Terence MacSwiney forged a strong Cork link to Catalonia


The movement for Catalan independence has similarities to Ireland’s struggle. Both emerged as major political forces following cultural nationalist movements of the 19th and early-20th centuries, and to this day, people on both sides have shown solidarity with each other. But the most notable link was with the Lord Mayor of Cork Terence MacSwiney in 1920.

A few days later, on November 1, the day after MacSwiney’s funeral in Cork, he was commemorated with a mass demonstration in Barcelona. The poet Ventura Gassol reworked the old Catalan folk song La Presó de Llieda [Lleida Prison] and read it before the crowd, who frequently interrupted him to applause.