Mary MacSwiney

She attended the first meeting of the Munster Women's Franchise League, becoming a committee member. She opposed militancy within the Irish suffrage movement, and her nationalist views caused irritation to other members.[4]

Influenced by her younger brother Terence MacSwiney's staunch Irish republicanism, she joined the Gaelic League and Inghinidhe na hÉireann.[3]

After her brother Terence and Tomás MacCurtain founded a Cork branch of the Irish Volunteers, Mary in turn founded a Cork branch of Cumann na mBan in 1914, a move which resulted in her leaving the Munster Women's Franchise League. That same year MacSwiney denounced British rule at their general convention in November 1914.[5]

During the Easter Rising of 1916, there was mass confusion in Cork City over whether or not the Volunteers should mobilise, due to conflicting orders. Unsure of what to do, Terence MacSwiney and other volunteers held up in Volunteers Hall in the city, where they were arrested by the British authorities. Mary, who had been running messages for the Volunteers, attempted to return to teaching at St Angela's but she too was arrested later in the week during class.[6] In the aftermath she was dismissed from her teaching position for her republican activities. Several months later, upon her release from prison, she and her sister Annie re-founded Scoil Íte, a sister school to Patrick Pearse's St. Enda's School, a Gaelscoil she would be involved with for the rest of her life.[3]

In 1917 MacSwiney was elected to the national executive of a newly reorganised Cumann na mBan, marking her increasing seniority amongst the women's side of the Republican movement.[3]

Terence MacSwiney died on hunger strike in 1920, protesting British treatment of Irish republicans

In the summer of 1920, a number of imprisoned Irish republicans went on hunger strike, most prominently the now Lord Mayor of Cork Terence MacSwiney. The British government resolved not to cave to the demands of the strikers, fearing that it would contribute towards a widespread revolution in Ireland. Terence began his strike on 12 August and rapidly it became an international cause célèbre, being reported on from all over the world. Terence would ultimately die on 25 October 1920 and would be held up as a martyr by the now-pulsating Irish nationalist movement.[3]

Throughout Terence's strike, both Mary, her sister Annie, and Terence's wife Muriel MacSwiney kept vigil and visited him daily, and were thrust into the roles of republican activists. All of them were deeply traumatised by Terence's death, and were driven into extreme militant Irish republicanism thereafter, Mary perhaps most of all.[3]

Mary (left) and Muriel MacSwiney while campaigning in the United States in 1920

In the wake of Terance's death, Mary and Muriel MacSwiney embarked on a seven-month tour of the United States, intended to raise awareness of the Irish cause in America. As part of the tour she gave evidence in Washington, D.C., before the American Commission on Conditions in Ireland.[3]

At the 1921 Irish elections, MacSwiney was elected for Sinn Féin to the Cork Borough constituency (taking her seat in Dáil Éireann), taking the seat that had once been held by her brother.[7] Another brother, Seán, was also elected to the Dáil in a different Cork constituency.[3]

By the end of 1921, the Irish and British had begun discussing peace terms in London. In October 1921, a second delegation was to be sent to London, that for the first time included Michael Collins. MacSwiney, who remained implacably opposed pleaded with Éamon De Valera to be allowed to go. She was refused as Éamon De Valera thought her "too extreme."[8]

Following the signing of Anglo-Irish Treaty, MacSwiney made clear her utter opposition to it during debates in the Dáil between December 1921 to January 1922, declaring she would prefer to resume the war:

This matter has been put to us as the Treaty or war. I say now if it were war, I would take it gladly and gleefully, not flippantly, but gladly, because I realise that there are evils worse than war, and no physical victory can compensate for a spiritual surrender.

On 21 December MacSwiney spoke for 2 hours and 41 minutes against the treaty, the longest speech by any member during the debates, criticising the agreement from all angles. MacSwiney's speech drew the ire of many of the pro-treaty TDs, Arthur Griffith and Ernest Blythe amongst them. Ultimately, TDs would vote to endorse the treaty by a vote of 64 to 57. The result was devastating to MacSwiney, and in the aftermath, she publicly endorsed threats of violence by the Irish Republican Army against pro-treaty TDs.[3]

Despite the vote in the Dáil to endorse the treaty, matters would not be solved there and would explode into the Irish Civil War, with split the Irish Republican Army into the National Army (Ireland) supporting the newly formed Irish Free State, and the Anti-Treaty IRA who stood against it. MacSwiney backed the Anti-Treaty IRA.[3]

MacSwiney was arrested at Nell Ryan's home (a safe house) in Ballsbridge on 4 November 1922 after it was raided by Free State soldiers. She was taken to Mountjoy Gaol, where she was interned. She immediately went on hunger strike. Cumann na mBan organized vigils outside the prison in protest of Mary's and others' internment. The Women's Prisoner's Defence League was formed in August 1922 to protect their rights. During the hunger strike she refused doctor visits. She was resigned to her death, and the inmates signed a joint 'Message from Mountjoy'. Her condition was critical and she was given the Last Rites by a catholic priest. The Government were not prepared to allow strikers die, and she was released.[9]

En route to Liam Lynch's funeral, she was arrested when the car she was in stopped, and she was recognised. She was taken with Kathleen O'Callaghan to Kilmainham Gaol. She began another protest, fearless of death, being "ready for it". They continued to be interned (held without charge), but it was explained she was distributing anti-government propaganda. After nineteen days of hunger strike she was due to be released on 30 April 1923. The Governor allowed O'Callaghan to go, but stayed a decision on MacSwiney. Most of the women on hunger strike were sent to the North Dublin Union.[10] The 1923 Irish Hunger Strikes saw several thousand of the 12,000 republican prisoners on hunger strikes in Irish prisons/internment camps across Ireland, protesting the continuation of internment without charge/trial, demanding immediate release or status as political prisoners.

She retained her seat at the 1923 general election and along with other Sinn Féin members she refused to enter the Dáil.

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In March 1926 Sinn Féin held its annual Ard Fheis, and the topic on the agenda was whether the party should accept the legitimacy of the Dáil and enter it. De Valera had come to believe that abstentionism was not a workable tactic and now saw the need to become the elected government of the Dáil. De Valera proposed a motion to accept the Free State Constitution (contingent on the abolition of the Oath of Allegiance), but it was narrowly defeated by a vote of 223 to 218, with MacSwiney amongst those starkly opposed.[11] However, De Valera immediately resigned from the party and walked out, and in doing so took the great majority of Sinn Féin support with him. De Valera and his supporter would go on to immediately form a new Irish republican party, Fianna Fáil. Following the split, MacSwiney became vice-president of Sinn Féin. She had not foreseen De Valera walking out of the party, believing he would accept the vote against his motion and was greatly bittered when he left, condemning him.[3]

At the June 1927 general election, MacSwiney lost her seat in the Dáil, as did every other remaining Sinn Féin TD, as their place as the primary republican party was completely eclipsed by Fianna Fáil.[7] When a second general election was called that same year, Sinn Féin did not have the ability to contest it as they were completely depleted of funds.[3] MacSwiney called for a boycott of the election by the voters, declaring "no true Irish citizen can vote for any of the other parties".[12]

MacSwiney continued her efforts to reinvigorate the party but when Cumann na nGaedheal lost the 1932 election, she felt there was less need for the extreme oppositional position she had previously taken. However, the fragmentation of the rigid republican side continued with the membership also drifting to the left, which MacSwiney opposed. In 1933 MacSwiney resigned from Cumann na mBan, and founded Mná na Poblachta instead. In 1934 she resigned from Sinn Féin when Fr Michael O'Flanagan was elected president since he was a Free State civil servant.[3]