Longford man delivers oration to revered hunger striker outside London's Brixton Prison
A north Longford man was front and centre last week outside one of Britain’s oldest prisons as crowds gathered to remember Irish playwright, author and politician Terence MacSwiney who died on hunger strike there almost 100 years previously.
Lord Mayor of Cork and literary intellect of national and international repute, MacSwiney died on hunger strike in Brixton Prison in October 1920 in what proved to be one of the critical events of the War of Independence.
The death of Cork's first citizen - who became Lord Mayor of Cork after his friend and predecessor Tomas MacCurtain was assassinated by a Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) gang in March 1920 - would influence independence campaigners worldwide including Mahatma Gandhi.
Many of those factors were recalled last Sunday week as Granard native Pat Reynolds delivered an oration just yards from where the revolutionary leader was incarcerated some 98 years earlier.
“Along with Roger Casement, Terence MacSwiney was one of the great leaders of the founding of the Irish Nation who had a very special place in the hearts of the Irish community in Britain, who commemorated his life and final struggle every year over the last 100 years,” he said.
Pat, a seasoned athlete in his own right, has lived in London since 1970 and last year not just competed but took away two medals in the UK Masters Final in Derby.
He played Gaelic Football with Clonbroney Parish, then Juvenile and Minor with Granard losing the Longford Minor Final to Mostrim in 1967 by a point where he played at centre back.
Pat's sporting exploits saw the Granard man go on to play junior football with Ballymore where he won a junior title with them.
In detailing how MacSwiney passed away at the age of just 41, Pat listed out the Irish revolutionary’s many achievements.
“ In 1901 he founded the Cork Literary Society,” he told those in attendance, revealing also how the Irish Literary Society was founded in 1892 in Southwark London, by Irish cultural greats WB Yeats and Douglas Hyde.
Pat told of how MacSwiney’s writing soon branched into more militaristic leanings saw him become second in command of the Cork No 1 Brigade.
“Here was an Irishman taking non violent action against the British Empire and bringing it to its knees and defeating it in the eyes of the world in terms of moral purpose and reasonable behaviour,” he said.
“MacSwiney's hunger strike was to inspire generations of Irish people and world leaders from Ho Chi Min to Gandhi to Nelson Mandela.
“He was an inspiration to the new generation of Republicans who started the fightback to end British last colony and to end partition in Irelands imposed against the will of the majority.
“Nowhere was the spirit of MacSwiney more present than in the 1981 Hunger strike led by Bobby Sands Poet and MP,” said Mr Reynolds.