn, 2022. The Foundation is very grateful to the Irish News for giving permission to reproduce Eamon’s columns. Funding gratefully received from Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs and the Magill Trust.
* The Foundation has worked hard to recreate Eamon’s distinctive voice through AI. Since this is an emerging technology, occasional imperfections may be audible.