100 years ago in Spokane: With widow’s visit, city hears case for Irish independence

Mrs. F. Sheehy Skeffington, widow of an Irishman killed in the 1916 Easter Uprising, was in Spokane to deliver a lecture on the troubles afflicting Ireland.

It promised to be a sensational lecture, if her pre-lecture interview was any indication.

“The British have three methods of dealing with Irishmen,” she said. “The deport them to England and compel them to report to the police every so often; they confine them in internment camps as you have in the United States for some Germans; or they put them in prison. I expect when I go back, that I shall be deported to England and be compelled to stay there until the war is over.”

She said that England had refused to give her a passport to come to America unless she would promise not to talk about the situation in Ireland.

So she snuck out.

She said that she had to disguise herself as an old woman. She said that neither she nor her husband were members of Sinn Fein, “although in a general way we sympathized with its aims.”

She was brought to Spokane by a group of Irishman, including the president of the city’s Ancient Order of Hibernians. She said her purpose was to convince Americans that Uncle Sam should make independence for Ireland one of the requirements of European peace.

From the weather beat: Spokane was experiencing a blazing heat wave, with the temperature hitting 97 degrees.

Forest fires were growing at an alarming rate. The fire of “greatest concern” was near Adair, Idaho, which was being fought by 300 firefighters.

“Fallen trees and other combustibles are as dry as tinder and offer no resistance to flames,” said the paper.