Beschreibung:

Lot 402/0289 Important & Poignant Association Terence Mac Swiney’s Wedding Silver A pierced silver Dish Ring, 5 1/2 ozs, by Egan (of Cork and Dublin), finely decorated with a hound, a doe, a partridge, a swan, flowers, fruit etc., with hallmarks for Dublin 1916 and with a panel inscribed in Gaelic lettering, ‘M .. / Agus / T. Mac S. / Lá a bpósta / 9 / 6 /17’, the lettering partly rubbed away but still legible; the lower rim with inscription ‘Ó Chailínibh Sgoil Íte Naomhtha’ [from the girls of St. Itas, the independent school in Cork founded by Máire and Aine MacSwiney, sisters of Terence, after Maire was dismissed from her teaching post following her arrest in her classroom during the 1916 Rising]. *Terence MacSwiney was an founder member of the Irish Volunteers in Cork. Although the planned Rising in Cork in 1916 did not take place, he and other Cork Volunteers were arrested and detained in England and Wales. In June 1917 he married Muriel [Muirgheal] Murphy, a member of the Cork brewing family. They had one daughter, whom Terence rarely saw, as he was unable to live at home due to military harassment. Terence became Lord Mayor of Cork in 1920 after the murder of his friend Tomas Mac Curtain, probably by RIC men during a curfew. On 12 August 1920 he was arrested at Cork City Hall. He was sentenced to two years imprisonment for possession of a military cipher, but told the court he would set a term to his detention. He declined to accept food, and died in Brixton Prison 74 days later. His enormous funeral is regarded as a turning point in public support for the Republican struggle. An attractive and poignant item, which surely should find a place in a Cork Public Collection.