  Newstead gave the generators of the cohomology ring of the moduli space of
rank 2 semi-stable, torsion-free sheaves with fixed odd degree determinant over
a smooth, projective curve. In this article, we generalize this result to the
case when the underlying curve is irreducible, nodal. We show that these
generators (of the cohomology ring in the nodal curve case) arise naturally as
degeneration of Newstead's generators in the smooth curve case.
