History's Daughter: A Memoir from the only child of Terence MacSwiney

Maire MacSwiney Brugha is the only child of Terence MacSwiney, one of the greatest figures in Ireland's history, who died after seventy-three days on hunger strike in Brixton Prison on 25 October 1920. At the time of his death Maire was a young child. Her mother, Muriel, a member of the wealthy Murphy distillery family, had made a controversial match in marrying MacSwiney. The young widow then abandoned Ireland for the continent. For nine years Maire was to live away from Ireland, mostly in Germany. She grew up as a German child, speaking the German language, skiing to school, and forgetting all about her Irish background. This was truly an extraordinary upbringing for the daughter of one of Ireland's greatest heroes. When she was fourteen, Maire made a dramatic escape with her aunt, Maire MacSwiney, the sister of Terence, home to Ireland, against her mother's wishes. Speaking no English or Irish, the young Maire went to live in Scoil Ite, her aunt's school in Cork. This was a very strange world indeed. Now she had to learn both Irish and English. In 1945, she married Ruairi Brugha, the son of another famous republican, Cathal Brugha, thus uniting two of Ireland's most prominent and revered nationalist families. Throughout her life Maire has handled a complex inheritance and forged her own strong identity. She and her husband have reinterpreted their unique inheritance in keeping their own time and their own mindset while retaining strong links to their unusual history.