Joseph Kenny

After the death of the Irish revolutionary Thomas Ashe on hunger strike Irish Republicans prisoners carried out several hunger strikes with their demands being granted. The 1920 Cork hunger strike occurred in late 1920, during the Irish War of Independence, when 65 men interned without trial in Cork County Gaol went on hunger strike, demanding release from prison, and reinstatement of their status as political prisoners. Beginning on 11 August 1920, they were joined the following day by the Lord Mayor of Cork, Terence MacSwiney imprisoned in HM Prison Brixton, London. A week into the hunger strike, all but 11 of the hunger strikers were released or deported to prison in England, with MacSwiney being among the latter. The remaining 11 internees in Cork were being held without charges and were never convicted of a crime.