FROM THE ARCHIVES:Along with Home Rule and the rise of the labour movement, the other major issue in 1912 was votes for women, which led to this court appearance by four campaigners.
YESTERDAY, IN the Southern Police Court, before Mr Swifte, Mrs Margaret Palmer, 26 Leeson Park Avenue, was charged with having broken six panes of glass in the office, No 23 of the Irish Land Commission, Upper Merrion Street. Miss Jane Murphy, of the same address, was charged with having broken one pane of glass in the office of the Department of Agriculture, Upper Merrion Street. Mrs Hannah Sheehy-Skeffington was charged with having broken 19 panes of glass, valued at 30s, in Ship Street Military Barracks, the property of the War Department. Miss Margaret Murphy, 26 Leeson Park Avenue, was also charged with breaking windows in Ship Street Barracks.
The deposition of Constable 119 B was then read. It stated that between five and six o’clock on the morning of the 13th inst (that month), the constable saw Mrs Sheehy-Skeffington and Miss Murphy at Ship Street Barracks. Mrs Sheehy-Skeffington had a stick and Miss Murphy had stones and they were breaking windows in the barrack. He arrested one of the defendants, and a soldier arrested the other.
Mr O’Dempsey (defending solicitor) said: “There was no person hurt in this. The damage was done at a time when no danger to the place could arise. Breaking glass is a recognised form of indulging in agitation. (Laughter) In the reform agitation it was done. (Laughter)”
Mr Horan (prosecutor) said: “And the people who did it were hanged. (Laughter)”
Mr O’Dempsey said these ladies wanted, in a striking dramatic manner, to bring their grievances forward, and he urged that they should be treated with leniency.
Mr Horan: “They broke glass.”
Mr O’Dempsey: “Yes, but it was in furtherance of an agitation for reform.”
Mrs Sheehy-Skeffington then addressed his worship. She said that in this matter they had acted deliberately. They had found that constitutional methods had been exhausted in Ireland. What they had done was intended as a warning to the future Irish government as to what they might expect if the women of this country were excluded from the ordinary rights of citizens.
Mr Swifte said the defendants had shown themselves to be ladies of ability. There was no doubt that the objects they had in view were perfectly legitimate – to obtain votes for women. But an agitation to obtain redress should be conducted in accordance with the law of the land. His sentence was 40s, or a month for each of the accused, and, further, that they each find bail in £10, or go to jail for a further month.
Mrs. Sheehy-Skeffington: “I will give no bail. (Applause)”
There were cheers, applause, hissing, and some boohs from the ladies in the gallery, which Mr Swifte ordered to be cleared.
Mrs Palmer, as she left the dock, exclaimed: “Keep the flag flying.”