Frank Gallagher  

Days of Fear – A Diary of Hunger Strike

14.99

A personal record of spiritual strength and self-sacrifice in the name of ideology by the Irish writer Frank Gallagher

Thank you for your interest in this title. Please note that this book is printed to order, with a standard delivery time of 7-14 days. However, we understand that you may require your book sooner. If this is the case, kindly contact our customer service team at info@mercierpress.ie, and we will make every effort to expedite your order and ensure a timely delivery

Description

'To-night my head aches . . . Those first days of hungerstriking are cruel days. Yet the hardest thing of all to bear is that there are no meal-hours. Jail life hinges on the three meals. I think I have been sleeping . . . With the day, who cares? . . . Hunger striking is simple, after all . . . Just fasting and no pain . . . no pain . . . But the heart stops. That is the trouble. They say men have fasted for many days . . . but when they were dying they were free to fast. We must be glad to die. I was . . . yesterday. Now it seems hopeless . . . What do they care about a death, the brutes . . .' One of the strangest diaries ever published - the day to day journal of one who took part in the hunger strike in Mountjoy Jail, Dublin in 1920. This is a record of spiritual strength, of reckless suffering, and of frank cowardice - something all men and women serving an ideal have tasted. It was written during one of those periodic protests for national liberty in Ireland in which passionate self-sacrifice seemed to become the temporary characteristic of a whole people. Poignantly human this is a story as full of gentleness as of fear, as full of despair as of faith. Frank Gallagher was born and educated in Cork. He became a journalist and short story writer, frequently writing under the pseudonyms David Hogan and Henry O'Neill. He joined Sinn Féin in 1917 and after the Sinn Féin victory in the 1918 General Election, he worked with Erskine Childers on the publicity staff of the first Dáil. Gallagher later became editor of The Irish Press and during the Emergency headed the Free State Government's Information Bureau and was appointed Deputy Director of Radio Éireann. He died in 1962.

Author

Frank Gallagher was born and educated in Cork. He became a journalist and short story writer, frequently writing under the pseudonyms David Hogan and Henry O`Neill. He joined Sinn Féin in 1917 and after the Sinn Féin victory in the 1918 General Election, he worked with Erskine Childers on the publicity staff of the first Dáil. Gallagher later became editor of The Irish Press and during the Emergency headed the Free State Government’s Information Bureau and was appointed Deputy Director of Radio Éireann. He died in 1962.