Book description
At the end of his court-martial on August 16th, 1920, Terence
MacSwiney, the Lord Mayor of Cork, greeted his sentence of two years
in jail by declaring: I have decided the term of my imprisonment I
shall be free, alive or dead, within a month.' Four days earlier,
British troops had stormed the City Hall in Cork and arrested
MacSwiney on charges of possessing an RIC cipher and documents likely
to cause disaffection to his Majesty. He immediately began a hunger
strike that sparked riots on the streets of Barcelona, caused workers
to down tools on the New York waterfront, and prompted mass
demonstrations from Buenos Aires to Boston. Enthralled by MacSwiney
breaking all previous records for a prisoner going without food, the
international press afforded the case so much coverage that Ireland's
War of Independence was suddenly parachuted onto the world stage, and
King George V was considering over-ruling Prime Minister Lloyd George
and enduring a constitutional crisis. As his wife, brothers and
sisters kept daily vigil around his bed in Brixton Prison, watching
his strength ebb away hour by hour, MacSwiney's fast had Michael
Collins preparing reprisal assassinations, Ho Chi Minh waxing lyrical
about the Corkman's bravery, and rumours abounding that he was being
secretly fed via the communion wafer being given to him each day by
his chaplain. Using newly-released archive material, Dave Hannigan has
pieced together a gripping, dramatic, and poignant account of one
man's courageous stand against the might of an empire.
