Ep 189 A Century of Votes for Women

At 5am on 13th June 1912, Hanna Sheehy Skeffington set out on her own for Dublin Castle, the seat of British Government rule. Armed with a stick, her aim was to break windows near the Ship Street entrance to the castle as an act of rebellion by the suffrage movement in response to votes for women being excluded from the Home Rule Bill for Ireland that year. Less than six years later, the Representation of People Act 1918 was passed, allowing some women over the age of 30 and all men over the age of 21, to vote in general elections. Today we celebrate the centenary of Votes for Women, speaking to Hanna's granddaughter Micheline Sheehy Skeffington and with a speech by Queens University Belfast academic Margaret Ward, recorded at the first event in the State's Vótáil 100 commemoration programme at Royal Irish Academy in Dublin last week.