Denny Barry

Irish Republican prisoners in Mountjoy Prison began the 1923 Irish Hunger Strikes, protesting being interned without charges or trial and poor prison conditions. The strike quickly spread to other camps and prisons, and Barry took part starting on 16 October. He died 35 days later on 20 November 1923, at the hospital at Curragh Camp.^[9] IRA Volunteers Joseph Whitty from Wexford died on 2 September 1923 and Andy O'Sullivan (Irish Republican) died as a result of hunger on 22 November 1923 in Mountjoy Prison, the 41 day hunger strike was called off the next day - 23 November.^[10] Whitty, Barry and O'Sullivan were three of the 22 Irish Republicans who died on hunger-strike during the twentieth century.^[11] Barry was initially buried by the Free State army in the Curragh,^[2] but three days later, following a court order, his remains were disinterred.^[12] Denis Barry is buried in the Republican plot at St. Finbarr's Cemetery, Cork.^[13]

Prior to his body arriving in County Cork, the Bishop of Cork, Daniel Cohalan (bishop of Cork) issued a letter to the Catholic Churches which forbade them to open their doors to the body of Barry. Bishop Cohalan expressed far different opinions on the 1920 death (also by hunger strike) of the Lord Mayor of Cork Terence MacSwiney: "Terence MacSwiney takes his place among the martyrs in the sacred cause of the Freedom of Ireland. We bow in respect before his heroic sacrifice. We pray that God may have mercy on his soul."^[14]

In Commandant Barry's hometown of Riverstick there stands a stone memorial (unveiled in 1966) in his honor and he is remembered with a wreath-laying commemoration every November.^[15]