1
1 Pembroke Park
Dublin. 30thApril 1916. Dear MrsSkeffington, I feel I must write you a line to tell you
how very grieved I am to hear of the heavy
sorrow which has fallen upon you. It seems
to we particularly tragic that Mr. Skiffington
should have been one of the first victims of
a disaster which he so earnestly strove to avert.
The whole business is so like a horrible nightmare
that one can scarcely taking about it. Yrs. sincerely H.S. Chenevix
Letter from H.S. Chenevix (1886-1963) to Hanna Sheehy Skeffington (1877-1946). Chenevix
sends her condolences regarding the death of Hanna's husband, Francis.
Chenevix (1886–1963) was a suffragist, trade unionist, and social campaigner. In 1911,
she co-founded the Irishwomen's Suffragist Federation, a non-militant, secular, and
politically independent organization that attempted to coordinate suffrage efforts.
She also helped to form the Dublin's Irish Women's Reform League and the Belfast's
Women's Suffrage Society and campaigned for women's suffrage to be included in the
1912 Home Rule Bill. Hanna Sheehy Skeffington (1877-1946) suffragette, nationalist,
language teacher, was the founder of the Irish Women’s Franchise League and a founding
member of the Irish Women Workers’ Union. She was the widow of Francis Sheehy-Skeffington
who was summarily executed on 26 April 1916. She was active during the Rising, bringing
food to the Volunteers in the G.P.O. and the College of Surgeons. Four days passed
before she found out what had happened to her husband, Francis (1878-1916), and it
wasn't until almost two weeks later that the full details of his execution emerged.