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Fighting for justice is in Micheline’s bloodlines
Lifestyle – Judy Murphy meets Micheline Sheehy Skeffington who is pursuing her family’s proud tradition of battling against wrongs
I often say I come from a long line of jail-birds and troublemakers,” says botanist and academic Micheline Sheehy Skeffington.
She hasn’t let the family tradition down, as the authorities at NUIG found out to their cost in 2014 when the lecturer won a gender discrimination case against the university at the Equality Appeals Tribunal.
If they’d studied their history more closely, those in NUIG who contested her charge of discrimination might have realised the calibre of person they were dealing with.
On the day we meet, Micheline is preparing a talk about her grandfather, the renowned journalist, social activist, women’s rights campaigner and pacifist Francis Sheehy Skeffington who was murdered on April 25, 1916.
Francis (Frank) had resigned as registrar of UCD in 1904 over that university’s failure to grant equal rights to female students, just one stance he took in a life of social activism.
In 1914, Frank served time in prison because of his campaign against recruitment to British Army when World War One broke out. He once stated he was prepared to die for Ireland, but not to kill for it. He opposed the Easter Rising because he felt it was not the way for Ireland to achieve independence.
One hundred years ago next Tuesday, Francis Sheehy Skeffington was murdered in Dublin’s Portobello Barracks on the instructions of British Army officer Captain Bowen-Colthurst.
Frank had been arrested the previous day while trying to prevent looting as the Rising raged.
The unarmed pacifist had witnessed Colthurst shooting an innocent young man, who subsequently died. That was largely why Colthurst had Frank murdered, according to Micheline.
His wife, Hanna, Micheline’s grandmother, was as formidable as her husband, and as staunch a campaigner on social issues and women’s rights.
Offered £10,000 by British Prime Minister Herbert Asquith in compensation for Frank’s death, she unequivocally rejected it. Hanna wanted an inquiry so the truth could emerge. As a result of her courage and integrity, Colthurst was court-martialled and found guilty but criminally insane.
Not long back from the battlefields of World War I, he was put in charge at Portobello while the normal captain was away. Colthurst served a year in Broadmoor Lunatic Asylum for Frank’s death, then emigrated to Canada.
Hanna and Frank’s only child, Owen, was Micheline’s father. When Micheline was a child, Owen frequently remarked that she was left-handed like Hanna. That resonated.
“Not everyone was told as a child about a left-handed grandmother who was smashing windows,” Micheline remarks over tea in the conservatory of her home in Clarinbridge. The converted cottage is comfortable but unshowy. Her partner, Nick, is a botanist and their traditional conservatory is home to plants of all shapes and sizes.
Micheline’s grandfather, Francis, met Hanna Sheehy, who came from a nationalist family, at UCD where both were students – although women weren’t allowed to attend lectures with male students.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Significant state investment is required to address ‘shocking’ inequalities that leave cancer patients in the West at greater risk of succumbing to the disease.
A meeting of Regional Health Forum West heard that survival rates for breast, lung and colorectal cancers than the national average, and with the most deprived quintile of the population, the West’s residents faced poorer outcomes from a cancer diagnosis.
For breast cancer patients, the five-year survival rate was 80% in the West versus 85% nationally; for lung cancer patients it was 16.7% in the west against a 19.5% national survival rate; and in the West’s colorectal cancer patients, there was a 62.6% survival rate where the national average was 63.1%.
These startling statistics were provided in answer to a question from Ballinasloe-based Cllr Evelyn Parsons (Ind) who said it was yet another reminder that cancer treatment infrastructure in the West was in dire need of improvement.
“The situation is pretty stark. In the Western Regional Health Forum area, we have the highest incidence of deprivation and the highest health inequalities because of that – we have the highest incidences of cancer nationally because of that,” said Cllr Parsons, who is also a general practitioner.
In details provided by CEO of Saolta Health Care Group, which operates Galway’s hospitals, it was stated that a number of factors were impacting on patient outcomes.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
On the eve of completing his 150th marathon, an odyssey that has taken him across 53 countries, Loughrea’s Marathon Man has announced that he is planning to hang up his running shoes.
But not before Jarlath Fitzgerald completes another ten races, making it 160 marathons on the occasion of his 60th birthday.
“I want to draw the line in 2026. I turn 57 in October and when I reach 60 it’s the finishing line. The longer races are taking it out of me. I did 20 miles there two weeks ago and didn’t feel good. It’s getting harder,” he reveals.
“I’ve arthritis in both hips and there’s wear and tear in the knees.”
We speak as he is about to head out for a run before his shift in Supervalu Loughrea. Despite his physical complaints, he still clocks up 30 miles every second week and generally runs four days a week.
Jarlath receives injections to his left hip to keep the pain at bay while running on the road.
To give his joints a break, during the winter he runs cross country and often does a five-mile trek around Kylebrack Wood.
He is planning on running his 150th marathon in Cork on June 4, where a group of 20 made up of work colleagues, friends and running mates from Loughrea Athletics Club will join him.
Some are doing the 10k, others are doing the half marathon, but all will be there on the finishing line to cheer him on in the phenomenal achievement.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
From the Galway City Tribune – An impassioned plea for a ‘masterplan’ that would guide Galway City into the future has been made in the Dáil. Galway West TD Catherine Connolly stated this week that there needed to be an all-inclusive approach with “vision and leadership” in order to build a sustainable city.
Deputy Connolly spoke at length at the crisis surrounding traffic and housing in Galway city and said that not all of the blame could be laid at the door of the local authority.
She said that her preference would be the provision of light rail as the main form of public transport, but that this would have to be driven by the government.
“I sat on the local council for 17 years and despaired at all of the solutions going down one road, metaphorically and literally. In 2005 we put Park & Ride into the development plan, but that has not been rolled out. A 2016 transport strategy was outdated at the time and still has not been updated.
“Due to the housing crisis in the city, a task force was set up in 2019. Not a single report or analysis has been published on the cause of the crisis,” added Deputy Connolly.
She then referred to a report from the Land Development Agency (LDA) that identified lands suitable for the provision of housing. But she said that two-thirds of these had significant problems and a large portion was in Merlin Park University Hospital which, she said, would never have housing built on it.
In response, Minister Simon Harris spoke of the continuing job investment in the city and also in higher education, which is his portfolio.
But turning his attention to traffic congestion, he accepted that there were “real issues” when it came to transport, mobility and accessibility around Galway.
“We share the view that we need a Park & Ride facility and I understand there are also Bus Connects plans.
“I also suggest that the City Council reflect on her comments. I am proud to be in a Government that is providing unparalleled levels of investment to local authorities and unparalleled opportunities for local authorities to draw down,” he said.
Then Minister Harris referred to the controversial Galway City Outer Ring Road which he said was “struck down by An Bord Pleanála”, despite a lot of energy having been put into that project.
However, Deputy Connolly picked up on this and pointed out that An Bord Pleanála did not say ‘No’ to the ring road.
“The High Court said ‘No’ to the ring road because An Bord Pleanála acknowledged it failed utterly to consider climate change and our climate change obligations.
“That tells us something about An Bord Pleanála and the management that submitted such a plan.”
In the end, Minister Harris agreed that there needed to be a masterplan for Galway City.
“I suggest it is for the local authority to come up with a vision and then work with the Government to try to fund and implement that.”
Families queue up for school’s offer of free house
West has lower cancer survival rates than rest
Galway minors continue to lay waste to all opponents
Gardaí and IFA issue a joint appeal on summer road safety
Marathon Man plans to call a halt – but not before he hits 160 races
