Francis Sheehy-Skeffington

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Francis Skeffington (1878 – 26 April 1916) from Bailieborough, County Cavan, was an Irish suffragist and pacifist and writer. He was a friend and schoolmate of James Joyce, Oliver St John Gogarty, Tom Kettle, and Conor Cruise O'Brien's father, Frank O'Brien. He was married to one of Conor Cruise O'Brien's aunts, the former Hanna Sheehy in 1903, whose own surname he adopted as part of his name, resulting in his being known as Francis Sheehy-Skeffington, and sometimes referred to as "Skeffy".

1 Self-educated and eccentric
2 Career and politics
3 The Rising
4 Arrest and murder
5 Major Sir Francis Fletcher Vane
6 Public Inquiry, conviction and release of Bowen-Colthurst
7 Personal papers
8 References
9 External links

[edit] Self-educated and eccentric

Skeffy was educated initially at home by his father, Dr Joseph Skeffington, a school inspector, and later by the Jesuits at St Stephen's Green before enrolling in University College Dublin. He was individualistic in disposition and unconventional in temperament, refusing to shave and wore knickerbockers, long socks and, as an ardent proponent of rights for women, he wore a badge that read Votes for Women. He organised a petition to lobby for women to be admitted to UCD on the same basis as men shortly after he married. He was a well known figure at UCD and active in student politics and debating societies including the Literary and Historical Society.

[edit] Career and politics

When he graduated he worked as a free lance journalist. His wife, a teacher, was the primary breadwinner. They joined the Irish Women's Suffrage and Local Government Association and the Young Ireland Branch of the United Irish League (the constituecy element of the Irish Parliamentary Party). They also supported the Women's Social and Political Union which lobbied for women's rights in Britain. Skeffy became joint editor in 1912 of a paper he co-founded, The Irish Citizen, issued by the Irish Women's Franchise League and he made contributions to various publications in Ireland, England, France and North America. During the 1913 lockout he became involved in a peace committee intended to reconcile both factions. He became a vice-chairman of the Irish Citizens Army when it was established in 1913 on the basis that it would have a strictly defensive role and he resigned when it became a military entity.

He campaigned against recruitment on the outbreak of World War I and was jailed for six months.

[edit] The Rising

He supported Home Rule but was not a supporter of the Irish Volunteers, preferring civil disobedience. Skeffy and Hanna took opposing positions towards the Easter Rising - he sticking to his pacifist principles. Hanna brought food to the rebels located at the General Post Office and the Royal College of Surgeons.

[edit] Arrest and murder

During the week of the Easter Rising, Skeffy, who had been living at 11 Grosvenor Place Rathmines Dublin, was concerned about the collapse of law and order. One the evening of Tuesday, April 25, he went into the city centre to attempt to organise a citizens militia (police) to prevent the looting of damaged shops.

He was arrested for no stated, or indeed obvious reason, while returning home by members of the British 11th East Surrey Regiment at Portabello Bridge along with some hecklers who were following him, and, after admitting to having sympathy for the insurgents' cause (but not their tactics), he was held as an enemy sympathizer. Later that evening, with is hands tied behind his back, an Irish-born officer of the 3rd battalion Royal Irish Rifles, Captain J C Bowen-Colthurst (a member of a County Cork landed gentry family), sent Sheehy-Skeffington out, as a hostage, with an army raiding party in Rathmines with orders that he would be shot if the raiding party was attacked ^[1].

Bowen-Colthurst sought out "Fenians", he also took captive a young boy, two pro-British journalists — Thomas Dixon and Patrick McIntyre — and a Sinn Féin politician, Richard O'Carroll, all of whom he had killed. Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington was never told either of his detention or death. She only discovered what happened four days later when she met the chaplain of the barracks. Bowen-Colthurst attempted a cover-up and ordered the search and ransack of Skeffy's home looking for spurious evidence.

[edit] Major Sir Francis Fletcher Vane

A Dublin-born major in the Royal Munster Fusiliers, Sir Francis Fletcher Vane, was in overall charge of defence at Portabello Barracks but was not present when these executions took place. He arrived shortly afterwards, was horrified at what unfolded. He recognised the killings for what they were - murder and called to Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington.

He reported his views (that Bowen-Colthurst was mentally deranged) to the deputy commander of the garrison, Major Rosborough. Rosborough telephoned Dublin Castle and was told to bury the bodies. Vane subsequently travelled to London where he met Lord Kitchener in Downing Street on May 3, 1916. A telegram was sent to Sir John Maxwell,commander-in-chief of British forces in Ireland, ordering the arrest of Bowen-Colthurst but Maxwell refused to arrest him.

[edit] Public Inquiry, conviction and release of Bowen-Colthurst

An Inquiry, chaired by Sir John Simon, took place on August 23, 1916 at the Four Courts which concluded that the proclamation of martial law does not confer on officers or soldiers any new powers, but is a warning that the Government, acting through the military, is taking such forcible and exceptional measures as are needed to restore order. The measures taken can be justified only by the practical circumstances of the case. The shooting of unarmed and unresisting civilians without trial constituted murder, whether martial law has been proclaimed or not. Failure to understand and apply this elementary principle seems to explain the free hand which Capt. Colthurst from exercising ^[2]. When it suited the British military authorities, shell shock and mental instability served to excuse murder, as in the case of Captain Bowen-Colthurst. Bowen-Colthurst successfully pleaded insanity arising from shellshock as a means of escaping responsibility for the wilful murder of three unarmed civilians during the Easter Rebellion earlier in 1916. His court martial became a cause celebre and provoked a sustained political furore which culminated in a Royal Commission of Enquiry into the murders.

Bowen-Colthurst was eventually arrested on June 6; charged with murder and court-martialled following the murder of 13 innocent civilians at North King Street, Dublin. Bowen-Colthurst was found guilty but adjudged insane after committing these murders. He was sent to Broadmoor briefly and then to a hospital in Canada. He was deemed 'cured' 20 months later on April 26, 1921 and was eventually released with a pension at the age of 40.^[3].

Sheehy-Skeffington's wife was offered financial compensation by the British government of the day but she refused this. Vane was fired from the army in the summer of 1916 owing to his actions in the Skeffington murder case.

Francis Sheehy-Skeffington was survived by his wife, Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington, who became increasingly nationalist-minded, and his son then aged 7. The now-deceased Owen Sheehy-Skeffington, who eventually played a moderate role in Irish politics and attended the secular Sandford Park School with his cousin, Conor Cruise O'Brien, because Hanna refused to send her son to any school with a pro-Treaty ethos.

Although Skeffy was baptized a Roman Catholic, he defined himself as an atheist early in life.

[edit] Personal papers

The personal papers of Francis Sheehy-Skeffington and his wife Hanna were donated to the National Library of Ireland details of which can be accessed online^[4].