1
60 Dawson Street 2nd Nov.1915 Dear Mrs Skeffington, I got your note this morning
and am very sorry indeed to
hear you are laid up: I hope it is nothing serious and that you
will very soon be all right again. I wonder if anyone has written up the dance for
you, in any
case I enclose a short note but found myself quite unable to write
of it at any length. I shall try and let you have something for
the Citizen as soon as possible, but unfortunately since our slack
season set in my manager has simply lived in the office, and I
have not had an opportunity of doing anything for weeks past. Trusting you will
soon be quite well. I dont at
all look forward to the meeting tonight, when you are absent the
whole thing seems to lack cohesion, and the discussion either
fizzles weakly out or goes entirely off the rails. With best wishes Very sincerely
yours K.M.E
In this letter from K.M.E. to Hanna Sheehy Skeffington (1877-1946), K.M.E. writes
that they are sorry to hear that Hanna has some down with some kind of illness and
that they hope for her recovery. They apologize for not being able to write about
a recent dance for the Irish Citizen, the newspaper Hanna edits. K.M.E. then writes
that they are not looking forward to the meeting that night if Hanna will not be there,
as when she is absent the meetings do not go as well.
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.