Mary MacSwiney
Mary MacSwiney ( Irish Máire Nic Shuibhne , born March 27, 1872 in London , † March 8, 1942 in Cork ) was an Irish politician and suffragette.
MacSwiney was born in London in 1872. When she was six years old, her family moved back to Cork. MacSwiney later worked briefly in private schools in the UK and France before studying at the University of Cambridge and working at Hillside Convent and Farnborough and the Benedictine Convent in Ventnor . After her mother's death, she took on the job of looking after the family and accepted a post at St Angela's Ursuline High School . She stayed there until she was released in 1916.
MacSwiney was a founding member of the women's association Cumann na mBan ("Society of Women") in Cork in 1914 and worked for many years as vice-president of the organization at the national level. After the Easter Rising of 1916, she was imprisoned and as a result lost her job at St Angela's Ursuline High School . Together with her sister Annie, she founded the Scoil Íte in 1917 , a school for girls based on the St. Enda's School founded by Patrick Pearse . MacSwiney remained associated with this school for the rest of her life.
In the same year she joined the Sinn Féin . After the death of her brother Terence , who died in 1920 in Brixton Prison in London as a result of a hunger strike , she was elected to Dáil Éireann in 1921 together with her second brother Seán MacSwiney . There she was one of the opponents of the Anglo-Irish Treaty . She later fell out with Éamon de Valera , another contract opponent. She was imprisoned twice during the Irish Civil War and went on hunger strike each time, first a 21-day strike at Mountjoy Gaol and later one of 24 days at Kilmainham Gaol .
When the Civil War was over, MacSwiney returned to the Cumann na mBan and its Republican goals. In 1927 she left the Dáil Éireann and in 1933, together with her close friend Albinia Broderick, founded the organization Mná na Poblachta ("Women of the Republic") to compete with Cumann na mBan , which MacSwiney increasingly felt as being too far to the left.
British Army intelligence file for Mary McSwiney
Web links
- Entry on the University College Dublin website
- Article on the Cork City website on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the Easter Rising
- Entry on the side of the Oireachtas
Individual evidence
- ↑ http://www.anphoblacht.com/news/detail/9047
- ↑ http://www.qub.ac.uk/cawp/Irishhtmls/RecordsEire.htm
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | MacSwiney, Mary |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Nic Suibhne, Máire |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Irish politician and suffragette |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 27, 1872 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | London |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 8, 1942 |
| Place of death | Cork |