New-York tribune., 1920-08-15
Woman Judge
OF Sim Fein
Pledges Mercy
Mrs. Sheehy -Skeffington Says
New Court in Ireland Will
Administer Justice by Con-
fidence, Not Through Fear
Hopes to Abolish Prisons
Policy of Tribunals Is to HUI
manize Spirit of Law and
S mplify It's Procedure
From a Special Correspondent

DUBLIN, July 29.-The Tribune cor
respondent has had an interview with
Mrs. Sheeh hySkeffington who, with four
other persons, has just been elected a
judge of the newly constituted Su-
preme Court Of the Irish Republic. The
Sim Fen court must be taken seri-
ously The lower courts, parish and
county, which have now been in opera
tion for several months, have largely
succeeded in ousting the jurisdiction
of the imperial courts, and Judge of
the Imperial High Court in Ireland has
admitted that he is bound to forecast
an equal success for the republican Su-
preme Court. This court, according to
Mrs. Sheehy -Skeflington, purposes to
sit openly, or semi-openly, in Dublin,
out the country. Recently the British
authorities started to interrupt the
public proceedings of some Of these
courts, and if this policy is continued
it is possible that the Supreme Court
| in Dublin will have to go more or less
under ground. But Dali Eireann, the
Sim Fein Parliament, though nomi-
nally suppressed, meets regularly in
Dublin, and so does the suppressed re-
publican Cabinet. Similarly, Mrs.
Sheehy-SkeffingtoH said, the Supreme
Court will assemble regularly in Dub
lin to transact its business EVERY
where to find it except the public and
military"
Active in Sim Fein
The new judge takes her response
bilities seriously. Mrs. Sheehy -Sket1ing-
ton is the widow of Francis Sheehy-
Skeffngton, pacifst, International
ist socialist and suffragist, who
has been aptly described as being
always in minority of one in
Ireland. During the rising of Eas-
he had no sort Of sympathy, while on
his way through the city in an attempt
to stop looting, he was arrested and
shot without trial in Portobello Bar
racks at the orders Of an officer who
was later adjudged insane, but who was
subsequently released from an asylum
Mrs. Sheehy Skeffington, more prominent
as feminist than as figure in Irish
politics, after his death threw herself
into the Sim Fein movement, in which
she rapidly rose to a position of au-
thority. Since her return two years
ago from a political mission in the
concerned with Sim Fein propaganda
work in England, but she has kept in
close touch with the movement in Ire
land and has been especially interested
IN ITS recent experiments in the ad-
ministration of justice.
The correspondent found her in the
Offices of the Irishwomen's Franchise
League, an organization which, since
women in these islands were admitted
to the franchise, has been kept in
existence to obtain the vote for women
on exactly equal terms with men, and
IN her own words, "to see that the
Irish republic deals fairly with
women"
First Woman on Supreme Bench
"You are" the correspondent re-
marked to Mrs. Sheehy-Skeffingt
the first woman judge of a supreme
court anywhere"
II suppose | am she replied
though | am not sure whether women
Judges have not been appointed in So
wet Russia. Of course women sit in
the children's courts and the courts
of domestic relations, which do such
good work in America, but so far as a
supreme court is concerned | suppose
am the first woman judge, and | am
glad that Ireland has led The way"
This is a transitional period, but
hope myself that the transition viii
lead to the wiping out Of prisons as
thev now exist"
But what about the hopeless Grim
inal?" she was asked.
II suppose, in the last resort. the
ethal chamber" was the reply; "but
of course, we are not educated up to
that yet But with the advance of sci