[Gutenberg 13132] • Principles of Freedom

Terence Joseph MacSwiney (1879-1920) was educated as an accountant and also was a playwright, poet, and writer of pamphlets on Irish history. He was one of the founders of the Cork Brigade of the Irish Volunteers in 1913, and was President of the Cork branch of Sinn Fein. He founded a newspaper, Fianna Fail, in 1914, but it was suppressed after only 11 issues. In the 1918 general election, MacSwiney was returned unopposed to the first Dail Eireann as Sinn Fein representative for Mid Cork, succeeding the Nationalist M. P. D. D. Sheehan. In 1920, he was elected Lord Mayor of Cork. He was arrested in Dublin for possession of seditious articles and documents, and also possession of a cipher key. He was summarily tried by court martial sentenced to two years imprisonment in Brixton Prison. In prison, he immediately started a hunger strike and died on 25th October, 1920. A collection of his writings, entitled Principles of Freedom, was published posthumously in 1921. It was based upon articles MacSwiney contributed to Irish Freedom during 1911-1912.