Albert Power – Study of Terence MacSwiney
It looks a bit like a death mask but in fact this 1920 head of Terence MacSwiney, Lord Mayor of Cork, was sculpted in 1920 shortly before he died on hunger strike in Brixton Prison by Albert Power. It sold for a hammer price of 11,000 at the James Adam Country House Collections sale at Townley Hall.
Attempts to force feed the Lord Mayor were undertaken in the final days of his strike. Albert Power, whose name is synonymous with Irish nationalist sculpture, visited the Lord Mayor as he was dying in prison. He fell into a coma on October 20, 1920 and died five days later after 73 days on hunger strike. Terence MacSwiney is buried in the Republican Plot at St. Finbarr’s Cemetery in Cork.
Power’s commissions included bronze busts of the new Irish President Arthur Griffiths and the army chief Michael Collins. He also completed death masks for both men which were added to the Cenotaph on Leinster Lawn at Dail Eireann.