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THE LIMIT PRINTING AND
PUBLISHING CO., LTD. TELEPHONE
CENTRAL 5991
The Herald
(The National Labour Weekly)
21, TUDOR STREET, LONDON, E. C.
8.5.14
My dear Mrs Sheehy Sheffington Your card is just to hand, I can hardly
write to you so dreadful is the news, May God in His
infinite love & Mercy comfort console & cheer you &
yours. I cannott imagine your dear devoted husband
as a rebel in areas, to me he was always the embodiment
of pacifisium, a passive but never one to use
violence, now he is gone & we are all poorer for his death,
but he is not dead, neither is the cause of which he
Toiled & worked, out of the evils of to day a new & better
day will come & as Fanny Parnell says it herself wi her
beautiful poems. Your husband wi his will hear
the shouting & his spirit join in the rejoicings, his has
been a life for God & the people. All in this office send you love & good wishes
& and my wife whom you have never seen send you
with me our & our love again God bless
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& keep you
Always
JLansbury God gives us love
Something to love He us
When love has grown to ripeness
That on which love strove
Drops off
and love is left alone
In this letter from George Lansbury (1859-1940) to Hanna Sheehy Skeffington (1877-1946),
George expresses his grief over the death of Hanna's husband, Francis. He writes regarding
the work of Francis' life and laments the circumstances of his death. He finished
by sending his love and with a comforting quotation.
George Lansbury was a British politician who held socialist views and advocated for
social justice, disarmament, and women's suffrage. He held various elected offices
and was the editor of the Daily Herald, which he helped to establish. Hanna Sheehy
Skeffington, 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.