1916 (35 page)

Women in the suffrage movement and those represented by
Bean na hÉireann
shared many basic feminist principles on the role and position of women.
Bean na hÉireann
advocated the unionisation of women workers, discussed the migration of Irish women from the farm, and reported progress on the women’s suffrage movement abroad. But it was on the precise issue of agitation for parliamentary suffrage from ‘an alien government’ that sharp differences arose:

As our country has had her freedom and her nationhood taken from her by England, so also our sex is denied emancipation and citizenship by the same enemy. So therefore the first step on the road to freedom is to realise ourselves as Irishwomen – not only as Irish or merely as women, but as Irish-women doubly enslaved, and with a double battle to fight.
³⁴

Relations between ‘separatist nationalists’ and sufffage groups became more strained from 1914. The formation of Cumann na mBan in April 1914 crystallised the differences between those who sought national freedom first and equal rights second, and those who sought ‘suffrage first before all else’. At the formation of the Irish Volunteers in November 1913 its general secretary had indicated that there would be work for women to do in the organisation. What would be the nature of this work? When the issue of women’s role within the Volunteers had been raised with Pádraig Pearse, he had confessed that they had been so busy organising and drilling the men, they had not had time to consider in any detail what work women might do, but he indicated:

First of all there will be ambulance and Red Cross work for them, and then I think a women’s rifle club is desirable. I would not like the idea of women drilling and marching in the ordinary way but there is no reason why they should not learn to shoot.
³⁵

An article in the
Irish Volunteer
early in 1914 suggested that women could do their duty within the movement by forming an ambulance corps, learning first aid, making flags and doing any necessary embroidery work on badges and uniforms, the writer asking: ‘To a patriotic Irishwoman could there be any work of more intense delight than this?’
³⁶
Shortly afterwards the organisation of women supporters of the Volunteers emerged in Dublin. The first public meeting of the Irish Women’s Council, afterwards known as Cumann na mBan, was held in Wynn’s hotel in April 1914, presided over by Agnes O’Farrelly. The first task they set themselves, the initiation of a defence of Ireland fund for arming and equipping the Volunteers, unleashed a torrent of criticism from suffrage campaigners. The pages of the
Irish Citizen
became the scene of a bitter war of words between women activists on both sides. Days after the inaugural meeting of Cumann na mBan, an
Irish Citizen
editorial criticised:

The slavish attitude of a group of women who have just formed an ‘Irish Women’s Council’, not to take any forward action themselves, but to help the men of the Irish Volunteers to raise money for their equipment, in generally toady to them as the Ulster unionist women have done to the Ulster Volunteers.
³⁷

This latter comment referred to the Ulster Women’s Unionist Council (UWUC), which had been formed in 1911 ‘with the incipient intent of supporting male unionists’ opposition to home rule for Ireland’.
³⁸
The
Irish Citizen
editorial continued that ‘such women deserve nothing but contempt, and will assuredly earn it’. Such strong criticism engendered counter-criticism. Mary MacSwiney, who had resigned from the suffrage movement in Cork because of the Munster Women’s Franchise League (MWFL)’s involvement in war work, wrote to the
Irish Citizen
,
accusing the paper of alienating nationalists from the suffrage cause, an argument agreed with by Helena Molony. In the
Freeman’s Journal
Hanna Sheehy Skeffington, reporting on a recent Cumann na mBan meeting she had attended, commented:

Any society of women which proposes to act merely as an ‘animated collecting box’ for men cannot have the sympathy of any self-respecting woman. The proposed ‘Ladies Auxiliary Committee’ has apparently no function beyond that of a conduit pipe to pour a stream of gold into the coffers of the male organisation, and to be turned off automatically as soon as it has served this mean and subordinate purpose.
³⁹

In the
Irish Independent
,
Máire Ní Chillín replied to Sheehy Skeffington’s arguments, stating:

The Volunteers have not sought our help. We give it freely and ungrudgingly. There is a large class of Irishwomen who believe that they are represented at the polls and on the battlefields by their husbands, fathers or sons, who want neither vote, nor rifle, nor stone to help them in asserting their rights, who are willing to act as conduit pipes or collecting boxes or armour polishers, or do any other good thing that would help on the cause.
⁴⁰

While many key women involved in establishing Cumann na mBan would not have agreed with this statement, the nature of the organisation left it open to charges of passivity. Two of its founders, Mary Colum and Louise Gavan Duffy, attempted to clarify this situation in the
Irish Independent
.
Pointing out that their organisation was in no sense a ladies auxiliary society, that it was an entirely distinct organisation from the Irish Volunteers with its own committee and constitution, and its own objects of organising women towards the advancement of Irish liberty, they declared:

We are a nationalist women’s political organisation and we propose to engage in any patriotic work that comes within the scope of our objects and constitution. We consider at the moment that helping to equip the Irish Volunteers is the most necessary national work. We may mention that many of the members of our society are keen suffragists, but as an organisation we must confine ourselves within the four walls of our constitution.
⁴¹

The core disagreement between suffragists and nationalist women in the pre-1916 scenario would appear to have been summed up in a letter to the
Irish Citizen
by Kathleen Connery of the IWFL that stated:

If there is ignorance of the suffrage to be overcome in Ireland, it is that type of ignorance which has its roots in a false conception of freedom and nationhood, and which is unable to grasp the simple fact that the freedom of Irish womanhood is a vital and indispensable factor in true Irish nationhood, not a mere trifling side issue to be settled anyhow or anytime at the convenience of men.
⁴²

P
OST
-1916

Later political developments would bring the two groups closer together. The cumulative effect of the 1916 rebellion, the killing of Francis Sheehy Skeffington, and the execution of republican leaders followed by the mass imprisonment of republican activists, all had a profound effect on women’s organisations. Although the 1916 Proclamation had been addressed to Irishmen and Irishwomen, and guaranteed equal rights and opportunities to all citizens, events were to prove that some Irish men needed reminding of these points. Neither the Proclamation nor the imminent passage of a British bill giving votes to women over thirty ensured that the way was now clear for women in public life. Following Sinn Féin victories at three by-elections in 1917, a conference held to unite the various groupings identified with Sinn Féin appointed a central steering committee of nine, one of whom was a woman, Josephine Mary Plunkett. Shortly afterwards women delegates to that conference held a meeting of their own. This meeting was attended by women from Inghinidhe na hÉireann, Cumann na mBan, the IWWU, and the Irish Citizen Army.
⁴³
When the question of suffrage was raised, it was pointed out that Sinn Féin candidates at the recent by-elections had taken their stand on the 1916 Proclamation which granted equal rights to all citizens; therefore, agitation for the vote was not deemed necessary as ‘the vote had already been granted to Irishwomen by Irishmen’. However, with the expansion of the original Sinn Féin committee of nine to include released Sinn Féin prisoners, women delegates met with resistance to their request for increased representation. A letter from the women to the Sinn Féin executive stated:

… [our claim] to be represented is based mainly on the republican Proclamation of Easter week 1916, which of course you are determined to uphold, [and] on the risks women took, equally with the men, to have the Irish Republic established.
⁴⁴

Their request was refused. The group considered sending a deputation to Sinn Féin, but initially decided against this, believing that ‘women have applied to them often enough and the matter should be left for Cumann na mBan for the present to see what they could do’.
⁴⁵
Cumann na mBan, however, had also been refused representation. Records of the women delegates’ group indicate that an article written by Dr Kathleen Lynn at this time, urging women to assert their political rights, had been sent to
Nationality
but not published. Eventually the women did form a deputation to the Sinn Féin executive who agreed to co-opt four women, on condition that none of them represent any organisation and that all be members of a Sinn Féin branch.
⁴⁶
The four women so co-opted were Jenny Wyse Power, Áine Ceannt, Helena Molony and Mimi Plunkett. A resolution was prepared by the women for consideration at a national convention of Sinn Féin in October 1917. This strongly worded resolution referred unambiguously to the clauses of the republican Proclamation which had guaranteed equal rights and opportunities to all citizens, and equality of women with men in all branches and executive bodies, asking that ‘the equality of men and women in this organisation be emphasised in all speeches, leaflets and pamphlets’.
⁴⁷

Before the convention the women considered circularising Sinn Féin members already proposed for the new executive regarding their attitudes to that paragraph in the Proclamation, but decided not to ‘for fear that it would weaken our case to appear to think that there could be any doubt on the point’.
⁴⁸
After some minor changes the women’s resolution was accepted. Four women were elected to the new Sinn Féin executive – Constance Markievicz, Dr Kathleen Lynn, Kathleen Clarke and Grace Plunkett. The
Irish Citizen
congratulated delegates to the convention for ‘embodying in their new constitution, in the most unequivocal terms, the democratic principle of the complete equality of men and women in Ireland’.
⁴⁹
The paper regretted there was so few women delegates, and hoped to see this inequality rectified at future conventions. At this stage the women delegates organised themselves formally into Cumann na dTeachtaire, a society to consist of women delegates to all future conferences held by Irish republicans. Its aims were: to safeguard the political rights of Irishwomen; to ensure adequate representation for them in the republican government; to urge and facilitate the appointment of women to public boards throughout the country; and to educate Irish women in the rights and duties of citizenship.
⁵⁰

The formation of this society was most significant. Many of its members had been active in some aspect of the suffrage campaign, and in many ways it appears to have filled a void for committed nationalist feminists. Its formation at this particular time indicates unease amongst such women about their role in the emerging new Ireland. Later events would prove that such unease was not unfounded.

Post-1916 a new co-operative spirit emerged between various women’s groups. A number of factors contributed to this. The constitution of Cumann na dTeachtaire noted its preparedness to confer with other women’s groups ‘whenever it can be accomplished without sacrifice of principle [as] the bringing together of all Irishwomen to discuss matters of common interest on a neutral platform could not but be beneficial to all’.
⁵¹
Links between the suffrage and labour movements were strengthened when Louie Bennett took over the running of both the IWWU and the
Irish Citizen
,
resulting in increased coverage of labour issues. The IWFL in particular was close to Cumann na dTeachtaire – in many cases women were members of both – and even the more conservative IWSLGA had links with the new nationalist group, again through some joint membership. Increasingly, the pages of the
Irish Citizen
showed a more nationalist bias, supporting the demand for political status for republican prisoners, and condemning forcible feeding. Both Cumann na dTeachtaire and the IWWU adopted St Brigid as their patron, the former declaring that ‘such a good suffragist should get recognition’.
⁵²

A number of significant issues emerged in 1918 that led to much cooperation between women’s groups. Chief among these was the attempt to introduce conscription into Ireland that year. Among the many meetings and demonstrations organised against this measure was a mass meeting of women at Dublin’s Mansion House, at which women from Cumann na mBan, the IWFL, and other women’s organisations pledged resistance.
⁵³
The other major issue on which women’s groups co-operated was the campaign against venereal disease and the related implementation of regulation 40d under the Defence of the Realm Act (DORA). In 1907 Arthur Griffith had drawn attention to British army medical reports that confirmed that there was a higher incidence of venereal disease among soldiers in Dublin than elsewhere in the United Kingdom.
⁵⁴
Concern amongst women’s groups about the issue had been evident for some time in the pages of the
Irish Citizen
.
In March 1918 Cumann na dTeachtaire organised a conference of women’s societies to consider ‘this serious menace’, which it noted ‘was a matter on which women of every shade of political opinion could unite to discuss the best measures to combat this evil’.
⁵⁵
The implementation of regulation 40d of DORA in August 1918 ‘to safeguard the health of soldiers’ was denounced by the
Irish Citizen
as an attempt to revive the notorious contagious diseases acts which had been repealed in 1886 following strenuous agitation by Irish and English suffragists.
⁵⁶
Under its terms any woman could be arrested by the police ‘on suspicion’ and detained until proven innocent by medical examination. A woman could also be held by police on a verbal charge made by a soldier. Some weeks later, the
Irish Citizen
reported the first case taken in Ireland under the Act – that of a Belfast woman given six months hard labour ‘for communicating disease’ to a Canadian soldier. Deploring the one-sided and discriminatory nature of this regulation, the paper concluded that the real purpose of the Act was ‘to make the practice of vice safe for men by degrading and befouling women’.
⁵⁷
Again, women’s groups came together to protest against what the IWFL described as ‘the state regulation of vice’. During 1918 co-operation between women’s groups was at its highest since 1912. In their emphasis on promoting the political education of women, legislation for the benefit of women, the election of women to government, local boards and councils, all these organisations shared similar objectives.