#OTD in 1920 – After 74 days on Hunger Strike in Brixton Prison, England, the Sinn Féin Lord Mayor of Cork, Terence MacSwiney died.

25/10/2023.Reading time 4 minutes.

Following his court-martial in August 1920, Terence MacSwiney, the Lord Mayor of Cork, greeted his sentence of two years in prison 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 […]

#OTD in 1920 – Cork IRA volunteer, Michael Fitzgerald, dies following a sixty-seven day hunger strike.

12/10/2023.Reading time 3 minutes.

Michael Fitzgerald also known as Mick Fitzgerald, was among the first members of the Irish Republican Army and played an important role in organising it. He rose to the rank of Commandant OC in the 1st Battalion, Cork No.2 Brigade. He died in the 1920 hunger strike at Cork Gaol. His death is credited with […]

#OTD in 1917 – Thomas Ashe dies in the Mater Hospital in Dublin from the combined effects of a hunger strike and forced feeding at Mountjoy Jail.

25/09/2023.Reading time 6 minutes.

“You cannot put a rope around the neck of an idea… you cannot confine it in the strongest prison cell that your slaves could ever build.” –Sean O’Casey Ashe was born in Lispole, a Gaeltacht village in Co Kerry in 1885 and at an early age became involved in nationalist politics. He joined the Irish […]

#OTD in 1951 – Birth of Volunteer Joe McDonnell, in Lenadoon, Belfast, who died in the 1981 Irish hunger strike.

14/09/2023.Reading time 6 minutes.

McDonnell was born on Slate Street in the Falls Road of west Belfast on 14 Sept 1951, and was the fifth of 10 children and went to a nearby Roman Catholic school. In 1970, he married Goretti, and moved into her sister’s house in Lenadoon. There were only two Catholic houses in this predominantly Ulster […]

#OTD in 1920 – Court-martial of Terence MacSwiney, Lord Mayor of Cork for possession of seditious articles and documents.

16/08/2023.Reading time 3 minutes.

‘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’. –Terence MacSwiney Lord Mayor, Terence MacSwiney is under court-martial over which Colonel James, Staffordshire Regiment, presided, assembled […]

#OTD in 1920 – Terence MacSwiney, Lord Mayor of Cork, arrested by British; he immediately goes on hunger strike.

12/08/2023.Reading time 2 minutes.

“It’s not those who inflict the most, but those that endure the most, that shall prevail.” –Terence MacSwiney Terence MacSwiney was arrested in Cork for possession of seditious articles and documents, and also possession of a cipher key. He began a hunger strike in protest and was joined by ten other prisoners. IRA officers Liam […]

Brehon Law | The Troscad

11/08/2023.Reading time 5 minutes.

A method of exerting authority, available to all members of Celtic society, was the ritual fast, the troscad. As a legal form of redressing a grievance, this act emerged in the Brehon law system. That it was an ancient ritual can be demonstrated by the fact that it bears almost complete resemblance to the ancient […]

#OTD in 1981 – Death of Kieran Doherty, TD for Monaghan-Cavan, on the 73rd day of his hunger strike in Long Kesh prison.

02/08/2023.Reading time less than 1 minute.

Fuair siad bás ar son Saoirse na hÉireann. Kieran went on hunger-strike on Friday, 22nd May, having put his name forward for it long ago, as undaunted and full of fighting spirit as when he roamed free on the streets of Andersonstown. In June 1981, in the Free State general election, Kieran was elected a […]

#OTD in 1981 – After 71 days on hunger strike, Kevin Lynch dies at Long Kesh prison.

01/08/2023.Reading time less than 1 minute.

Fuair siad bás ar son Saoirse na hÉireann. The eighth republican to join the hunger-strike for political status, on 23rd May, following the death of Patsy O’Hara, was twenty-five-year-old fellow INLA Volunteer Kevin Lynch from the small, North Derry town of Dungiven who had been imprisoned since his arrest in 1976. Image | Mural to Kevin […]

#OTD in 1981 – Martin Hurson, Irish political prisoner, dies on hunger strike.

13/07/2023.Reading time less than 1 minute.

Fuair siad bás ar son Saoirse na hÉireann. On 29 May 1981, Martin Hurson joined the hunger-strike, replacing South Derryman Brendan McLoughlin who was forced to drop out because of a burst stomach ulcer. Having seriously deteriorated after forty days on hunger-strike, he was unable to hold down water and died a horrifically agonising death […]

Stair na hÉireann | History of Ireland

Tag: Hunger Strike

#OTD in 1920 – After 74 days on Hunger Strike in Brixton Prison, England, the Sinn Féin Lord Mayor of Cork, Terence MacSwiney died.

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#OTD in 1920 – Cork IRA volunteer, Michael Fitzgerald, dies following a sixty-seven day hunger strike.

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#OTD in 1917 – Thomas Ashe dies in the Mater Hospital in Dublin from the combined effects of a hunger strike and forced feeding at Mountjoy Jail.

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#OTD in 1951 – Birth of Volunteer Joe McDonnell, in Lenadoon, Belfast, who died in the 1981 Irish hunger strike.

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#OTD in 1920 – Court-martial of Terence MacSwiney, Lord Mayor of Cork for possession of seditious articles and documents.

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#OTD in 1920 – Terence MacSwiney, Lord Mayor of Cork, arrested by British; he immediately goes on hunger strike.

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#OTD in 1981 – Death of Kieran Doherty, TD for Monaghan-Cavan, on the 73rd day of his hunger strike in Long Kesh prison.

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#OTD in 1981 – After 71 days on hunger strike, Kevin Lynch dies at Long Kesh prison.

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#OTD in 1981 – Martin Hurson, Irish political prisoner, dies on hunger strike.

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