Francis Joseph Christopher Sheehy-Skeffington (; 23 December 1878 – 26 April 1916) was an Irish writer and radical activist well known in Dublin in the decade before the 1916 Easter Rising. Through his speeches and freelance journalism, Sheehy-Skeffington campaigned for socialism, feminism and pacifism in Ireland.
He was also a supporter of Irish independence, which brought him to the attention of the British authorities in Dublin and ultimately led to his illegal execution during the Rising.
Early life Francis Skeffington was descended from Sir William Skeffington, who was appointed the Lord Deputy of Ireland by King Henry VIII."The surname was brought to Ireland in 1529 by Sir William Skeffington, Lord Deputy of Ireland under king Henry VIII." - Kay Muhr and Liam O'Haisibeil, Surnames of Ireland (Oxford University Press, 2021), p. 677. "Frank", as he was known to family and friends, was born in Bailieborough, County Cavan, and was raised in Downpatrick, County Down, the only son of Dr Joseph Bartholomew Skeffington, an inspector of National Schools, and his wife Rose (née Magorrian). Joseph and Rose were married in 1869 at the Catholic chapel at Ballykinlar on the County Down coast.Marriage dated 30 September 1869 recorded in the Catholic marriage register for Tyrella, Diocese of Down and Connor; National Library of Ireland, Catholic Parish Registers.
Francis was educated initially at home by his father, and later at the Jesuit school in St Stephen's Green, Dublin. He manifested an early sympathy for radical politics, as attested by his enthusiasm for the constructed language Esperanto. In 1893, at the age of 15, he wrote a letter to his local newspaper in County Down stating that "Gaelic" was irretrievably dead and "the study of Esperanto would be more useful to the youth of Ireland".Leah Levenson, With Wooden Sword: a portrait of Francis Sheehy-Skeffington, Northeastern U. Press, 1983, p. 13 Later in life he became fluent in the language, and had a number of Esperanto books in his library when he died. This enthusiasm was not unusual at the time in leftist circles, and several prominent leaders of the 1916 Easter rising, including James Connolly, were also Esperantists.Ken Keable, "James Connolly and Esperanto", published both on www.communist-party.org.uk and www.anphoblacht.com , on 29 May and 28 June 2001 respectively (both accessed 30–31 March 2016). The earlier version has more detailed citations.
Student years In 1896 (aged 17), he enrolled in University College, then run by the Jesuits and located on St Stephen's Green in the centre of Dublin. He stayed at the college long enough to earn a master's degree. Skeffington was a well-known figure at the college, individualistic and unconventional in temperament. He was active in student politics and debating societies, including the Literary and Historical Society, which he revived in 1897.
His closest companions in his student days were James Joyce and Tom Kettle (the latter later became his brother-in-law). In protest against uniformity of dress, Skeffington refused to shave, and wore knickerbockers with long socks, which earned him the nickname "Knickerbockers". He was an ardent proponent of women's rights, and wore a Votes for Women badge. He was an equally ardent advocate of pacifism and vegetarianism, and he denounced smoking, drinking, and vivisection. But he did permit himself chocolate, and apparently he was often seen with a bar of milk chocolate in his pocket.Richard Ellman, James Joyce, Oxford University Press, 1982, pp. 61-62, 69.See also James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, chapter 5, Oxford World Classics, p. 163.
Joyce enrolled at University College in 1898; he was four years Skeffington's junior but only two classes below him. A number of Joyce's early writings known as "epiphanies", composed in 1901-02, are set in Hanna Sheehy's house and one includes Skeffington among those present.James Joyce, Poems and Shorter Writings, Faber and Faber 1991, p. 177, and see also 174, 173, 172. Joyce left a fictional portrait of Skeffington in his novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, under the guise of "MacCann", a fellow-student whom Joyce's alter-ego Stephen Dedalus describes as "a squat figure in a shooting jacket and breeches," with a "bluntfeatured face" and "a strawcolored goatee which hung from his blunt chin." Stephen remembers him saying: "Dedalus, you're an anti-social being, wrapped up in yourself. I'm not. I'm a democrat: and I'll work and act for social liberty and equality among all classes and sexes in the United States of the Europe of the future."James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, chapter 5; Oxford World Classics edition, pp. 149, 164, 167. Later, "MacCann" is seen standing in a lobby after class, canvassing signatures on a petition for universal peace, under a picture of the Czar of Russia, who was a proponent of disarmament. (In the spring term of that year Skeffington would attend the international peace conference called by the Czar.) "MacCann began to speak with fluent energy of the Czar's rescript,Czar Nicholas II had issued a "peace rescript" in 1898, which solicited petitions to hold the international peace conference which Skeffington would attend in the Hague in of 1899. of Stead,William Thomas Stead, a crusading anti-war journalist. of general disarmament, arbitration in cases of international disputes,Both goals of the Hague peace conference. of the signs of the times, of the new humanity and the new gospel of life which would make it the business of the community to secure as cheaply as possible the greatest possible happiness of the greatest possible number."A strange mixture of evangelical Christianity and Utilitarian socialism! – Stephen Dedalus expresses indifference to these goals and gestures at the picture of the Czar: "If we must have a Jesus, let us have a legitimate Jesus." To which MacCann replies: "Dedalus, I believe you're a good fellow, but you have yet to learn the dignity of altruism and the responsibility of the human individual."James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, chapter 5; Oxford World Classics edition p. 163 ff. For a critical perspective on this passage see the article by Sheehy-Skeffington's daughter-in-law Andrée Sheehy-Skeffington , "Historical Background to the Testimonial to the Tsar of Russia Referred to in Stephen Hero and A Portrait of the Artist", in James Joyce Quarterly, v. 20, no. 1 (fall 1982), p. 117-120.
Writing to his brother Stanislaus about the above passages, Joyce referred to Skeffington as "Hairy Jaysus",Cited by Richard Ellman, James Joyce, Oxford University Press, 1982, p. 192. a comic expression which is both sardonic and affectionate.
In the autumn of 1901 Skeffington wrote an essay advocating equal status for women in the University, commissioned by St Stephen's, the new literary magazine of the college.St Stephen's ran from 1901-1906 and contains early writings by James Joyce, Thomas Kettle and Patrick Pearse as well as Sheehy-Skeffington. Later series were issued under the same title in the 1960s and 1970s.
The essay was refused publication by the Censor, and, at Joyce's suggestion, Skeffington then published the essay as a pamphlet, along with another essay by Joyce himself, which had been similarly censored ("The Day of the Rabblement", a critique of the Irish Literary Theatre). Although Joyce and Skeffington disagreed with each other's politics, they both resented censorship, and agreed to co-finance the print run of 85 copies and distribute the pamphlet to newspapers and prominent Dubliners.The pamphlet was titled Two Essays, and Skeffington's essay, "A Forgotten Aspect of the University Question". About the printing and distribution of the pamphlet see Richard Ellman, James Joyce, Oxford U. Press, 1982, p. 89. Joyce's essay is reprinted in James Joyce, Occasional, Critical, and Political Writing, Oxford World's Classics, p. 50 ff.; see also editor's notes on p. 295 ff, and likewise the editor's notes to Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Oxford World Classics, p. 264, note 149.6-7; and to Dubliners, Oxford World's Classics, p. 271, note 148.24.
Marriage and political career
After graduating from University College, Skeffington worked as a freelance journalist, contributing to socialist and pacifist publications in Ireland, England, France and North America. In 1901-02 he taught in St Kieran's College in Kilkenny, where he was a colleague and friend of the school's English, French and history master Thomas MacDonagh; the two also lodged in the same house in Kilkenny City. He then took a job as the Registrar of University College.
On 26 June 1903Leah Levenson, With Wooden Sword: a portrait of Francis Sheehy-Skeffington, Northeastern U. Press, 1983, p. 40 he married Hanna Sheehy, a teacher at the Rathmines College of Commerce (a forerunner of Dublin Institute of Technology). They jointly adopted the surname "Sheehy-Skeffington". Hanna's family were a prosperous farming and milling family in County Cork. Her father had been a Nationalist MP, and had been imprisoned no less than six times for revolutionary activities.Thomas O'Riordan, "Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington" , Multitext Project in Irish History, University College Cork, accessed 30 March 2016.
The couple joined the Irish Women's Suffrage and Local Government Association, and the Young Ireland Branch of the United Irish League (the constituency element of the Irish Parliamentary Party). They also supported the Women's Social and Political Union, which lobbied for women's rights in Britain. Shortly after they married, Francis organised a petition to lobby for women to be admitted to University College on the same basis as men. When the university refused to take that step, Francis resigned from his job as registrar in protest, relying on Hanna to support him for a time.Marian Broderick, Wild Irish Women: Extraordinary Lives from History, Dublin: O'Brien Press, 2012, p. 168. He was President of the Socialist Party of Ireland.Barberis et al, Encyclopedia of British and Irish Political Organizations, pp. 207-08, 251.
In 1907, Francis wrote a novel, In Dark and Evil Days, which was published in 1916, after his death.Francis Sheehy Skeffington, In Dark and Evil Days, Dublin : J. Duffy, 1916.
In 1908, he published a biography of the Irish nationalist and Land League agitator Michael Davitt.Michael Davitt; Revolutionary, Agitator, and Labor Leader; Book review by James Connolly , Marxists.org; accessed 5 June 2020.
In 1909 Francis and Hanna had a son, Owen. They were much criticised for refusing to have him baptised.