Women removed from Dáil public gallery for protesting against prisoner mistreatment
Dublin, 21 September 1922 – On four occasions yesterday, the business of Dáil Éireann was interrupted by shouts from protesting women sitting in the public gallery.
Maud Gonne MacBride, Hanna Sheehy Skeffington and Charlotte Despard were among those involved in a protest that aimed to highlight the mistreatment of untried prisoners at the hands of the Free State government.
Admission to the public gallery is granted on the understanding that there be no interruptions to the Dáil proceedings, yet no sooner had the Minister for Home Affairs, Kevin O’Higgins, moved the second reading of the Free State Constitution bill than Mrs Despard started to heckle and shout. Situated in the front row of the visitors’ gallery, she could be heard to declare: ‘I protest against the barbarous treatment that is being meted out to untried prisoners.’
Undeterred by the Ceann Comhairle’s efforts to restore order, Mrs Despard continued:
‘I know I am breaking the rules of the house, but it is necessary to break them. I am speaking as a woman and an Irishwoman, because this question means so much to the people of Ireland.’
When efforts were made by Dáil attendants to remove Mrs Despard, she shouted ‘Let me alone! Let me alone!’
Maud Gonne McBride attempted to intervene between the attendants and Mrs Despard and was also forcibly removed from the gallery, clinging to brass rails and shouting as she went.
Later, Hanna Sheehy Skeffington was also removed from the Dáil. When Mr O’Higgins made reference to southern unionists, she rose from her seat in the visitors’ gallery to ask whether or not the prisoners were part and parcel of the nation. In response there were cries of ‘Remove her!’ and when attendants came on the scene, Sheehy Skeffington declared that she would leave of her own accord. ‘I am going to go. I need not be forcibly removed. I am very glad to leave you’, she shouted. ‘The country will remember you all yet.’
A fourth woman, unidentified, was subsequently removed after making a further interjection.
Towards the end of yesterday’s session, when calm was restored, the Dáil discussed the interruptions and the issuing of tickets to the public gallery.
Thomas Johnson, leader of the Labour Party, confessed to giving a ticket to one of the women involved in the earlier disturbance on the understanding that there would be no demonstration. The promise he had been given had, he said, been ‘broken’ and he accepted full responsibility for it.
Alfie Byrne TD also explained that he had been responsible for procuring the ticket for Mrs Sheehy Skeffington, a colleague of his on Dublin Corporation. ‘I gave her the ticket, and I was not aware that she or anybody else would make a disturbance’, Mr Byrne informed the Dáil. ‘I have nothing further to say, except that I took all the precautions necessary.’
[Editor's note: This is an article from Century Ireland, a fortnightly online newspaper, written from the perspective of a journalist 100 years ago, based on news reports of the time.]
