New-York tribune., 1920-10-18
Fitzgerald, One of Eleven
Prisoners i'm Cork Jail.
Was Charged With Kill.
ing a Former Soldier
Doctors Strive i'm
Vain to Save Him
MacSwiney, Brighter, Con-
verses With His Family:
Police Sergeant Is Slain

CORK, Oct. II (By The Associated
Press).-The first death among the
hunger strikers in Cork Jail occurred
tonight. Michael Fitzgerald died at
9:45 o'clock, having tasted sixty eight
days.
The condition of Fitzgerald and Muir
ply had become so grave day that
with the consent of the other hunger
strikers the prison doctors were per-
mitted to give Fitzgerald medical treat
ment A Cork specialist also was
called in.
Fitzgerald was placed under arrest
for shooting private soldier. Jones
outside Fermoy Church on September
II, 1919.
Michael Fitzgerald's abstinence from
food for sixty-eight days, it is believed
With ten companions he was thrown
into Jail early in August They all
had been arrested in connection with
disorders in Ireland and imme ediately
announced their determination to alb
,
leased. Their fast antedates that of
Terence MacSwiney, Lord Mayor Of
Cork, by two days.
Denied Reports of Feeding
AS weeks wore on and none of the
strikers gave in, reports began to be
circulated that the men were being fed
emphatically denied both by f. G. Bat
tlSCOnhp Hn11rWoyY ;oil nh
Dr.. Alan Pearson, representing the
Home Office. These men supcr. Intended
the efforts made at the Jail to keep
the men alive. Their cells were kept
scrupulously clean, sprayed every day
to prevent any infection, their bed
clothes furnished new specially for
them, hot water bottles kept beside
them constantly to maintain circula-
ton and oil stoves of a special eff
hcient pattern brought in to keep the
rooms warm
Under these conditions all the
strikers have lain for weeks in a state
OF mental and physical lethargy which
made it difficult to note change in
their condition from day to day They
seldom spoke above whisper When
they signi6ed they were in pain one
of the nurses would rub them with a
few drops of oil. The doctors held that
the amount of oil absorbed by the skin
was negligible.
Comrades Thought Worse of
"They are slowly eating themselves 8
up said one prison official. "They
go along for several days without
visible alteration, then suddenly seem
to strike new stage and drop down.
The skin is now drawn over their
faces as tight as a drum, and all of
them are hollow-eyed"
Fitzgerald, although badly emaciated
for the last three weeks, had not been
reported as low as several of his COM
rades. Sean Henncssy, a nineteen
year old boy, was long considered to
he the worst off. Michael Burke,
Iichael O'Reilly and Thomas Donovan
have all been low.
Joseph Murphy and Joseph Kenny,
others of the hunger strikers, have
claimed American citizenship, although
neither has succeeded in establishing
his rights. The other strikers are Up
ton, Power, Murray and another whose
name has never been mentioned in
news dispatches.
Fear that reprisals in Ireland will
follow the deaths of any of the hunger
strikers has frequently been expressed
in the British press.
1t is recalled that the only Irish po-
ltical prisoner to die after hunger
strike was Thomas Ashe in Dublin,
1917, but his death resulted not from
fasting but from the effects Of forcible
feeding.
MacSwiney Converses with Family
LONDON, Oct. Inference Mac
Swney, Lord Mayor of Cork, passed
CONTINUED next pase)