Cork town to commemorate leading Irish suffragette Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington

Portrait of Hanna Sheehy Skeffington at the Cork Life Centre. Picture: Cork Life Centre.

Plans are being drawn up to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the birth of one of the world’s foremost suffragettes, who was born in a North Cork town.

A number of commemorations are expected to take place in Kanturk during May next year to mark the birth of Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington.

She was the daughter of mill owner and later Nationalist MP David Sheehy, whose ideals she followed for Irish freedom but also, and more prominently, the rights of women.

Although taken for granted today in democracies, women were denied their democratic right to vote until movements for women's suffrage gathered momentum in the mid and late 19th century. 

Due to the efforts of Hanna and other women around the world, the right to vote was an established norm in democracies by the mid-20th century.

From left: Hanna Sheehy Skeffington, Kathleen Shannon, and Kathleen Sheehy at the 1908 founding of the Irish Women’s Franchise League, which campaigned for voting rights for women.

In 1902, she joined the Irishwomen's Suffrage and Local Government Association, which campaigned for women to get the vote and followed closely the formation in London the following year of a more militant suffrage organisation, the Women's Social and Political Union, whose members included the famous Emmeline Pankhurst.

In May 1912, she and her husband, Frank, launched the first issue of the suffrage paper The Irish Citizen, designed to promote women’s rights, which she edited until 1920. 

In the meantime, Hannah, who spoke a number of languages, also corresponded with suffragettes in Britain and the USA.

In July 1902, she became the director of organisation for the Sinn Féin party.

In May 1926, she was one of four women appointed to the executive of the new Fianna Fáil party.

In the same year, she led protests against the staging of Sean O’Casey’s play The Plough and the Stars at the Abbey Theatre, maintaining it devalued those who took part in the 1916 Easter Rising.

In August 1930, she went to Russia to study the Soviet system of government and later became assistant editor of An Phoblacht and its successor, Republican File.

Seven years later, after having misgivings about Ireland’s new constitution, she helped establish the Women's Social and Progressive League as a non-sectarian women's political party.

Hannah stood for it in the 1943 general election, but failed to win a seat. She died of heart failure in 1946 and is buried beside her husband in Dublin’s Glasnevin Cemetery.

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Such is her renown that many of her writings are kept in the Hoover Institution Archives in Stanford, California.

Cork County Council has committed to financially supporting some of the events being planned after being lobbied by Fine Gael councillor Trish Murphy.

A main event is being planned for the Edel Quinn Hall, Kanturk, in May 2027 to mark the 150th anniversary of her birth.

“I'm very excited that community groups are getting involved organising events to mark Hanna Sheehy Skeffington's 150th birthday," Ms Murphy said.

"Talks have begun on inviting different speakers and lots of other ideas to make this a very memorable event."