Well, last Wednesday night will go down as a Red Letter Day in the history of our Society. We welcomed over eighty attendees to the December talk, which was given by Micheline Sheehy Skeffington, and was on the subject of her grandparents, Francis and Hanna Sheehy Skeffington. We have never had so many spontaneous rounds of applause during or after a lecture, and we have never had so many people stand up during the question and answer session afterwards just to thank her so profusely for the lecture she had just given. It was truly awe-inspiring.
Some of this was down to the subject matter being discussed. There was the story of Hanna, who arguably did more than anyone else to bring the right to vote to the women of Ireland as the leading suffragette of her time. Her activism did not end in 1918 with the passing of the suffrage act though; she continued her whole life to fight for good causes, and to inspire people around her to do the same. Her husband Frank’s life was no less enthralling, and we heard about his work and his writing on pacifism, anti-vivisectionism, vegetarianism, socialism, and feminism.
But so much of Wednesday night’s success came from the skill of Micheline herself. She explained these complicated philosophies to us in ways that were easy to understand. Her slideshow told a story which captivated us all – a particularly memorable moment was when she moved from Hanna’s childhood embroidery of a house to a recently-discovered family connection to a building in Limerick, and we were amazed to see that they were one and the same. Micheline wove her personal recollections into the narrative, such as remembering the huge green banner of the Irish Women’s Franchise League lying rolled up and forgotten in the corner of the attic, and we felt invited into the history of Hanna and Francis in a very special way.
Micheline is making a documentary of Hanna’s journey to America one hundred years ago, and the powerful impact that she had on Irish-American politics there. You can donate to help fund this film at this link. Let’s hope they reach their funding target because the story of these really incredible people deserves to be better known.
We would like to thank Micheline for travelling to give us this really special lecture last Wednesday night. Thank you to our venue, the Lakeside Hotel, for giving us a room to hold it in, and therefore giving us the power to make all of our lectures forever free to anybody to attend. Our local history is so fantastic, we think there should be no barrier to anybody to hear all about it!
We’ll be back to you soon with news of the January lecture, and in the meantime HAPPY CHRISTMAS! If you haven’t sent all your Christmas cards yet, we have a few local history ones for sale in WHELAN’S SHOP in Killaloe (five for a tenner), but only a few, so get on down ASAP if you want some!
Killaloe-Ballina