Ernest Blythe begins hunger strike after being handed one-year sentence

Dublin, 1 November 1919 - Ernest Blythe, the Sinn Féin MP for North Monaghan, has gone on hunger strike in Mountjoy Jail.

Mr Blythe was already incarcerated when he learned, yesterday, that he had been sentenced to one year’s imprisonment for possession of a seditious document at a meeting in Tipperary.

The document advocated the boycotting of the relatives of police in Ireland, but Mr Blythe claims that it had been handed to him in a sealed envelope and he knew nothing of the contents. The MP further stated that he was entirely opposed to the action it outlined.

After receiving a visit from the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Laurence O’Neill, Mr Blythe explained his reasons for going on hunger strike. He was protesting against three things: firstly, the fact that he is not being treated as a political prisoner; secondly, that during his detention on remand for over seven weeks, he was not allowed any visitors, something that is usually granted even to common criminals; and thirdly, at what he considers the ‘outrageous sentence’ inflicted upon him.

Interview with Ernest Blythe in 1965 as part of RTÉ's '1916 survivor' series. 

[Editor's note: This is an article from Century Ireland, a fortnightly online newspaper, written from the perspective of a journalist 100 years ago, based on news reports of the time.]