MacSwiney, Patrick John

by Ruth Fleischmann

MacSwiney, Patrick John (1885–1940), catholic priest, Gaelic scholar, antiquarian, historian and teacher, was born on 16 March 1885 in 40 Nile Street (latterly Sheares Street), Cork city, the son of Terence McSweeney (b. 1847), a bootmaker, and his wife Hannah (née McCarthy; b. 1848). Hannah was widowed in the early years of the new century and died on 27 May 1912. The 1901 census shows that Patrick at age 16 worked as a draper's clerk before studying for the priesthood at St. Patrick's College, Maynooth, Co. Kildare, where he was ordained on 16 June 1911. While working for three years on the English mission in Liverpool, he studied at University College, Liverpool, under the Celtic scholar Professor Kuno Meyer (qv), and was awarded a master's degree in 1914. Returning to Cork in 1914, he became chaplain to Clifton convalescent home and convent in Montenotte, and was appointed to the staff of St Finbarr's seminary, Farranferris, as professor of Irish, Greek and Latin; he was also fluent in French, German and Italian.

He joined the Gaelic League, and was a member of the Cork Dramatic Society, founded in 1908 by his cousin Terence MacSwiney (qv), the future lord mayor, and Daniel Corkery (qv) (1878–1964). Patrick MacSwiney was also a founding member of the Cork Twenty Club, set up in 1915 by twenty citizens to provide a forum for local writers and artists. In 1918 he was appointed to the Cork School of Music committee, together with Corkery, Terence MacSwiney and Fr James Christopher O'Flynn (qv). He was a council member of the Munster Society of Arts, established after the civil war, as its constitution stated, 'for the purpose of developing and fostering the fine arts, now practically non-existent in our midst' (Fleischmann papers, 20 February 1924, p. 1).

Among his close friends were his cousins Annie, Mary (qv) and Terence MacSwiney, Corkery, William F. P. Stockley (qv) and his Munich wife Germaine (née Kolb), John J. Horgan (qv) (1881–1967), Arnold Bax (qv), and Aloys (qv) (1880–1964) and Tilly Fleischmann (qv), parents of composer and musicologist Aloys Fleischmann (qv) (1910–92). Having studied the piano with Tilly Fleischmann, he gave lecture-recitals with her, and frequently delivered introductory talks before performances of the elder Aloys Fleischmann's cathedral choir at broadcasts from the Honan Chapel of University College Cork. He provided performance translations of German and Irish poems which the two Aloys Fleischmanns had set to music, and lectured regularly to the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society, the Cork Literary and Scientific Society, the Cork School of Art, the Cork Twenty Club, the Munster Society of Arts, and at the university.

In the autumn of 1922, during the early months of the civil war, Patrick, at the request of Mary MacSwiney, a strong anti-treatyite, took charge of a bag for a friend whose premises were in danger of being raided by Free State forces. He did not examine the contents and deposited the bag in the Clifton convent of which he was chaplain, and which was raided shortly afterwards by Free State troops. The bag was found to contain £3,000. Government supporters suspected this was part of the £100,000 robbed by republican forces from the Customs House in Dublin and that the priest had abused the nuns' trust by hiding the stolen money in the convent. His bishop, Dr Daniel Cohalan (qv), removed him from his clerical duties in Cork city and sent him to act as chaplain to the workhouse and convent in the remote parish of Dunmanway in west Co. Cork.

MacSwiney found his exile difficult, being far from his friends and deprived of classical music and the theatre. But he strove to make life in Dunmanway richer: he worked with the Gaelic League, founded the West Cork Feis, established a dramatic society that put on numerous plays both in Irish and English, and cooperated with Aloys Fleischmann's Bantry Choral Society.

In December 1927 MacSwiney was appointed curate in Kinsale, Co. Cork. The harbour town was at that period in an extremely depressed condition. Much damage had been done during the civil war, the fishing industry was dying, the railway line had been closed down, and the British military bases had gone; there was great poverty, high unemployment, emigration and a sense of hopelessness. MacSwiney spent the rest of his life working to alleviate the distress, his considerable organisational talents, determination, dedication and kindly disposition leading to remarkable achievements.

He ministered to the orphans in the Convent of Mercy, putting on theatrical shows with them and taking them on annual excursions. His visits to the poor made him very conscious of the need to set up organisations for the development of the town; these included a Kinsale development association, vocational education committee, creamery committee, and sea fishing association. He worked for years for the establishment of a technical school which would offer vocational training to young people; it finally opened on 26 September 1940, less than seven weeks before his death. The plight of the fishermen led him to campaign to revive the sea-fishing industry, which was in a dire state due to decline of stocks near the coast and lack of trawlers and adequate equipment. He also worked for the founding of a creamery (which opened on 1 August 1940), for a housing scheme for the poor, the provision of an adequate water supply for the town, the promotion of tourism, and a new graveyard.

He aimed at creating a sense of civic pride among the townspeople, particularly the young, and campaigned to save historic buildings, succeeding in having Desmond Castle classified as a national monument and restored. He promoted Irish through the Gaelic League, produced plays in English and Irish, was president of the local branch of the GAA, and organised a pageant to commemorate the battle of Kinsale of 1601. Having extensively researched the rich history of the town, he published scholarly articles on the subject, established the Kinsale History Society, and worked for years with the society collecting material to set up the Kinsale Regional Museum, which opened on 11 September 1940.

He was indefatigable in his efforts to remove the causes of poverty, to enable people to lead lives worth living, and to contend against indifference and lack of concern. His sources of strength were music and literature, conversations with friends on subjects close to his heart, and his scholarly research. His untimely death cut short both his historical research as well as his studies of the life and music of Chopin for a book he had planned to write.

He died on 16 November 1940 at Golding's Private Hospital in Wellington Road, Cork, aged 55. The esteem in which he was held was manifested at his death. The Southern Star wrote that business in Kinsale came to a standstill from the news of his death to the funeral. Tributes came from all sections of the local community and from numerous organisations in Cork. He was buried in St Eltin's cemetery, the graveyard he had helped to establish.

Posthumous tributes included a memorial plaque in the Kinsale technical school put up by the vocational educational committee, and the renaming of the Kinsale museum as the Father MacSwiney Kinsale Regional Museum. On the first anniversary of his death, a memorial stone was placed on his grave in St Eltin's cemetery by the people of Kinsale, unveiled by John J. Horgan. A MacSwiney commemorative seat placed on the Low Road, Scilly, Kinsale, was restored seventy years later, in 2012, by the Kinsale History Society. MacSwiney's papers have not survived, except for his correspondence with the Fleischmanns, reposited in UCC archives.