FROM THE ARCHIVES:The votes-for-women campaign faced increased hostility in Dublin in 1912 following the visit by British prime minister Herbert Asquith to address a pro-Home Rule rally which some suffragettes tried to disrupt. One Englishwoman threw a hatchet at Asquith in Nassau Street, hitting Nationalist leader John Redmond who was sharing the prime minister's open carriage. This hostility apparently lay behind this attack on a young woman.
IN THE Northern [Dublin] Police Court yesterday, before Mr. Macinerney, K.C., three women and a young boy were prosecuted by the police for being concerned in an attack on a young country girl, who was evidently regarded as a “suffragette”, in Summerhill the previous afternoon.
The accused were – Ellen Ahern, 4 Lower Rutland street, aged 35, who was charged with assaulting Miss Eileen Nolan, Newtown, Celbridge, Co. Kildare, on the previous evening by striking her in the face with her clenched fist, catching hold of her and knocking her down . . .;
Annie Dowdall, 19 Upper Rutland street, 22 years of age, prosecuted for assault on the same complainant, by striking her on the right side with street mud, and, when remonstrated with by the police for doing so, having used obscene and profane language;
Mary Dowdall, 5 Upper Rutland street, aged 44 years, was charged with attempting to rescue Annie Dowdall, her daughter-in- law, from the custody of the police, by catching hold of her and saying she would not let her go, and calling on a large and hostile crowd to liberate her; and Patrick O’Connor, 41 Marlborough street, described as a messenger, and about 16 years of age, who was charged with attempting to assault Miss Nolan while she was being taken by the police to the station for protection, by throwing a stone at her.
It appeared that Miss Nolan was passing along Summerhill between 4 and 5 o’clock when a crowd of over 200 persons surrounded her, and called her a suffragette. Immediately the police appeared on the scene, and Sergeant O’Reilly stated that but for the timely interference rendered by him and his comrades the young girl would have been seriously injured, if not killed.
Further evidence of his was to the effect that the crowd raised shouts of “She is a suffragette” . . .
As a result of the attack, Miss Nolan’s coat was torn and covered with mud. Her hat was tossed, and she was in an excited state. He had to take her to the police station for protection . . .
Mr. Macinerney said this was a young lady who had come from the country. She was called a “suffragette,” and was set upon by a crowd of two or three hundred people, and might have lost her life, or sustained serious injury, were it not for the protection of the police. It reminded him of the time of the French Revolution, when innocent persons were denounced and set upon as if they were mad dogs, and stoned in the streets. It was intolerable that this class of conduct should prevail in the city.
[The three women were later convicted.]