Thursday, June 09, 2005

Terence McSwiney, the Lord Mayor of Cork, died on hunger strike during the Irish War of Independence in 1920. This year Cork is the European Capital of Culture and as McSwiney's book Principles of freedom, written immediately before the hunger strike, has been published as part of that event. however, McSwiney's introduction has been replaced in the latest publication, which is unfortunate because it contains a passage about Hiberianism, the catholic equivalent of the Orange Order. To make up for what it describes as this "cultural vandalism" the Irish Political review reprints Terence McSwiney's original introduction. For more, absolutely fascinating stuff on this, go to Tom Griffin's excellent site The Green Ribbon.