“…He had eloquently articulated a philosophy of
self-sacrifice that would help define the emerging traditions of Irish
republican martyrdom. ‘It is not those who inflict the most but those who
suffer the most who will conquer,’ MacSwiney declared. When somebody dies on a
hunger strike, the moral calculus of causation can be tricky. It may have been
MacSwiney who, in the strictest sense, chose to take his own life, but by
announcing that he would eat again only if the British acceded to his demands,
he seemed to transfer the responsibility for whether he lived or died into the
hands of his captors….”
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