Born May 24, 1877, in Kanturk, Cork, Ireland. Hanna was one of Ireland's most ardent supporters for women's rights. She was a highly influential figure during the early women's movements; tirelessly campaigning for the equality of men and women in Ireland. Hanna was exposed to republican politics from a young age, due to her her father's involvement with the Irish Republican Brotherhood and later as an MP. Her uncle, Fred Sheehy, was renowned Land League priest. However, Hanna's father had consistently voted against all suffragist bills, which gave her real insight into how marginalized women were in society. Hanna married, Francis Sheehy-Skeffington, a writer and radical political activist, in 1903 and together had a son, Owen. They couple divorced in 1916.
Much of what Hanna learned through her interactions with various political thinkers in her early life, had a huge impact on her political motivations later in life. Two of her primary goals throughout her career were national freedom and women's rights. She founded the Irish Women's Franchise League (IWFL), in 1908, with her husband, Frank Sheehy-Skeffington and Margaret Cousins. The IWFL was a militant suffragist organization, that played a key role in the civil rights movement in Ireland. Hanna also became one of the founding members of the Irish Women Workers Union, which was an autonomous branch of the Irish Transport & General Workers Union (ITGWU). She also published articles in the, Irish Citizen, a newspaper her and her husband had established; at a time when print was a central aspect to political dissemination. Through the Irish Citizen, Hanna was at liberty to write openly about the lives of Irish women, to change the way people viewed traditional gender roles, especially the place of women in society.
But her fight for women's emancipation went far beyond the print, she was determined to pave a new way, to defy preconceptions of these issues. This is clearly demonstrated by her participation in the events of June 13, 1912; along with a crowd of other women in Dublin, threw rocks, smashing windows in Dublin Castle. This was an act to "symbolically smash male rule", in retaliation for the disenfranchisement of women from the 3rd Home Rule Bill. Hanna lost her teaching job after this and was one among many, who risked persecution, in order to fight against the limitations placed on women's freedom.
In regard to Irish independence, the constitution and women's places within them, Hanna was ultimately disappointed by the government's vision for modern Irish society. She took a strong stance with the anti-Treaty advocates, feeling like pro-Treaty people were "playing it safe" and would never see the "truly-free Ireland" she envisioned. The constitution failed to include that women would enjoy more freedom under Irish governance, rather than English. It laid out the same boundaries for women that had been laid out by previous governing elite and didn't reflect the efforts of Hanna and her comrades to increase opportunities for women and break them out of the confines of their traditional roles. Though independence had been won for Ireland in 1921 but "the wives, daughters and sisters of Ireland saw little change in their prospect".
Though the constitution was a disappointment, Hanna considered women's involvement in the Easter Uprising of April 24, 1916, as the first time in Irish history that the struggle for women's emancipation and national freedom came together. The uprising initially received little support from the Irish people but eventually opinions shifted and the leaders who were executed, were lauded as martyrs. Hanna hoped the Easter Uprising would create a new sense of independence for Irish women and pave the way for a major shift in the way people viewed traditional gender roles. Though she was a dedicated republican, she never let that override her motivation to demarginalize women, maintaining the importance of women's rights in the running of the Irish state. Hanna was definitely willing to push the boundaries of "socially acceptable dissent".
Hanna is remembered by many as a incredibly insightful thinker and pioneer of women's rights in Ireland. Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington died April 20, 1946.
Side notes:
Irish Republican Brotherhood- a secret fraternity organization, that campaigned for "independent democratic republic" in Ireland.
Land League- a political organization which sought to abolish the landlord system in Ireland and enable tenant farmers to own the land they worked.
https://womensmuseumofireland.ie/articles/hanna-sheehy-skeffington
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Female Rebels & Activists
Phi Hư Cấu"We need women who are so strong they can be gentle, so educated they can be humble, so fierce they can be compassionate, so passionate they can be rational and so disciplined they can be free" ...
