Muriel MacSwiney leaves Brixton Prison

‘Daily Graphic’
26 October 1920
Newspaper cutting
30 cm x 26 cm

Newspaper cutting from the ‘Daily Graphic’. The caption accompanying the photograph reads: ‘Mrs Muriel MacSwiney, widow of the Lord Mayor of Cork, Terence MacSwiney, leaving Brixton Prison for the last time before her husband’s death, which occurred yesterday, the 75th day of his hunger strike. For weeks past she had visited daily and done all that a devoted wife could do for a doomed husband. They had been married for three years. Mrs MacSwiney is also seen with their baby daughter, aged a year and 8 months’. Muriel Murphy was a member of a wealthy brewing family in Cork. She married Terence MacSwiney whilst he was imprisoned in England in June 1917. MacSwiney was a playwright, author and politician. He was elected Sinn Féin Lord Mayor of Cork during the War of Independence. He was arrested by British forces on charges of sedition and imprisoned in Brixton prison. His death in October 1920 after 75 days on hunger strike brought him and the Irish struggle to international attention. Muriel and Terence MacSwiney had one child, Máire, born in 1918. Máire would later marry Ruairí Brugha, the son of another famous republican, Cathal Brugha.

Source | Capuchin Archives