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Show NOTED IRISH LEADER OIES FROMHUNGER - LORD MAYOR MACSWINEY PASSES AWAY IN ENGLISH PRISON ON SEVENTY-THIRD DAY. Began Hunger Strike on August 12, When, With Ten of His Associates, He Was Arrested on the Charge of Sedition. London. Terence MacSwiney, lord 1 mayor of Cork, died at Brixton prison Monday morning. October 25, following follow-ing a hunger strike of seventy-three days. The story of the self-starvation of Terence MacSwiney. lord mayor ol Cork, probably will become one of the most moving chapter of the centuries-long centuries-long history of the Irish struggle. No other controversy has stirred Great Britain so deeply as this since the one that centered upon Cecil Rhodes, when the Jameson raid was balked by Paul Kruger and the raiders imprisoned. impris-oned. MacSwiney's hunger strike was begun be-gun on August 12 when, with ten of his associates, he was arrested by soldiers sol-diers in Cork, while attending a session ses-sion of a Sinn Fein court. After trial by a court martial under the regulations regula-tions of the Defence of the Realm act. he was found guilty of sedition and sentenced to two years' imprisonment, which he was serving, in Brixton prison pris-on in London. MacSwiney. then an alderman of Cork, was elected lord mayor of the city at a special session of the Cork corporation on March SO of this year. He was a" well-known Sinn Fein lender j and, prior to his election, had been deported and imprisoned several times, one of the latest notable instances of 1 his confinement having been in 1!)1G, in connection with the Irish Easter re- j volt. I When arrested on August .12, MacSwiney Mac-Swiney managed to escape to the street from the back of the city hall, ivhich soliders had surrounded, but was captured outside. He was taken to the military barracks and came up for trial on August 16. The courtmartial found him guilty of having control of the secret police cipher, of having in his possession a document likely to cause disaffection, namely, a copy of a resolution of the Cork corporation pledging allegiance to Dail Eireann, the Irish Republican parliament, and of having made -a seditious speech on the occasion of his election. Already weak at the trial because of his. refusal to take food. MacSwiney, disputed the jurisdiction of the court, saying: "I am the lord mayor of this city and its chief magistrate. I declare this court illegal and those taking part in it liable to arrest under the laws of the Irish republic." The day following the trial, Lord Mayor MacSwiney was deported to England, En-gland, aboard a destroyer, under a heavy military escort, and was lodged in Brixton jail. The government announced an-nounced on August 19 that he was sentenced to two years' imprisonment. MacSwiney's hunger strike brought 1 numerous solicitations and protests to the British authorities, many of the appeals being from sympathizers in the United States. Even a threat from the Sinn Fein in Ireland, that, in the event of his death, a general strike and serious disturbances distur-bances would prevail throughout the island. An appeal was taken directly to the king, but this also proved unavailing. |