Mary MacSwiney on hunger strike, and ‘unhealthy, stagnant’ Lough drained
MARY MacSwiney continues on hunger strike at Mountjoy Prison, Dublin, the Echo reported 100 years ago today, on Saturday, November 25, 1922.
Her sister, Annie, has also been fasting outside the prison for a week and been removed in a very weak state to a private nursing home on Eccles Street.
Annie is determined to remain fasting until she is admitted to the jail to see her sister.
Mary’s condition is causing grave anxiety, though she maintains the attitude she adopted 20 days ago when she began her strike as a protest against her imprisonment. Groups of people periodically congregate outside the prison entrance.
Meanwhile, this morning an armed civilian, apparently under the influence of drink, caused commotion in Cork by driving around the city on an outside car flourishing a revolver.
In the course of his exploits he entered a licensed premises on Lavitt’s Quay and, it is alleged, took away several articles, including cigarettes.
Letter on Temperance
Dear Sir,
General O’Duffy referred in his striking address to the Civic Guard recently to the evil of drink and the necessity of combatting it. It is quite evident there was never more drunkenness in Ireland than there is to-day. This is not to be wondered at, considering the public houses in our cities and towns are kept open 24 hours a day.
General O’Duffy truly describes this a disgrace. But the situation is not without hope. On a visit to a barracks in Longford the General found all the men were Pioneers and wearing the Heroic Offering Badge. Would that their example would be followed all over Ireland and then our country would be blessed with peace and happiness. - Yours faithfully, A Pioneer.
Public notice
Issued by: J. Emmett Dalton, Major-General G.O.C. Cork
The explosion of a mine at the north side of the city to-day resulted in the death of a National soldier. He was practically blown to atoms and two others were wounded. These men were engaged in removing the mine from the public highway where it was a great danger to civilians.
The mine was an update on the German ‘Booby Trap’ which has been decried by the civilised world. Its victims have scarcely a chance and casualties are mangled beyond recognition.
I hereby give notice that henceforth, when such a mine is discovered, prisoners will be used to take it from the road and place it where it will no longer be a danger to innocent civilians.
Draining the Lough
Before the Lough was worked upon, it was an unhealthy stagnant pool into which the surface sewage of the area found its way for years. The sewage has been diverted but I ask the simple question, where does it now go?
Tentative inquiries have pretty much been met with ‘he surely should know where to find it’. This is the equivalent to the familiar ‘yerra, find out’ which terminates many an argument in Cork.
So, the Lough was taken in hand because of the sewage, the sewage has been diverted, so now there is no need to drain it. Is this a case of you first cure the patient’s disease and then proceed to kill him because he suffered from it?
GAA Fixtures
Glen Rovers and Turner’s Cross had an outing at Douglas last Sunday. The game was of a very even character throughout the hour and the verdict went in favour of Rovers by 3 goals 3 points to 2 goals 1 point.
Evergreen defeated Castletreasure at the Athletic Grounds in front of a small attendance. The match was connected with the Junior Hurling Championship. The football event fell through as Tower failed to put in an appear ance. Brothers Sheares, on the field, got the match.
Little Island and South Monastery had been billed for Riverstown but both failed to keep their engagement.
In relation to Evergreen vs. Castletreasure from a couple of weeks ago when two players were ordered off the field, two members of the Board took exception to the contest being described as a “dog-fight”. They contend it was not such, and I give them the benefit of their opinion.
End of the Earth Predicted
Raphael says petroleum is to the Earth what blood is to the body and if you empty its arteries and veins you leave room for the accumulation of petroleum vapour. Over the course of time that will accumulate to an enormous pressure.
When the day dawns for dissolution, the heat and fire at the Earth’s centre will ignite the vapour, causing a sequence of earth-shattering explosions.
Says Raphael: “We are extracting yearly from the Earth thousands of millions of gallons of petroleum and creating a great emptiness. These terrible explosions may be a thousand years off, so my readers need not be alarmed”.
