Seán McCaughey

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Seán McCaughey
Seán Mac Eachaidh
Born1915
Aughnacloy, County Tyrone, Ireland
Died11 May 1946 (aged 30–31)
Portlaoise Prison, County Laois, Ireland
Cause of deathHunger strike
OrganizationIrish Republican Army (1922–1969)
Known forHunger strike of 23 days, from 19 April 1946

Seán McCaughey (Irish: Seán Mac Eóchaidh[1]) (1915 – 11 May 1946) was an Irish Republican Army leader in the 1930s and 1940s, and hunger striker.

McCaughey was born in Aughnacloy, County Tyrone in 1915 and in 1921 his family moved to Ardoyne in Belfast. McCaughey was Adjutant-General of the IRA and Officer Commanding (O/C) of its Northern Command. At the time of his arrest in Dublin in 1941 he was acting Chief of Staff.[2] In September 1941 he was found guilty by a Dublin court of having detained and assaulted Stephen Hayes, IRA Chief of Staff, and sentenced to death by firing squad. His sentence was commuted to a life sentence of penal servitude.[3]

Imprisoned in Portlaoise Prison (24 July 1941), McCaughey refused to wear prison clothes, was kept in solitary confinement and spent nearly five years naked except for a blanket.[4] This form of resistance by Irish Republican prisoners was used in the 1980s Blanket protest in the Maze prison (also known as "Long Kesh") and the HM Prison Armagh (womens prison) in Northern Ireland. McCaughey commenced a hunger strike on 19 April 1946. After 10 days, he stopped taking water and died on 11 May, the twenty-third day of his protest.[5] A inquest was held in the prison at which the prison doctor admitted that during his four and a half years of imprisonment that McCaughey had never been allowed out in the fresh air or sunlight and that "he would not treat his dog the way Seán McCaughey had been treated in Portlaoise."[6][7]

Hunger Strike Memorial in Dublin’s Glasnevin Cemetery

He was buried in a family grave in Milltown Cemetery which is under the care of the National Graves Association, Belfast.

Seán McCaughey was the last person to die on hunger strike in the Irish state.[8] There is a long history of hunger striking in Ireland, the largest hunger strike in Irish history was the 1923 Irish Hunger Strikes.

Sources[]

  • "McCaughey's Doom". Time Magazine. 29 September 1941. Archived from the original on 3 June 2008. Retrieved 14 August 2008., Time Magazine, 29 September 1941.
  • National Graves Association
  • Sean McCaughey song
  • SEAN McCAUGHEY mp3
  • Biting at the Grave, O'Malley, Padraig, Beacon Press, Boston 1990 ISBN 0-8070-0208-9
  • Pawns in the Game, Flynn, Barry (2011), Collins Press, Cork, Ireland ISBN 9781848891166

References[]

  1. ^ Meehan, Mairtin Óg (2006). Finely Tempered Steel: Sean McCaughey and the IRA. Republican Publications. p. 63. ISBN 0-9542946-3-7.
  2. ^ "Seán McCaughey 75th anniversary".
  3. ^ Flynn, Barry (2011), Pawns in the Game, pg 109, Collins Press, Cork, Ireland ISBN 9781848891166
  4. ^ Flynn, pg 110,
  5. ^ http://hungerstrikes.org/forgotten_strikes.html accessed June 22, 2021
  6. ^ "Seán McCaughey 75th anniversary".
  7. ^ McKenna, J. (2016), The IRA Bombing Campaign Against Britain, 1939-1940. McFarland Incorporated Publishers. Jefferson NC, pg. 154, ISBN 9781476623726
  8. ^ http://hungerstrikes.org/forgotten_strikes.html accessed April 1, 2021
Military offices
Preceded by Officer Commanding the IRA Northern Command
1940 – 1941 		Succeeded by
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