[article] Murder of the pacifist Francis Sheehy Skeffington

IIMII

Interesting piece in today's Irish Man's Diary..

Irish Times, Thu, Oct 22, 2009
ONE OF THE MOST depraved deeds of Easter Week 1916 was the murder of the pacifist Francis Sheehy Skeffington and two other innocent men. The report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the killings gives a graphic account of the callousness with which Sheehy Skeffington’s widow and family were treated by the British authorities immediately after his death. Presided over by Sir John A Simon, a barrister and MP, the inquiry sat for six days at the Four Courts in Dublin during August 1916 and examined 38 witnesses. Its report, issued just a month after the hearing, described the savagery of the shooting of the three men at Portobello Barracks two days after the Rising on Easter Monday, writes WESLEY BOYD


Sheehy Skeffington was arrested on his way to his home in Rathmines after holding a meeting in the city centre on the Tuesday in an effort to recruit civilian volunteers to stop looting.
A few hours later two journalists were detained. Patrick James McIntyre, was the editor of the Searchlight, and Thomas Dickson, was the editor of an equally obscure journal, the Eye-Opener. Neither had any connection with the Rising or with Sinn Féin. They were all kept overnight in Portobello Barracks. (“Mr Sheehy Skeffington, as being of a superior social position, was put into a separate cell and was made as comfortable as possible,” the report notes.)
The next morning Capt Bowen-Colthurst of the Royal Irish Rifles, who had been seriously wounded in France and invalided home, and who was now the senior captain in Portobello, informed his fellow officers (“young men who had recently left school”, according to the report) that he intended to shoot the three men as he thought “it was the best thing to do”.
They were taken out to the yard and Bowen-Colthurst quickly assembled a firing party of seven soldiers. On his order they fired “upon the three prisoners who had then just turned to face them”.
All three fell as a result of the volley. The bodies were wrapped in sheets and buried in the barrack square.
Mrs Sheehy Skeffington could not find out what had happened to her husband but was hearing alarming rumours from various sources.
On the Friday her two sisters, Mrs Culhane and Mrs Kettle, went to Rathmines police station but were told the police had no information; it was suggested they should enquire at Portobello Barracks.
The shocking treatment which they and their sister had subsequently to endure is particularly distressful in the light of their family background.
Roaring revolutionaries they were not. They were the daughters of David Sheehy, MP of the Irish Parliamentary Party. Their brother, Lieut Sheehy, of the Dublin Fusiliers, was fighting against the insurgents in the city. Mrs Kettle’s husband, the poet Tom, himself a former MP at Westminster, was fighting on the Somme (where he was to be killed five months later) with the same regiment. Mrs Culhane’s recently deceased husband had been a senior court official.
The report notes: “In such circumstances Mrs Sheehy Skeffington not unreasonably expected that whatever fate had overtaken her own husband, her two sisters would at least be treated with candour and consideration at the barracks and would be able to obtain such information as was available about their brother-in-law.”
But her sisters were shown no consideration at Portobello. They were arrested on the grounds that they had been seen talking to Sinn Féiners after inquiring about the whereabouts of their brother, Lieut Sheehy, and their brother-in-law. They were questioned by Bowen-Colthurst, who told them: “I know nothing whatever about Mr Sheehy Skeffington.”
He ordered them to leave the barracks “the sooner the better” and they were escorted to the tramway by a junior officer.
Later in the day, Mrs Sheehy Skeffington learned about the death of her husband in a roundabout way. She was in contact with a man named Coade whose son had been shot on the street by Bowen- Colthurst as he was returning from a religious sodality meeting on the same day that her husband had been arrested.
Mr Coade had been allowed to see the dead body of his son in Portobello by Fr O’Loughlin, the chaplin at the barracks. Alongside his son was the body of Sheehy Skeffington. Mr Coade suggested that Mrs Sheehy Skeffington should get in touch with Father O’Loughlin. She did and he confirmed her husband was dead and already buried.
A couple of hours after learning of her husband’s death, Mrs Skeffington was putting her seven-year-old son to bed when a volley of shots shattered the windows of her house.
Soldiers with fixed bayonets, led by Bowen-Colthurst, smashed through the door. Mrs Skeffington, her son and a young maid-servant were held under armed guard while the house was ransacked for more than three hours. Books and pamphlets belonging to her husband were taken away, along with photographs of Keir Hardie, the British Labour leader, and Michael Davitt. The house was raided again three days later.
Mrs Skeffington and her son were not at home but a new maid-servant – the first had fled terrified after the previous raid – was arrested and detained for six days at Rathmines police station without charge.
The Commission of Inquiry’s main conclusion was: “The shooting of unarmed and unresisting civilians without trial constitutes the offence of murder, whether martial law has been proclaimed or not.”
The following June Bowen- Colthurst was tried by court martial. He was found guilty but insane and was committed to the prison for the criminally insane at Broadmoor. Some reports claim he was quietly released after a few years and allowed to go to Canada.
© 2009 The Irish Times

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2009/1022/1224257223044.html

brianthebard

Why was this in the paper, slow news day?

donaghs

You can find their family 1911 census form online. Always different, under the column for "Religion", they have written "Information Refused".

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Dublin/Rathmines___Rathgar_West/Grosvenor_Place/65752/

IIMII

brianthebard wrote: »

Why was this in the paper, slow news day?

No, the Irish Man's diary, you know yourself. Mind you, I get your gist. Nothing new, none of the Kevin Myers moralising etc

Fratton Fred

brianthebard wrote: »

Why was this in the paper, slow news day?

I thought this was quite up to date for the Times.

They carried a story the other day about some Duke who got himself killed down in Serbia

Horrible story. It does sound like the Captain was a complete bastard headcase, but the chances were he was the son of someone powerful, or went to the right school so he would have protected at all costs.

topper75

A sorry and tragic tale. Thanks for posting the article. Wouldn't have caught this otherwise. Historians tend to focus their attention on divisive extremists rather than on the selfless.

MarchDub

After release Bowen-Colthurst reportedly spent the rest of his life as a bank manager in British Columbia. A number of sources cite this including Donald Akenson's article on the life of Conor Cruise O'Brien published in the Canadian Journal of History, 1995.

Insane, out of control banker...now why is that familiar?

brianthebard

IIMII wrote: »

No, the Irish Man's diary, you know yourself. Mind you, I get your gist. Nothing new, none of the Kevin Myers moralising etc

I've read the times about 2 times in the last 4 years so I didn't really cop what the column was about. Thanks. Myers probably did just have writers block and threw that to the editor though.

Fratton Fred wrote: »

I thought this was quite up to date for the Times.

They carried a story the other day about some Duke who got himself killed down in Serbia

Lol. 95 years after the event happens, yeah that seems like enough time has passed for them to talk about the easter rising calmly....

Horrible story. It does sound like the Captain was a complete bastard headcase, but the chances were he was the son of someone powerful, or went to the right school so he would have protected at all costs.

Is captain a high ranking officer? I've often read about this event over the summer but never heard any mention of family connections, and would've thought he would have gotten off the court martial if he was protected. On the other hand the double barrel name seems to suggest wealth.

MarchDub

topper75 wrote: »

A sorry and tragic tale. Thanks for posting the article. Wouldn't have caught this otherwise. Historians tend to focus their attention on divisive extremists rather than on the selfless.

In defence of historians the story of the pacifist Francis Sheety-Skeffington and his wife the suffragette Hanna Sheety is well studied and well known. He was a friend of many prominent in Irish life at the time including James Joyce, Oliver St John Gogarty, Tom Kettle. He testified against the police [DMP] in the 1914 riot trial saying that it was a "police riot" and that the police were out of control.

MarchDub

brianthebard wrote: »

Is captain a high ranking officer? I've often read about this event over the summer but never heard any mention of family connections, and would've thought he would have gotten off the court martial if he was protected. On the other hand the double barrel name seems to suggest wealth.

This was part of a wider undisciplined style that included civilian murders in King Street. Thirteen unarmed civilians were killed by the army including a father and two of his young sons who were taken out of their home and shot in the street. No inquiry was ever carried out on the solders responsible. The incident was part of Dublin folklore for years until confirmed by the release of papers by the British government about 8 years ago.

MarchDub

Found this article by Peter Berrisford Ellis reproduced here on this site. It deals with Sir Francis Vane who was the one who revealed the details of the murder of Sheehy-Skeffington and witnessed the cover-up and others during 1916.


http://www.irishidentity.com/extras/hidden/stories/courage.htm

McArmalite

IIMII wrote: »

He was found guilty but insane and was committed to the prison for the criminally insane at Broadmoor.

It's a escape door the british propaganda/dirty tricks dept. often use to excuse/blacken an individual. I'd very much doubt he did a few years in Broadmoor, more like a few days if even that. For example, I haven't the exact details but I rememeber reading in one of Tim Pat Coogans books, about down in Waterford where one of the very, very few Catholic clergy man took a stance against british thuggery and refused to carry out funeral mass for the burial of a black and tan. After a few days later on a Sunday morning, the priest and two men where out walking. A lorry load of auxilliary's ( if I rememeber rightly) passing by, stopped, got out of the lorry and an officer shot the priest, one of the men beside him, and told the third man that he wasn't going to shoot him as he wanted someone to be a witness to it that the british army had done it.

Turns out that the third man was actually a Judge who reported the murders directly to the highest authority's. The officer whio carried it out after an 'offical' inquiry :rolleyes:, was deemed to be mentally upset with the conditions caused on him by the IRA etc, etc and sent back to England. ( Appearently he was the only british soldier who in any way was reprimanded for his actions in Ireland up until December 1984 when a Prv Ian Thain was convicted of murder by shooting a young Belfast man in the back several times in front of witnesses but only did 26 months of his sentence and was released back to rejoin his regiment )

McArmalite

IIMII wrote: »

He was found guilty but insane and was committed to the prison for the criminally insane at Broadmoor.

Also if you remember, in the movie A Bridge too Far which was based on Cornelius Ryan's honest account of the battle, a young intelligence officer on seeing intelligence photos tries to make anyone who will listen aware that their is an SS Panzer division in the area. The top brass fearful that they will have to cancel the operation, then get the young fella certified to say he is having a nervous breakdown or something to discredit him and get him removed from his position. Same happened to Fred Holyrod who whistle blew on collusion between british Intelligence and the loyalists. To quote Ken Livingstone who used his maiden speech in the Commons to highlight Holroyd's allegations - " For those who do not know, Mr. Holroyd served in Northern Ireland with distinction. As I said, he is no Socialist. He comes from a military family. His whole objective in life was to serve in the British Army. He believed in it totally....Holroyd then started to object to the use of such illegal methods by MI5 officers. He was immediately shuffled to one side by the expedient method of being taken to a mental hospital and being declared basically unfit for duty. "

As I said, the is an old escape door used by the british propaganda/dirty tricks dept, then and now.

ejmaztec

I see that back in 1981 a dramatised account of the mad captain's actions was made. It also seems that his part was played by Baldrick (Tony Time-Team Robinson) from Black Adder. It must have been one of his early cunning plans.:eek:


http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0496637/

ejmaztec

Here's another bit from Hansard, the official transcription of what goes on in the UK parliament.

HANSARD 1803–2005 → 1910s → 1916 → October 1916 → 19 October 1916 → Commons Sitting → DISTURBANCES IN IRELAND.
CAPTAIN BOWEN-COLTHURST.

HC Deb 19 October 1916 vol 86 c705 705

§ 29. Mr. M'KEAN asked the Chief Secretary if he will say whether Captain Bowen-Colthurst was certified as insane by any competent medical authority; and if he will state the name and qualifications of such authority and the date on which the certificate of insanity was given?

§ Mr. DUKE I am informed that Captain Bowen-Colthurst was found guilty, but insane, by the court-martial which tried him, and that before committal to the Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum he was examined and found insane by Dr. Dawson, Inspector of Lunatic Asylums, at present serving in Ireland as mental specialist to the Forces in Ireland.

§ Mr. DEVLIN May I ask whether the military superiors of Captain Bowen-Colthurst are also insane? Are they still retained?

§ Mr. DUKE I do not understand that there has been any trial or any conclusion on any matter of that kind.

§ Mr. REDDY Give them all medals.

§ Mr. BYRNE Is it not the fact that Captain Bowen-Colthurst was found unfit to control a section of the Army on the battlefields of France fighting the Huns, and will he say why he was allowed to run loose on unarmed citizens in Dublin?

§ Mr. DUKE Captain Bowen-Colthurst was never under the control of the Executive whom I at present represent in this House. He was at all times a military officer, and the Department which represents him in this House is the War Office, and no doubt if a question is addressed to the Secretary of State for War he will answer it. I am not able to do so.

§ Mr. BYRNE Can the right hon. Gentleman say whether he was under Major Price or not?

§ Mr. DUKE I have not the least idea.

§ Mr. FLAVIN Can the right hon. Gentleman say at what particular moment did Captain Bowen-Colthurst conveniently become insane?

Back to CONVICTION OF JOHN MACNEILL.
Forward to INTERNED AMERICAN CITIZEN.


Noticed a typo? | Report other issues | © UK Parliament

Snickers Man

This story is indeed well known. One of the people who frequently referred to it was Francis Sheey Skeffington's nephew, the late Conor Cruise O'Brien.

Although he said himself that he was not an admirer of Sheehy Skeffington, reckoning that he wouldn't have liked him very much, he was a great friend of the man's son, his cousin Owen Sheefy Skeffington who later became a senator. Cruiser reckoned he would have been much fonder of his other uncle Tom Kettle, a Nationalist MP who had joined up in 1914 and was killed in the war.

In his memoirs he described one of the after effects of the treatment of Sheehy Skeffington's extended family. Kettle came home on leave in his army uniform and his own daughter ran away from him in terror, remembering how roughly men wearing the same uniform had treated her family earlier that year.

One can only imagine the troubles caused by conflicting loyalties and conflicting ideals in a time such as that.

ejmaztec

I see that Bowen-Colthurst was locked up in Broadmoor for two years, then took off to Canada, probably in disgrace, and to get as far away from his deeds as possible. It also looks like he's got a few descendants in the Vancouver area, one of whom was congratulated on reaching her 100th birthday a couple or more years ago. I wonder how much they know about their ancestor's less than illustrious past. A Canadian "Who do you think you are?" would be interesting, and possibly more violent than usual.