Tree honours Cork hero Murphy in the US

He died on hunger strike the same day as Terence MacSwiney, but Irish republican prisoner Joe Murphy’s death in October 1920 was overshadowed by that of Cork’s second martyred lord mayor.

Now, in an effort to right that historical oversight, Lord Mayor Fergal Dennehy has planted a commemorative tree in the Massachusetts birthplace of Cork’s forgotten hero.

Joseph Murphy was born in Lynn, Massachusetts, on May 10, 1895, to Irish parents, Timothy Murphy and Nora O’Brien.

His family returned to Cork when he was still a young child.

Joe Murphy attended Togher National School, played with St Finbarr’s GAA club, worked for the then Cork Corporation, and helped his family run their market garden.

He later became an officer in the Irish Republican Army, serving with H Company, 2nd Battalion, Cork No 1 Brigade, and in July, 1920 he was arrested and charged with possession of a bomb.

Like many IRA prisoners of the period, he joined the mass hunger strike in Cork Gaol after the British authorities removed political status from republican prisoners.

It was a febrile time in Cork. In March, the lord mayor, Tomás Mac Curtain, had been murdered by members of the Royal Irish Constabulary.

A month after Joe Murphy was arrested, on August 12, Mac Curtain’s successor, Terence MacSwiney, was charged with possession of “seditious articles and documents”, and a cypher key.

A month after Murphy was arrested, on August 12, MacSwiney, then the lord mayor, was charged with possession of “seditious articles and documents”, and a cypher key.

Imprisoned initially in Cork Gaol, MacSwiney joined the hunger strike. Convicted and sentenced to two years in Brixton Prison, he continued his hunger strike there.

On October 25, 1920, the lord mayor of Cork died after 74 days on hunger strike, an act of sacrifice that made headlines globally.

That same day, in Cork Gaol, Joseph Murphy also died, after 76 days on hunger strike, two days longer than MacSwiney.

During a recent visit to Massachusetts for a Learning Cities event, Mr Dennehy joined in a tree-planting ceremony in Murphy’s memory, opposite the steps of Lynn City Hall.

“It was a poignant and deeply meaningful moment to see the name of a man who paid the ultimate sacrifice for something he believed in so strongly finally recognised in the city of his birth,” Mr Dennehy said.