SUFFRAGETTE COMMEMORATION
GREYSTONES will play host tomorrow (Thursday, October 25) to the commemoration of a significant, if almost forgotten, event which took place on that date in 1910 at Greystones pier – a suffragette protest.
On the morning of October 25, 1910, the Irish Chief Secretary was on a tour of the dilapidated pier at Greystones in the company of local dignitaries when he was accosted by two leaders of the Irish suffragette movement, Hilda Webb and Hanna Sheehy Skeffington, who proceeded to demand votes for women. The campaign for votes for women, which had begun a half-century earlier, had intensified in Ireland with the establishment of the Irish Women’s Franchise League (IWFL). The IWFL was impatient with the slow progress of the campaign and was willing to use ‘non constitutional’ methods in its demand for the vote.
Being one of the first such protests nationally, the incident was reported by The Irish Times as no more than an ‘amusing scene’, however, it has since come to be recognised as a pivotal part of the early Irish suffragette campaign. It wasn’t until eight years later that the ‘Representation of the People Act 1918’ gave women over 30 the right to vote in a general election.
The event will take place at Greystones Harbour at 11 a.m. on Thursday, October 25
Greystones Archaeological and Historical Society, in association with Greystones Municipal District and Wicklow County Council, will host tomorrow’s event which begins at 11 a.m. and includes the unveiling of a plaque and a re-enactment by pupils of St Brigid’s NS. Refreshments will be served afterwards in the Greystones Ridge Angling Club.