Francis Sheehy-Skeffington - The 1916 Rising

The 1916 Rising

Sheehy-Skeffington supported Home Rule but was not a supporter of the Irish Volunteers. He and Hanna took opposing positions towards the Easter Rising - he advocated his pacifist principles and preferred civil disobedience while Hanna brought food to the rebels located at the General Post Office and the Royal College of Surgeons. On the 24th. April he had gone to the aid of the first British soldier to be shot during the Easter Rising, Guy Vickery Pinfield (1895-24th. April, 1916), a Second Lieutenant (TP) 8th (King's Royal Irish) Hussars. According to a statement by Skeffington's wife: "When the outbreak began on Easter Monday my husband was near Dublin Castle. He learned that a British officer had been gravely wounded and was bleeding to death on the cobblestones outside the Castle gate. My husband persuaded a bystander to go with him to the rescue. Together they ran across the square under a hail of fire. Before they reached the spot, however, some British troops rushed out and dragged the wounded man to cover inside the gate.",