Dr Micheline Sheehy Skeffington, Grandaughter of Francis Sheehy Skeffington unveiling an Ulster History Circle plaque in her grandfather's honour at Bailieboro Library.Photo: Lorraine Teevan

Remembering Cavan's 'militant pacifist'

Damian McCarney


Every county has been scrambling for a link to the Easter Rising in this centenary year, and County Cavan has an especially virtuous connection to 1916 through Francis Sheehy-Skeffington. The bravery of the rebels for some is tainted by the death and violence inherent in mounting an armed insurrection aiming to overthrow British rule. Celebrating the contribution of Sheehy-Skeffington presents fewer such ambiguities.
Dr Micheline Sheehy Skeffington said she was honoured to be invited by Cavan County Council to unveil a blue plaque in her grandfather’s honour in his place of birth, Bailieborough.
“That’s why I like to honour Frank because what he stood for was obviously different from the leaders of the Rising, but he was every bit as nationalistic. My father [former Senator Owen Sheehy Skeffington] reckoned he was very conflicted when the Rising broke out because he really wanted independence and he really agreed with most of the objectives, but what he couldn’t agree with was their methods.”
Francis was also a feminist, and was a member of the Irish Women’s Franchise League which his wife Hannah Sheehy set-up to achieve Irish suffrage. His respect for equal rights explains his double-barrel surname.
“She was Hanna Sheehy and he was Francis Skeffington, and when they got married they each took eachother’s name,” Micheline says with priode.
“So Francis Skeffington was who was born in Bailieborough and he became Sheehy-Skeffington in 1903.”
They must have raised eyebrows, the Celt observes. “Well his father wasn’t impressed, diluting the name - the Sheehys apparently were less worried to it. I always say - how many that get married today take their wife’s name?”
With the outbreak of WW1 Francis devoted himself to campaigning against recruitment for the British forces.
“He saw it as senseless killing and he got himself arrested eventually,” said Micheline.


While he was nationalist he advocated civil disobedience, disagreeing with the rebels’ - some of who were his friends - pursuance of violent means.
“In his open letter to McDonagh he said: can you not conceive of a movement of people, men and women working together armed with the weapons of intellect and will? Instead of guns, these are the irresitible weapons you should be using, and work together, not moving one jot from your objectives and be prepared to die for your causes.”
Micheline uses the almost oxymoronic phrase “militant pascifist” to describe her grandfather. “People confuse the word passive,” explains Micheline. “A pascifist is someone who does not kill. Frank was not prepared to kill, but he was prepared to die. He went on hunger and thirst strike - that’s not someone who is passive. He was an extreme pascifist if you like - he was not prepared to kill but in everything else he was militant.”
During the Rising he risked being caught up in crossfire to try to help a wounded British soldier, but the soldier’s compatriots came to his rescue first.
Francis was ultimately arrested coming home from trying to prevent looting.
“It was an interesting thing because he didn’t care about property, but he so much cared about the revolution that as much as he hated its methods he didn’t want it to look like a bunch of rabble.”
Late that night Captain John Bowen-Colthurst, along with 25 British soldeiers took Sheehy Skeffington along as a hostage as they mounted a raid on the rebels. They tied his hands and used him as “a human shield”, according to Micheline, to deter rebel snipers from taking aim.
Outside Rathmines Church the British raiding party intercepted two teenagers returning from a religious meeting. One of youths seems to have irked Colthurst who over-reacted peversely.
“Colthurst ordered one of his soldiers to ‘bash him’, was the words,” says Micheline. “And the soldier hit him with the butt of the rifle, apparently smashed his jaw, and he fell down on the pavement and Colthurst pulled out a pistol and shot him. Dead.”
Sheehy Skeffington voiced his outrage without fear despite the captain threatening to give him the same treatment. With time to dwell on what he had done, Bowen-Colthurst clearly feared that Sheehy Skeffington would cause him trouble.
“Obviously he was thinking this man is a journalist, he’s outspoken, he’s a nationalist, he’s spoken out againtst the British, he’s witnessed something that even Colthurst must have known was wrong, and he just took him out and shot him the next day. He also shot two other journalists - Thomas Dickson and Patrick MacIntyre, who had been taken during the raids.”
Rather than the murder, Micheline says it was the subsequent cover-up that “really insensed Hanna”.
Grieving, Hanna met with then Prime Minister Herbert Asquith, and was reportedly offered £10,000 in compensation. “This was the equivalent of £700,000 nowadays. She didn’t even hear the sum - she said ‘I don’t want hush money, I want the truth’.”
Colthurst, who had been taken off the WWI front was eventually tried and was found “guilty but insane”, despite his elaborate attempts to both fabricate favourable evidence and destroy material evidence.
“Colthurst was not insane,” insists Micheline, “he was eratic and was probably suffering from what was later called shell-shock, but he was not insane...
“He went to Broadmoor [Hospital] and he was released after a couple of years for ‘good beahiour’ and he went to Vancouver and lived out his life boasting about his exploits.”
How does Micheline feel about participating in these commemorations? “We are conflicted about commemorating something that was a military Rising, but at the same time it was something that my grandparents were a part of even though they weren’t combatants, and they refused to kill, they were very much friends of [James] Connolly’s and [Thomas] McDonagh in particular. It’s very nice that both of them are being commemorated, obviously particularly Francis - his murder is recognised for what it was, and what he stood for was very different and yet very much a part of the movements of the time - he was a nationalist, feminist, socialist, and a pacifist.”