FROM THE ARCHIVES:Court cases arising out of the campaign for votes for women in 1912 continued, with this one involving a man charged with using threatening, abusive or insulting language during a suffragette meeting in the Phoenix Park. – JOE JOYCE
CONSTABLE BEGG, 66 D, stated that on the evening of the date mentioned, between four and five o’clock, a meeting of the Irish Women’s Franchise League was held in the Park. There was a large crowd present, and while the speakers were addressing the meeting there were constant interruptions. When Miss Bloxham was speaking the accused said: “There is a dial for you. If the women of Ireland were all like you I’d leave the country.” That was said in an insulting way.
When Mr. [Francis] Sheehy-Skeffington was speaking, the accused also used the same offensive observations. He was booing and hissing. His remarks were punctuated with cheers and shouts. Cross-examined by Mr. Friery [defence solicitor], witness said he was present when Mr. Sheehy-Skeffington commenced to speak, but could not say whether Mr. Skeffington commenced by referring to the Ancient Order of Hibernians as the Ancient Order of Hooligans. Did you hear that he said that? I read it in the papers, but did not hear it. Did you hear him speak in terms of approval of one of the most diabolical outrages of modern times, the attempt [by suffragettes] to burn the Theatre Royal? I was not paying attention to him.
Did you hear him describe the women who were engaged in that work as martyrs? No, I did not hear them described as noble women. It is a common practice for interruptions or heckling to take place at these meetings. [. . .] Do you happen to know that Sheehy-Skeffington desecrated clergymen’s clothes by hiring them for the purpose of getting into the Theatre Royal with the object of interrupting the Prime Minister? I don’t know. I read that he went there for that purpose, and that he went in in a clergyman’s attire.
Do you know that was the only occasion on which he wore a trousers – (laughter) – and that the clergyman’s suit had been used by “Father Tom” in the “Shaughraun,” and had been hired by Mrs. Glenville? (Laughter.) [. . .] Mr. Friery stated the defendant and his children were driving through the Park and stopped for a few minutes. It was the first meeting he had attended, and it would be the last. The language used by
Mr. Sheehy-Skeffington was very provocative. Could anything be more outrageous than to approve of the monstrous action of the woman who threw the hatchet at Mr. Redmond [Nationalist party leader]? Could anything be more abominable than to describe as martyrs women who attempted to set fire to the Theatre Royal? Mr. Nolan [defendant] regretted that he had made use of any personal remarks . . .
Mr. Mahony [magistrate] said the defendant should have left these people, the suffragists, in severe isolation. He would have to pay a fine of £1.