Second Cork Gaol hunger striker, Joseph Murphy, dies surrounded by family
Cork, 26 October 1920 - The death has taken place of Joseph Murphy, one of the hunger striking republican prisoners in Cork Gaol.
Mr Murphy, of Pouladuff Road, Cork, passed away at 8.35 last night after 76 days without food. He is the second of the Cork hunger strikers to die, following the death of Michael Fitzgerald on 17 October.
Murphy’s death occurred on the same day as that of the Lord Mayor of Cork, Terence MacSwiney, in Brixton Prison. His condition was considered too grave to inform him of the Lord Mayor’s fate and it was also decided not to inform him of Fitzgerald’s death in the same prison one week prior.
Murphy was arrested on 15 July, and charged with being in possession of a bomb. His father claims that the bomb in question – ‘a bit of iron, four or five ounces in weight’ – was found on a visit to friends in Aghada at the end of 1916 and was brought home by Joseph as a curiosity. It was this that was found when the family home was searched this summer. The Cork Examiner says that Murphy’s story carried ‘the stamp of probability, as American troops were quartered in the neighbourhood of Aghada during the war.’
He began his hunger strike on 11 August and a military inquiry into his case was held at Victoria Barracks in Cork on 13 and 14 September, but his case was not resolved.
Joseph Murphy’s deathbed was surrounded by his parents, sisters and other family members, as well as Fr Duggan, four Bon Secour Sisters, and one or two of the relatives of the other hunger strikers. Prayers for the dead and the Rosary were recited by the prison chaplain, Fr Fitzgerald, who also recited the Litany of the Sacred Heart, to which the deceased is understood to have been devoted.
Born in the United States where his parents had spent some time, Joseph Murphy returned to Ireland as a child and was educated in Togher National School. He was employed by Cork County Council and was an active GAA man and member of the Volunteers.
[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.]
