Sheehy-Skeffington, Hannah (1877–1946)

Irish patriot and feminist. One of the first women in Ireland to study at, and teach in, a university, she was a founder-member of the Irish Women Graduates' Association (1901) and campaigned ardently for votes for women. Her husband, the pacifist Francis Sheehy-Skeffington, was murdered by troops during the 1916 Easter Rising.

Sheehy-Skeffington was born in Kenturk, County Cork, into a strongly nationalist family. She was educated at the National University of Ireland (University College, Dublin), and after graduation became a teacher. In 1908, together with fellow suffragist Margaret Cousins and her husband, she established the Irish Women's Franchise League – in her own words ‘an avowedly militant association’. She was imprisoned for three months in 1912 while protesting at Dublin Castle at the exclusion of women from the Home Rule Bill.