Joseph Whitty
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Michael Joseph (Joe) Whitty was born in 1904 in Wexford town, Ireland and was the youngest (19 years of age) of the 22 Irish republicans who died while on hunger-strike in the 20th century.[1] Whitty was a Volunteer in the Irish Republican Army (IRA), was the first of three IRA men to die on Hunger Strike in 1923 (Denny Barry, County Cork, died 20 November 1923 and Andy O'Sullivan (Irish Republican), County Cavan, died 23 November 1923) and was the fifth Irish republican to die on hunger strike since 1917.[2]
IRA membership, arrest and internment
Whitty served in the South Wexford Brigade of the IRA during the Irish War of Independence and after the signing of the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty he joined the anti treaty side in the Irish Civil War. In late October 1922 Whitty was arrested in a round up of dissidents and was imprisoned by Irish Free State troops initially at Wexford Prison and from there was transferred to the Curragh Camp.
Independent Hunger Strike, death, press embargo, mass hunger strikes, annual commemoration
While at the Curragh Camp IRA Volunteer Joe Whitty decided to independently start a hunger strike and died as a result on 2 August 1923.[3]. Due to the newly formed Irish Free State governments news embargo on conditions in the prisons at that time, very little was published on Whitty's motivations and the circumstances of his hunger strike and death.[4] The Irish Governments press embargo may have prevented the embarrassment of having to publicly announce the death of the 19 year old internee. The late November 1923 deaths of Barry and O'Sullivan were widely reported in the media but Whitty's earlier death (August 1923) went largely unreported.[5]
After Volunteer Whitty's non sanctioned hunger strike and death, Michael Kilroy, the Officer Commanding (OC) of IRA prisoners in Mountjoy Prison announced that 300 men would go on hunger strike (on 13th October 1923). By late 1923, thousands of Irish republican prisoners were on hunger strike in multiple prisons/internment camps across Ireland. The mass hunger strikes of October/November 1923 saw around 8,000 of the 12,000 republican prisoners (opposed to the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty) on hunger strikes in Irish prisons, protesting internment without charge/trial, poor prison conditions and demanding immediate release of all political prisoners.[6] Previously, the Irish Free State government had passed a motion outlawing the release of prisoners on hunger strike.[7]
With the death of Whitty and two other recent Irish republican hunger strikers: Michael Fitzgerald (Irish republican) (d.17 October 1920) and Joe Murphy (Irish republican) (d.25 October 1920) and the large numbers of Irish republicans prisoners on hunger strike, at the end of October the Government sent a delegation to speak with IRA leadership. On 23 November 1923 the hunger strike was called off (O'Sullivan had died the previous day) setting off a release program for many of the prisoners, but some were not released until as late as 1932.[8][9] The mass hunger strike lasted for 41 days and met with little success.[10]
Michael Joseph Whitty is buried at Ballymore Cemetery Killinick, County Wexford, Ireland. The inscription on his grave reads: "In Memory of Joseph Whitty, Connolly St, Wexford South Wexford Brigade who died for Ireland 2nd August 1923".[11]
The Sinn Fein Cumann (Association) in Wexford City is named after Joe Whitty. The annual Joe Whitty Commemoration is held each year on Easter Saturday evening in Ballymore, County Wexford.
References
- ↑ "the-civil-war". 6 August 2021.
- ↑ "Roll of Honor/Hunger Strikers". 6 May 2014.
- ↑ Durney J., The Civil War in Kildare, Mercier Press Ltd, Dublin, 2011, pp.161-165
- ↑ Flynn, Barry, Pawns in the Game, The Collins Press, Cork, 2011, pg 82, ISBN-13:9781848891166
- ↑ Healy, James. “The Civil War Hunger-Strike: October 1923.” Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review, vol. 71, no. 283, 1982, pp. 213–226. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/30090444. Accessed 6 Aug. 2021.
- ↑ Sweeney, George. “Irish Hunger Strikes and the Cult of Self-Sacrifice.” Journal of Contemporary History, vol. 28, no. 3, 1993, pp. 421–437. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/260640. Accessed 29 May 2021.
- ↑ "The Forgotten Hunger Strikes". hungerstrikes.org.
- ↑ "Remembering the Past: Post-Civil War hunger-strikes | an Phoblacht".accessed 29 May 2021
- ↑ McCarthy, Pat, The Irish Revolution, 1912-1923, Four Courts Press, Dublin, 2015, p.132, ISBN 978-1-84682-410-4
- ↑ O’Donnell, Peadar The Gates Flew Open, Jonathan Cape Ltd, London, 1932, Library of Congress HV9650.D7 O3, pgs 194-197
- ↑ "Michael Joseph Whitty (1905-1923) - Find a Grave". www.findagrave.com. Retrieved 4 August 2021.
External links
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