General Prisons Board: Suffragette Papers

Context

Creator(s): General Prisons Board; Chief Secretary’s Office

• Administrative History ↴

  In 1912 women's suffrage campaigners in Ireland began to undertake a campaign of active violent resistance when a campaign of window breaking began. The leaders of the movement, including Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington and Margaret Palmer, were arrested and brought before the Petty Sessions, the precursor to the modern District Court, where they were found guilty and fined. Upon refusing to pay these fines, suffragettes were imprisoned. The campaign was initially concentrated in Dublin and prisoners were sent to Mountjoy Prison, but in 1913 the campaign escalated and spread to Belfast. Following a number of protests held outside Mountjoy Prison, a decision was taken in 1913 to send all suffragette prisoners to Tullamore, King’s County [County Offaly] where any attempt to organise would be more difficult and less likely to spread to the general prison population. Almost immediately after they were sent to prison, the suffragettes demanded to be acknowledged as political prisoners. In order to bring attention to their demands, suffragette prisoners organised a coordinated campaign of hunger strikes. The suffragette prison population in Ireland remained low but they used their imprisonment very effectively, and extensive coverage was given to the campaign in newspapers who monitored developments closely. The Representation of the People Act, which became law in February 1918, granted partial suffrage to women and the Parliament (Qualification of Women) Act, 1918 allowed women to stand as members of parliament for the first time. Voting rights were granted to those over 30 years of age who were registered property owners or married to a registered property occupier with a rateable value of £5 or more. Universal suffrage for women over 21 years of age, regardless of property, was not introduced in Ireland until 1922 following the establishment of the Irish Free State, and the United Kingdom until 1928.

• Archival History ↴

  Official Transfer

• Immediate Source Acquisition ↴

  Official Transfer