Morning, Clunkers!
On this day in 1641, the Irish Rebellion began when an attempt to seize Dublin Castle was foiled. Rebel leader Felim O’Neill issued a forged proclamation claiming he had Charles I’s blessing to secure Ireland against the Crown's opponents and the rebels captured many towns and fortified houses in Ulster (now known as NI). The rebellion was an attempt to force concessions for Catholics but it developed into a conflict between Irish Catholics and the English and Scottish Protestant settlers. Many were massacred. The Irish Rebellion was also one of the root causes of the English Civil War because Parliament had no faith in Charles I’s ability to deal with it.
And bang on cue, exactly a year to the day in 1642, the first major battle of the English Civil War took place at Edgehill in Warwickshire. It was inconclusive and the war dragged on for another four years.
In 1906, suffragettes held a demonstration at the House of Commons. Inspector Scantlebury of the Yard reported to the HoC Serjeant at Arms that he had received intelligence that 30 dangerous women had left Plaistow on their way to Westminster. He arranged for the staffing of all the entrances to the House to be strengthened and for a plainclothes officer to meet the train and follow the women. (Like they wouldn’t notice a man doggedly following them 🙄).
The women arrived in twos and threes and at 4.20pm several of them stood on seats by the Northcote statue and began shouting loudly, ‘Votes for Women!’ Votes for Freedom!’ and ‘We are not slaves.’ They also unfurled banners. Such dreadful behaviour! So unladylike.
Inspector Scantlebury assured the Serjeant at Arms that he tried to persuade the women to desist and leave quietly, to no avail, and so his men were ordered to remove them from the building. This, he said, “was not achieved without a struggle”. The Times reported, ‘…..several of the excited women shrieked hysterically and one or two who had to be carried out, kicked with extreme vigour. Inspector Scantlebury was drawn down to the ground by one of the female speakers whom he had to lift from the seat which she was using as a platform.’
Having eventually been removed, some of the women continued to protest in the street - shouting and unfurling banners - and ten were subsequently arrested. They were sent to prison where hunger strikes and the torture of force feeding followed. (These days, the police would have responded by taking selfies with them and wearing rainbow laces in their boots).
Contrast and compare with the Silent Sentinels, the American suffragettes who stood silently outside the White House for two and a half years to reprove President Woodrow Wilson for denying them the right to vote. I will tell the story of their Night of Terror next month but despite their steadfast silence, they were harassed, abused, assaulted, arrested and tortured.
Women speaking up - not allowed. Women remaining silent - not allowed. Thank goodness that’s all in the past now, eh?
In 1967, farmers began slaughtering cattle following a severe outbreak of 'foot and mouth' disease.
And on this day in 2001, the Northern Ireland peace process reached an historic breakthrough when the IRA announced that they were decommissioning their weapons. Rightio then.
But here’s to you, the brave and unladylike suffragettes of 1906 🥂🥂🥂