In Sheehy-Skeffington, and not in Connolly, fell the first martyr to Irish Socialism, for he linked Ireland not only with the little nations struggling for self-expression, but with the world’s Humanity struggling for a higher life – Sean O’Casey.
A plaque connected to the 1916 rising, but often overlooked, is that to Francis Sheehy-Skeffington inside what is today Cathal Brugha Barracks. Feminist, pacifist, vegetarian,journalist and activist, Francis was married to Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington, undoubtedly one of the most celebrated feminists in Irish history herself. His death during the rebellion is one of the most tragic episodes of the week, as Francis was not a participant in the rising, but rather had gone to the city on April 25th with the aim of attempting to establish a ‘Citizens Peace Patrol’, to prevent more scenes of looting and criminality among Dubliners following the breakdown of law and order.
The plaque was unveiled on April 1 1970 by Nora Connolly O’Brien, daughter of James Connolly, in the presence of Senator Owen Sheehy-Skeffington, son of Francis, and others. It was sculpted by Gary Trimble, and includes an inscription bearing the words of James Cousins:
‘For whom no power of pride e’er awed
Whose hand would heal where sharp it fell
Smite error on the throne of God
And smile of truth though found in hell.’
Owen Sheehy Skeffington and Cathal O'Shannon view the memorial in 1969, when it was still being completed.
Writing in June of 1916, Padraic Colum noted in the pages of Emma Goldman’s Mother Earth paper:
I shall remember Francis Sheehy-Skeffington as the happiest spirit I ever knew. He fought for enlightenment with a sort of angelic courage, austere, gay, uncompromising. Since he wrote his student pamphlet on Women’s Liberation he was in the front of every liberalising movement in Ireland. He was not a bearer of arms in the insurrection- he was a pacifist…..But Skeffington is dead now, and the spiritual life of Ireland has been depleted by as much of the highest courage, the highest sincerity and the highest devotion as a single man could embody.
Francis was a well known feminist, having co-founded the Irish Citizen feminist paper in 1912, and adopting the surname of his wife, Hanna Sheehy, upon their marrying. He had been involved with the Irish Citizen Army upon the foundation of the workers army, but left when he felt the organisation to be at odds with his pacifist ideology, i.e moving from a purely defensive role towards militarism. He had attended University College Dublin, where he counted James Joyce among his friends, and was well known and indeed liked in the college on a social level, even becoming auditor of the College L&H (Literary and Historical Society) in 1897.
Francis and Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington
On April 25th Francis was arrested and taken to Portobello Barracks. While the British were unable to charge him with anything, he was held on the grounds of being an enemy sympathiser. It was at Portobello Barracks that a Captain Bowen-Colthurst would demand Francis be handed over to him, as he was about to lead a raiding patrol and he wished to use Skeffington as a guide and indeed hostage. What happened next is detailed in Michael McNally’s excellent study of the Rising (Osprey Campaigns: Easter Rising 1916) in some detail:
Once outside the barracks, he handed Skeffington over to his second in command with the admonition that if it became clear that the raid had gone wrong he was to shoot the prisoner. Bowen-Colthurst then ran amok, firstly killing a teenager named Coade claiming that he was acting under the provisions of martial law that had been enacted that day, and then raiding the wrong address where he took two journalists as additional prisoners, bringing his three victims back to the barracks where they were held under arrest, but never charged.
The raiding party had destroyed the home of Alderman James Kelly, who was a unionist, mistakenly believing it to be the home of a Sinn Féin councillor. Patrick MacIntyre and Thomas Dickson were the two journalists arrested. They along with Skeffington were executed by firing squad just after 10am the following morning. It was a tragic end for a man who had devoted his life to peace.
Bowen-Colthurst’s actions saw him arrested on 6 June, charged with murder and court-martialled for the unlawful killing of Skeffington and the two journalists. He would plead insanity, successfully, and found himself sent firstly to Broadmore Hospital and then to Canada. Disgracefully, he would be found ‘cured’ in April of 1921, and at age 40 he was to be released with a pension.
The story of Francis Sheehy-Skeffington is just one of the many interesting stories that surround Portobello Barracks, or Cathal Brugha Barracks as it is known today. For this interested in the history of the barracks, I would reccomend the ‘History of Cathal Brugha Barracks’ booklet, issued last year and from which the image of the plaque above is taken. It should be noted that today University College Dublin honours the Sheehy-Skeffington’s with the Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington building.
Click on the book for more.
Click on the book for more.
Donal
Ciarán
Sam
Come Here To Me! 
Incredible and sad story. Thanks for telling it.
Where can you get the booklet? Only from the barracks itself?
Don’t forget, either, that Conor Cruise O’Brien’s mother was Hanna’s sister.
I write – though I am not a native – from (cough) Inniscarra parish in County Cork; the Bowen-Colthursts are well-known here.
Nevertheless (no, seriously), I must protest at the word “disgracefully” in your penultimate paragraph. I
While B-C was obviously fortunate, given the times, not to be “shot like a rabid dog” himself, it is hard to believe that he was not, by any reasonable or humane standard, clinically insane in April/May 1916. If so, it is equally credible that he was genuinely “cured” by 1921.
On what reasonable basis should he have been denied his pension ?
Have you read the account of this mans crimes in the Sinn Fein Rebellion Handbook or Monk Gibbons ‘Inglorious soldier’? He was not alone a murderer but a child murderer (or would you quibble over the age of young Cody – his head smashed in by a rifle butt on Colthursts orders?). Bowen-Colthurst was unfortunate to be tried it is true, because the military killers of unarmed civilians on Batchelors Walk in 1914 and in North King Street in Easter Week were certainly never brought to account for their actions.
The fact that he was brought to trial at all was due to the honourable actions of Major Francis Vane in the face of determined opposition from the military authorities.The acceptence of the insanity plea prevented embaressment to the British authorities as the weight of evidence against him, much of it from other British officers, would have surely led him to the gallows to pay for his murderous activities. Don`t forget how carefully this ‘insane’ officer was to cover his tracks in the days after the murders to the point of having the wall in the guardrooom yard replastered to hide the bullet holes (this in the middle of a rebellion!)
As for your remark about the crediblity of his insanity being reversed after five years, would you have any idea of the statistics for the number of murderers in that era who pleaded insanity and how many, if the plea was accepted, were released after a period of five years or less? I would have thought his pension would have been denied on the basis that his actions were a disgrace to the service ( perhaps you would like a pardon for the bold Captain thrown in?).
I know nothing of the Bowen-Colthurst family other than their lucrative tourism business but I can hardly believe that they hold any candle for their murderous relative.
No, I haven’t read the publications that you mention, and I might benefit from doing so, based on what you say.
However, I will not resile from my position that it *is* possible to be restored to mental health within 5 years, and that it *is* hard to believe that B-C was not deranged in 1916. The covering-up does not make that less believable for me.
That it is undoubtedly true that he was lucky, even if genuinely ill, to escape with his life – which I mentioned myself – or that many others were not so lucky, changes nothing. I would add that I was, of course, aware that not many people found guilty on grounds of insanity were released – or indeed are released even these days – so quickly on a similar basis. But that is probably more truly disgraceful than the odd exception like B-C.
It would be different, of course, if B-C was never really insane and/or never really recovered. You have your view on that, which you may believe is more reliable than mine, and you may be correct.
Or not.
Great article Donal, just as an additional piece of info the journalist Patrick McIntyre who was shot with FSS had been the editor of an anti trade union paper called the Toiler. Funded by our friend William Martin Murphy its editor was Larkins chief critic. Amongst it many ludicrous attacks on Larkin were the claim that Larkin was the son of the informer James Carey. I will send you a photo of its front page from January 1914.
I would like to have details on Martin g, Cody dies aged 38 in dublin prison
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