Ballad song of Terence MacSwiney

Terence MacSwiney was born in Cork in 1879. His interests in Irish history, culture, and language, led to him becoming a writer. In 1901 he was a founding member of the Celtic Literary Society, and in 1908 he co-founded, with Daniel Corkery, the Cork Dramatic Society, which produced many of his plays. MacSwiney also published poetry and essays. Increasingly drawn to Republican politics, he was a founding member of the Cork Branch of the Irish Volunteers.He became second in command of the Cork No 1 Brigade. The brigade obeyed Eoin McNeill's orders to stand down on the eve of the 1916 Rising, He served time in several UK prisons in 1916-17, and married Muriel Murphy while interned in Bromyard. In the 1918 General Election he was returned for Mid-Cork, and took his seat for Sinn Fein in the First Dail Eireann. He became commander of the Cork No 1 Brigade and Lord Mayor of Cork. He was arrested in City Hall and subsequently convicted on 16th August for possession of seditious materials and a cipher key, Terence was imprisonment at Brixton Prison in England. He began a hunger strike which drew international attention. On 20 October 1920 he fell into a coma and died five days later after 74 days on hunger strike. His body lay in St George's Cathedral, Southwark in London where 30,000 people filed past it. Fearing large-scale demonstrations in Dublin, the authorities diverted his coffin directly to Cork, and his funeral in the Cathedral of St Mary and St Anne on 31 October attracted huge crowds. MacSwiney is buried in the Republican plot in Saint Finbarr's Cemetery in Cork. Arthur Griffith delivered the graveside oration