Letter from Alfreda Baker to Hanna Sheehy Skeffington, 9 May 1916 Letters 1916-1923 Alfreda Baker

This work was originally published by Maynooth University in Ireland in 2017. In 2026 this data, stored in a relational database was extracted and converted into this TEI/XML document.

 Austrian Centre for Digital Humanities Vienna, AT 2026

This is an open access work licensed under Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial 4.0 International license (CC BY-NC 4.0).

In this letter from Alfreda Baker (1893-1984) to Hanna Sheehy Skeffington(1877-1946), Alfreda offers her sympathy in regards to the murder of Hanna's husband, Francis. Alfreda expresses her sadness at his death, reflecting on Francis' positive qualities and her experiences with him. Alfreda inquires about what Hanna is doing and if she has any friends with her and closes with another few lines on Francis' character. Alfreda Helen Baker was a consulting surgeon who graduated from Queen's University Belfast who worked at a number of hospitals in England and Northern Ireland. 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.

 National Library of Ireland Sheehy-Skeffington Papers, Collection List No.47; MS 33,605/2-15 https://letters1916.ie/item/3700 English Alfreda Baker 1916-05-09 Trevena, Cornwall, England Hanna Sheehy Skeffington Female 1984 Easter Rising Ireland 1916 Easter Rising Ireland 1916

The data in these XML files was generated based on a data dump from the Magellan database (https://github.com/Maynooth-Center-for-Digital-Humanities/Magellan). Each database record has been converted to a JSON file (https://github.com/letters1916static/letters-data/tree/main/json). The element section of the JSON file contains the TEI-encoded contents of the letters. The TEI XML has been cleaned and made well-formed using a Python script (https://github.com/letters1916static/letters-data/tree/main/src).

 TrevenaKnock May 9 : 16 My dear Joan I do not know how to write to you —these words kept running in my head:- Fearnot them that are not able to kill the soul-I tried, at the Great Northern Station, last week, to geta letter through to you — and, there, and at the G.P.O Iasked could I send a wire ? Until Geoffrey Tickell returned to Campbell to-day,I did not know that the bad news was quitedefinite, there seemed some slight reason to hopethat the rumour was not well founded. My dear,my dear, comfort is far from you. I am sure -I feel sick when I think of your dear man's bright,unselfish personaility, and of the sweet kindnessthe children and I have experienced from him. Heis certainly one of the salt of the earth. You won'tbegin to think of him in the past tense, darling, don'tdo that — he has gone away to the next — and morevitally alive — stage — and separation for a time ishard enough, God knows — I am still so much in the dark, that I cannot write much. Tell me, do, what you and little Owen are doing — have you any friends with you? The girls and Hugh are greatly distressed at the loss of the friend of whom they, like me, feel so proud — he is, always has seemed so, so filled with a high courage. Dear love, thine Alfreda Alfreda Baker Letter from Alfreda Helen Baker to Hanna Sheehy Skeffington, 11 May 1916Letter from Alfreda Baker to Hanna Sheehy Skeffington, 14 May 1916Letter from Alfreda Baker to Hanna Sheehy Skeffington, 9 May 1916 Trevena, Cornwall, England Letter from Alfreda Helen Baker to Hanna Sheehy Skeffington, 11 May 1916Letter from Alfreda Baker to Hanna Sheehy Skeffington, 9 May 1916