Unique honour for Cork's martyred lords mayor
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The former Lords Mayor of Cork, Tomás Mac Curtain and Terence MacSwiney, are to receive a unique posthumous civic honour.
Their names are to be entered into the city's roll of honorary citizens, Lord Mayor Cllr Joe Kavanagh announced last night.
The roll, which contains the names of every recipient of the Freedom of the City, is held in the city and county archives.
It will include a citation recognising their promotion of Irish language and culture and how they sacrificed their lives in the struggle for an independent Irish Republic.
The move to honour them in this symbolic way comes after several centenary commemorative events to mark their deaths in 1920 were disrupted, cancelled or postponed by Covid-19.
Mr Kavanagh said a wide range of local and national commemorative events had been "seriously compromised by the pandemic".
He said he felt it would be fitting to confer both men with honorary citizenship, as part of a scaled-back ceremony at a later date, to mark their contribution to the city and the country.
His proposal was seconded by Sinn Fein Cllr Kenneth Collins, who had submitted and then withdrawn a motion calling for both men to be conferred with the Freedom of the City, once Mr Kavanagh explained his proposal.
"This is a fitting tribute to our martyred mayors in the centenary year of their deaths," Mr Collins said.
"It has been extremely difficult to organise commemorations to mark the seismic events of 1920 due to the Covid-19 emergency.
"Conferring this honour on Tomás Mac Curtain and Terence MacSwiney shows the height of esteem and respect in which their memories are held by the people of their beloved Cork.
"It will also draw the attention of younger people to the legacy of these iconic republican revolutionaries who shaped the course of the war for independence in Cork and beyond."
He has been liaising with members of both the Mac Curtain and MacSwiney families and he said they are absolutely delighted with this honour.
"To us, they are heroes without peer but to their families, they were fathers, husbands and brothers - ordinary people doing extraordinary things for their people and the freedom of their country," Mr Collins said.