The Art and Ideology of Terence MacSwiney: Caught in a Living Flame

The story of Terence MacSwiney, second republican lord mayor of Cork is legendary. After his arrest in August 1920, MacSwiney’s agonising 74-day hunger strike to the death was a key event bringing the Irish War of Independence to international attention.

But MacSwiney was also a prolific poet, playwright and polemicist and his writings are collected for the first time in this substantial volume. As the editors note, the poetry has dated, “Twere sweet to sink in Death for Truth and Freedom” — unlike Ezra Pound, MacSwiney did not go in fear of abstractions but despite the pedestrian style, his genuine seriousness can be affecting in poems like The Path, addressed to his wife Muriel. “I dreaded asking thee to take my hand/Lest on a path regretted it should lead.”

The plays, likewise, are of their time. However, combined with generous excerpts from the diaries, they trace MacSwiney’s thoughts and preoccupations, “Any politician Fr. O’Hanlon dislikes, he calls a revolutionist; anyone who criticises a priest, an atheist … he freely brands both as blackguards … does more mischief than he will ever undo.”

MacSwiney’s political writings are more accomplished, both rigorous and passionate in their nationalism, “A spiritual necessity makes the true significance of our claim to freedom … The material aspect is only a secondary consideration.” (Principles of Freedom).

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Looking at ‘the life and achievements of Terence MacSwiney solely through the prism of his hunger strike’ can only give ‘a distorted picture of the man’

The editors’ introduction pays tribute to MacSwiney’s self-discipline, “going to bed early, and rising to study at 2 am”, commenting on “the value MacSwiney placed upon formal education and the practical application he made of same in his writing”, crediting the time he spent at “the Royal University of Ireland” as well as the more famous influence of the Christian Brothers.

While their assertion that hunger strikers are “by definition passive …” and “… politically neutral …intrinsically linked to no particular cause” is debatable, it is true that looking at “the life and achievements of Terence MacSwiney solely through the prism of his hunger strike” can only give “a distorted picture of the man”. The Art and Ideology of Terence MacSwiney is a comprehensive first-hand source for any reader interested in raising the man from the ghost of his legend.