1
The Labour Leader
The OFFICIAL ORGAN of the INDEPENDENT LABOUR PARTY
Telephone 5206 & 5207 City Telegrams: Democracy, Manchester
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
30 Blackfriars Street
Manchester May 12 1916. Mrs SheeySkeffington,
11, Grosvenor Place,
DUBLIN.
Dear Mrs Skeffington, I just want to say how
deeply I sympathise with you in the loss of
your brave husband. Your only consolation
can be the certainty that his courageous death
has borne noble witness to his Pacifist faith.
Very sincerely yours,
Archibald Brockway.
The Editor.
Letter from Archibald Fenner Brockway (1888-1988) to Hanna Sheehy Skeffington (1877-1946)
offering sympathy sympathy in regards to the murder of Hanna's husband, Francis Sheehy-Skeffington
(1878-1916).
Archibald Fenner Brockway was the editor of the Labor Leader, a British socialist
newspaper. He was also a pacifist and therefore opposed to both conscription and participation
in the First World War.
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 and it wasn't until almost two weeks later that
the full details of his execution emerged.