OnTheTown: It's not often that an 87-year-old creates a stir with a new book, but such was the case when Máire MacSwiney Brugha, the only child of Terence MacSwiney, launched her memoir, History's Daughter, in Dublin Castle's St Patrick's Hall this week.
The book is an "exceptionally fine achievement", which makes a real contribution to a deeper understanding of the forces and personalities that played such a prominent part in national life over the last 60 years, said Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, who launched the book. It is a personal account of how the next generation "coped with their awesome heritage", he added.
Terence MacSwiney was the lord mayor of Cork when he died in Brixton Prison in 1920 after a hunger strike. Máire was there with her husband of 60 years, Ruairí Brugha, son of Cathal Brugha, the 1916 rebel and anti-Treaty leader.
The sprightly author dismissed the belief that her marriage to Ruairí was arranged and added that the real details of their courtship and the truth behind her alleged kidnapping by her aunt when she was 14 were "all in the book".
Family friend, former RTÉ head of news and print journalist Des Fisher, who attended with his wife, Peggy, and son, Michael, of RTÉ's Belfast office, said he encouraged MacSwiney Brugha to write the book "to set the record straight . . . She has such a wonderful story to tell. We need more and more people who are part of history to tell their histories".
Among those who gathered in St Patrick's Hall on Monday were the Indian ambassador, Saurabh Kumar; German cultural councillor Wolfgang Wiethos; Tom Kitt TD; Senator Martin Mansergh; Senator Mary Henry; and economist and public servant TK Whitaker.
Also present were MacSwiney Brugha's sons, Cathal (with his wife, Catherine Jennings), Terry and Ruairí, and her only daughter, Deirdre (with her husband, Bernard Stuart).
History's Daughter, by Máire MacSwiney Brugha, is published by O'Brien Press. The author will be honoured at a civic reception in Cork City Hall this evening to mark the 85th anniversary of Terence MacSwiney's death