Terence MacSwiney, 1879 - 1920, Lord Mayor & MP, died on hunger strike in HMP Brixton after 74 days. 25-10-1920.
Irish Heritage
The design of this spray-painted graffiti is cheekily copied from the English Heritage blue plaques.
According to MacSwiney "was summarily tried by a court on 16 August and sentenced to two years' imprisonment at Brixton Prison in England. In prison he immediately started a hunger strike in protest at his internment and the fact that he was tried by a military court." So the earliest the hunger strike could have started was 16 August, which is 70 days before his death, not 74. He had been arrested on 12 August which would give 74 days, if he had started the fast on arrest rather than imprisonment.
Site: Terence MacSwiney (1 memorial)
SW2, Lyham Road, Rear wall of Brixton Prison
Google Street View shows that this 'plaque' was painted on the wall between May 2012 and September 2014.
2024: reported on the annual commemoration of MacSwiney's death that has taken place at this prison on 27 October, every year since 2016. That report has photographs showing a plaque that looks to be a 'real' one. We'd be surprised if the prison, who presumably own the wall, have given permission for the plaque so we think it might be a temporary one, installed just for the annual commemoration. The location of the wall in the photos of the commemoration is not the same as the one with the graffiti plaque. We've pored over the boundary wall of Brixton Prison in Google Satellite View in 3D (as if we were planning a break-out) but cannot find the location of the commemoration photos.
The inscription on the new plaque is as follows: "Terence MacSwiney, 1879 - 1920, Sinn Fein Lord Mayor of Cork City, died on hunger strike, HMP Brixton, 25th October 1920. Commandant of the 1st Cork Brigade Irish Republican Army".
Credit for this entry to: Alan Patient of plaquesoflondon.co.uk
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