The Irish standard., 1917-01-20
IRISH WIDOW
TEsTlFIES AT
n. Y. Meeting
CARNEGIE HALL RECEPTION TO
THE WIDOW OF FRANCIS SHEE-
NY sKEFFlNGToN WHO SUB.
MlTs PROOF THAT BRITISH
MILITARY OFFICERS MURDERED
HER HUSBAND, AN EDITOR.
Qrish Press and News Service.)

lrish Press and News Service.)
New York, Jan. Z, 1917.-Carnegie
Hall, filled with 5000 representative
men and women of New York, was the
scene of a remarkable testimonial last
Saturday night which was given to
Frances Shelby Skeffington, who es-
capped from Ireland with her child of
seven and is visiting America to re-
late the facts surrounding the execu-
ton of her husband, the truth of the
murders of three editors being sup
pressed by the press censors.
The sixty-six boxes were all occu-
pied by journalists, justices of the SUI
preme court, clergy, labor leaders,
noted workers in the cause of woman
suffrage and leading society women,
one of the most remarkable gather
ings the metropolis has seen.
Mrs. Skeftington is a fine, natural
orator. She speaks with distinctness
and precision and bears every evidence
of a refined and noble character. She
held the audience for nearly two hours
creating a profound and sympathetic
impression. Her little boy sat on the
stage beside her as his widowed moth
er exposed and denounced the British
military system. Her husband was
pacifist who opposed war although
sympathizing with the principles of
the Irish rebellion. The speaker was
loudly cheered when she defended the
memories of the dead rebels, adding
that if the rebel Washington and his
compatriots had failed in 1776 that
those American rebels would have
been shot and buried in quick lime and
that the United States today would be
losing her manhood in the war en-
gagements.
Large delegations of women suffrage
workers and labor advocates were
present.
Robert E. Ford, editor of the Irish
World, opened the meeting by intro
ducing the chairman. Mr. cambridge
Colby, the noted New York lawyer,
who delivered eulogy on the work of
Skeffington and paid an eloquent trib-
ute to the young poets, journalists and
labor leaders who died in the Dublin
uprising.
Mrs. Skef1ington spoke in part, as
follows:
II intend to speak tonight on British
Militarism as l have known it, and l
intend to tell you of my husbands
murder. AS the British House of Com
mons and British tribunal has found
Captain Bowen Colthurst guilty of
murder in the first degree, l don't
think the American press need worry
their consciences about calling spade
a spade.
"A word, first, by way of preface,
about my husband. He was a man all
you probably know, who described him
self as a fighting pacifist; and there is
no contradiction in the terms. He was.
and always remained a fighter; but he
did not believe in killing. And that
was the extent of his ant-militarism.
Whether it was question of sex OPP
of race oppression, or class
kind of oppression
always had the sympathy of Francis
Sheehy-Skeffington. Men in Ireland,
and wonderland we do not readily
weep in Ireland-we are not an emo
tional people, though we are very
often criticized as such-but men wept
when they heard of his death; and
even many of his own political oppo-
nents felt that when Sheehy-Skefing-
ton was gone something had been lost
that could never be replaced to our
public life in Ireland