Skeffington Street is a small street in the centre of Wexford Town, running from Selskar Street to Wexford Quay. It is mostly home to residential properties.
The street was originally called Ram Street, as labelled on OSI maps from the 1800s, in honour of Thomas Ram, the Church of Ireland Bishop of Ferns and Leighlin. The street was later renamed in honour of Francis Sheehy-Skeffington, an Irish suffragist and writer whose death became one of the most infamous and controversial events of the 1916 Easter Rising.
Francis Sheehy-Skeffington
Despite his well-known pacifism and the fact that he was unarmed and not part of the rebellion, he was summarily executed without trial by British forces.
Sheehy-Skeffington was returning to his home at 11 Grosvenor Place after attempting to stop looting in Dublin city centre when he was arrested at Portobello Bridge by members of the 11th East Surrey Regiment. He was detained at Portobello Barracks. While leading a raiding party from the barracks on 25 April 1916, Captain Bowen-Colthurst encountered two young men, James Coade, a young mechanic, and Laurence Byrne, who were returning home from a religious meeting at Rathmines Church. Colthurst challenged them for being out after martial law had been declared. When Coade attempted to walk away, a soldier struck him in the jaw with a rifle butt on Colthurst’s order. As the young man lay on the ground, Colthurst drew his service revolver and shot him dead.
Sheehy-Skeffington, who was being held as a hostage, witnessed the killing and protested vehemently. He was executed by firing squad the following morning, 26 April 1916, at Portobello Barracks, along with Thomas Dickson and Patrick McIntyre, editors of loyalist newspapers. It is widely believed by historians that his execution was an attempt by Colthurst to eliminate a key witness. In the early 1920s, the street was renamed Skeffington Street in his honour.
Layout
At a traffic management meeting on 2 February 1971, officials recommended converting Skeffington Street into a one-way street from the quay to Wexford Town’s Main Street to ease traffic congestion in the town centre.
A small pedestrian walkway at the end of the street leads into the car park behind Sam McCauley Chemists, where Wexford Library stood before moving to Mallin Street. During the late 1990s, Wexford Corporation discussed closing off this pedestrian link. However, it emerged that such a move would violate the lease agreement it had with the owners of the car park.
Map
A Google map showing the location of Skeffington Street: