NORTHERN ADVOCATE DAILY With which is incorporated the NORTHERN MAIL DAILY. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 8, 1920. A MYSTERIOUS FAST

Northern Advocate, 8 October 1920, Page 2

NORTHERN ADVOCATE DAILY With which is incorporated the NORTHERN MAIL DAILY.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 8, 1920. A MYSTERIOUS FAST

Registered for transmission through the post as a newspaper.

It seems quite a long time since tie cable gave us almost daily reports of tike frenzied utterances of people who were accusing the British Government of a deliberate attempt to murder Mr. McSweeney, the late L/ord Mayor of Cork. We had ait the same time frequent reports as to the effect of his abstinence from food upon Mr. McSweeney's condition, the bulletins faithfully recording what were supposed to be the incidents of his last hours. Yet he is still hungerstriking, the cable has ceased prognosticating his deaith and the London news-papers are busy discussing the mystery of his survival. A message received on Wednesday gave us the authority of the "Daily Mail" for the statement that though. Mr. Me-

Sweeney had fasted for 54 days his hand was steady enough to hold his razor every morning, he was reading the newspapers with interest and official reports indicated that he was not. in immediate danger. Yesterday we were told that Mr. McSweeney was refusing ail food and there was no reason fto suspect that he was 'receiving any from bis relatives. He was taking hot water and medicine, which "arrested certain deteriorating processes." The "mystery of his long fast and of that of the Gork hungerstrikers, who Juave been two days longer without food than Mr. McSweeney has been, is said to have confounded medical men. If the prisoners really have gone without food for nearly 60 days they certainly have "broken the record." It is stated by the best authorities thatt when deprived of both food , and water .the human body is capable of supporting life under ordinary circumstances for little more than a

week. The use of drinking water and medicinal prffpailatioins will greatly •prolong the period, aand cases are re-

corded of fasts extending up to 44, and in a few rare instances to 50 days under these conditions, though the genuineness of some of these long fasts is questioned. The unquestionable instances, where men have been imprisoned in mines or adrift at sea, do not yield evidence of anything like sueih. long survival, a fortnight being about the limit of endurance. Mr. McSweenoy and the other prisoners certainly have given investigators same thing to think about, and it is not surprising that their case has aroused keen interest. Their survival for so long a period affords some justification for the Government's refusal to release them. The successful employment of the hunger-strike as a moans of securing release from gaol was quite a feature of the hysterical suffragette campaign a few years ago, but one experience apparently taught the authorities wisdom. The hungerstrikers are simply trying ,to trade on the humanitaiian sentiments of the community. If Mr. McSweeney'a self-starvation brought about his death it would be a case of suicide, not murder. It seems, however, that his death is by no means imminent, i and it is within the bounds of possiI bility that the firmness of the authorities may continue to delay what would be a regrettable event for quite a long while.