100,000 Bostonians March in Silent Mourning for death of Irish Hunger Striker Terence MacSwiney on November 1, 1920

Photo: National Library of Ireland, NPA POLF187

A massive procession of 25,000+ mourners marched through Boston on October 31, 1920 in tribute to Terence MacSwiney, lord mayor of Cork, Ireland, who died in a British prison on October 25 1920, after 74 days on a hunger strike. He was 41 years old.

Two other men, Michael Fitzgerald and Joseph Murphy, who was born in Lynn, MA, also died on hunger strike in solidarity with MacSwiney.

MacSwiney was active in the ongoing Irish revolution to oust the British from ruling Ireland. He was arrested numerous times by the British, the last time being August 1920, when he was accused of possessing “seditious articles and documents.” He was tried by a British military court, and sentenced to two years imprisonment at Brixton Prison in England.

In protest to the military court, MacSwiney immediately went on a hunger strike to protest his imprisonment, which lasted nearly 11 weeks.  His comment during this time became a rallying cry for oppressed people around the world: “It is not those who inflict the most suffering, but those who endure the most who will triumph.” 

In Boston, mourners held a silent procession on November 1, 1920 that wound through the streets of Boston, ending at the Parade Ground at Boston Common, corner of Charles and Beacon Hill, where more than 75,000 additional mourners gathered  as well. 

 “Only one band, with muffled drums, playing dirges, took part in the procession,” wrote The Boston Post.  “There was no applause. Black was the predominating color and the Stars and Stripes of the United States fluttering in a light breeze at the side of the tri-color of the Irish Republic only accentuated the solemnity of it all.” 

US Senator David I. Walsh gave the eulogy. He started with a quote from Boston abolitionist Wendell Phillips, who said, “Whether in chains or in laurels, liberty knows nothing but victory.” 

Senator Walsh continued, “Liberty, God bless the word! Liberty, the birthright of every race. Liberty, the word that thrills the human heart in every quarter of the world. It is for liberty that Terence MacSwiney has given his life. What means this vast assembly on historic Boston Common today? 

 “It is the echo of what is occurring in every part of the world as men and women vie with each other to give expression to the thrill, to the grief that has spread over the whole world by the example of one man who has by his own single act, by his own individual will, has struck a blow at the British Empire greater than it has received in centuries. 

 “In the death of Terence MacSwiney and his compatriots the Irish cause has received an impetus and a strength and a power which our cause has not received since England robbed Ireland of the gallant Emmet.” Walsh added that many people don’t understand that “there has been established in Ireland a republic as stable and secure as any republic on the face of the earth. Do they understand that coercion, the war now is Ireland is a war not to hold Ireland to English rule, but is a war to reconquer Ireland to English rule.”

Find out more about the history of the Boston Irish by visiting IrishHeritageTrail.com.