Lillian Margaret Metge (née Grubb; 22 June 1871 – 10 May 1954) was an Anglo-Irish
suffragette
A suffragette was a member of an activist women's organisation in the early 20th century who, under the banner "Votes for Women", fought for the right to vote in public elections in the United Kingdom. The term refers in particular to members ...
and
women's rights
Women's rights are the rights and entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st centuries. In some countr ...
campaigner. She founded the Lisburn Suffrage Society, which she left to become a militant activist, leading on an explosion at the Anglican
Lisburn Cathedral
Christ Church Cathedral, Lisburn (also known as Lisburn Cathedral), is the cathedral church of the Diocese of Connor in the Church of Ireland. It is situated in Lisburn, Northern Ireland, in the ecclesiastical province of Armagh. Previously St T ...
in Ireland. She was imprisoned briefly, and awarded a Women's Social and Political Union
Hunger Strike medal
The Hunger Strike Medal was a silver medal awarded between August 1909 and 1914 to suffragette prisoners by the leadership of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU). During their imprisonment, they went on hunger strike while serving ...
. She continued her campaign, albeit peacefully, during and after World War I.
Personal life
Born Lillian Margaret Grubb in Belfast, Ireland on 22 June 1871 her parents
were linen merchant Richard Cambridge Grubb of Cahir Abbey,
County Tipperary
County Tipperary ( ga, Contae Thiobraid Árann) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster and the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern Region. The county is named afte ...
and Killeaton House,
County Antrim
County Antrim (named after the town of Antrim, ) is one of six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the thirty-two counties of Ireland. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of and has a population o ...
and his wife, Harriet Richardson. She had two brothers, Cameron and Richard. The latter of whom became a veterinary surgeon. She was born into a wealthy family who made their fortunes from the
linen
Linen () is a textile made from the fibers of the flax plant.
Linen is very strong, absorbent, and dries faster than cotton. Because of these properties, linen is comfortable to wear in hot weather and is valued for use in garments. It also ...
industry.
She married in 1892,
becoming the second wife of Captain
Robert Henry Metge (1850–1900) who was an MP for Meath and also a magistrate.
Robert had already 13 children by his first wife, Frances Lambart, and lived at Athlumney, Kilcairne, County Meath.
Robert and Lillian Metge had two daughters, Lillian Gwendoline Cole Metge (known as "Gwendoline") and Dorothy Elise Cole Metge. Robert Metge died on 19 September 1900
before Lillian became involved in the militant suffragette activities. Gwendoline Metge committed suicide in 1920.
By 1921, Metge had been living in Seymour Street, Lisburn,
then in Shrewsbury briefly, then Dublin,
where she died on 10 May 1954.
Metge's personality was described as 'tall straight backed and stern'.
Suffragette activism
Metge became interested in pressing for the right to vote as neither her financial status nor education was enough, as she was a woman, and she became involved in being active for women's rights. In Ulster, this interest among liberal middle-class women in social changes went across the Nationalist/Unionist divide and the aim for improvements across social classes.
Despite that, there was a view among many Ulstermen that women were not able to manage the complex politics of
Ulster
Ulster (; ga, Ulaidh or ''Cúige Uladh'' ; sco, label=Ulster Scots, Ulstèr or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional Irish provinces. It is made up of nine counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kin ...
and
Home Rule
Home rule is government of a colony, dependent country, or region by its own citizens. It is thus the power of a part (administrative division) of a state or an external dependent country to exercise such of the state's powers of governance wit ...
and so should not be allowed to vote, and that it was not a general demand, but just came from an active few. Some local women's groups were content with aiming for the same property requirements as men rather than for universal suffrage.
Metge's own views on these matters were not clearly recorded.
Metge founded the Lisburn Suffrage Society and was its president and secretary at different times.
There were a number of Irish and Ulster suffrage groups, and attempts to unite their efforts.
Metge wrote articles for the
Irish Women's Suffrage Federation
The Irish Women's Suffrage Federation (IWSF) was an organisation founded in 1911 to unite scattered suffrage societies in Ireland.Peter Gordon: Dictionary of British Women's Organisations 1825-1960
See also
*Women's suffrage organizations
* Timel ...
(IWSF) movement's newsletter, the ''
Irish Citizen
Irish nationality law details the conditions by which a person is a national of the Republic of Ireland. The primary law governing these regulations is the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act, 1956, which came into force on 17 July 1956. R ...
''.
In 1913, Metge represented the IWSF at the
International Women's Congress
International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations".
International may also refer to:
Music Albums
* ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011
* ''International'' (New Order album), 2002
* ''International'' (The T ...
, held in
Budapest
Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...
.
In 1913, the IWSF considered whether it would be a militant group.
In April 1914, Metge left both IWSF and the Lisburn society over some 'administrative' issues, and made a speech stating her intent to be militant, as to do otherwise would be a dishonour to the vision in which she believed.
In May 1913, she was part of the large group of women who charged at
King George V
George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until his death in 1936.
Born during the reign of his grandmother Q ...
outside
Buckingham Palace and were reportedly beaten by the police.
In July 1913, she was at the Belfast trial of
Dorothy Evans and Madge Muir, and then was arrested herself for throwing stones at the court windows.
Metge helped look after Evans, released early on 26 July for health reasons, during Evans's hunger strike in
Tullamore
Tullamore (; ) is the county town of County Offaly in Ireland. It is on the Grand Canal, in the middle of the county, and is the fourth most populous town in the midlands region with 14,607 inhabitants at the 2016 census.
The town retained ...
prison.
Metge, on one occasion, possibly bought 'green and white' shoes for her fellow Irish suffragette,
Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington
Johanna Mary Sheehy Skeffington (née Sheehy; 24 May 1877 – 20 April 1946) was a suffragette and Irish nationalist. Along with her husband Francis Sheehy Skeffington, Margaret Cousins and James Cousins, she founded the Irish Women's Franchise ...
.

On 31 July 1914,
Metge, carried out a plan to bomb the Anglican
Lisburn Cathedral
Christ Church Cathedral, Lisburn (also known as Lisburn Cathedral), is the cathedral church of the Diocese of Connor in the Church of Ireland. It is situated in Lisburn, Northern Ireland, in the ecclesiastical province of Armagh. Previously St T ...
,
with a Miss D. Carson, Maud Wickham, and Dorothy Evans.
An explosion waking the town in the dead of night. An
Ulster Volunteer Force
The Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) is an Ulster loyalism, Ulster loyalist paramilitary group. Formed in 1965, it first emerged in 1966. Its first leader was Gusty Spence, a former British Army soldier from Northern Ireland. The group undertook T ...
quartermaster's wife, Lillian Spender, initially thought it was a big gun, later when she found out it was suffragettes she said 'suffragettes – the brutes!' and called Metge a 'mad militant'.
The dynamite blew out the oldest stained glass chancel window in the Church of Ireland Cathedral, which outraged some local people.
The police had initially gone to the gasworks, thinking that had blown up, but then at the cathedral they found the damage to the window, and suffragette leaflets lying about among the broken glass and rubble.
Metge was a suspect, due to her known militant position, and also as the women's footprints had made a muddy trail straight to the rear
of Metge's house.
Metge and her co-conspirators were arrested at 8 am the next day,
but had to have police protection as they were taken into custody,
as bottles, stones
and mud was thrown and the house windows were broken.
Any local sympathy was further lost when the government stated they would raise local (tax) rates to cover the cost of repairing the Cathedral's damage.

Metge and the others were taken to
Crumlin Road Prison
and went on
hunger strike
A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance in which participants fast as an act of political protest, or to provoke a feeling of guilt in others, usually with the objective to achieve a specific goal, such as a policy change. Most ...
. Metge was awarded a
Hunger Strike Medal
The Hunger Strike Medal was a silver medal awarded between August 1909 and 1914 to suffragette prisoners by the leadership of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU). During their imprisonment, they went on hunger strike while serving ...
"for Valour" by the
WSPU
The Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) was a women-only political movement and leading militant organisation campaigning for women's suffrage in the United Kingdom from 1903 to 1918. Known from 1906 as the suffragettes, its membership and ...
, with its green white and purple ribbon, and a date on the bar of 10 August 1914.
Metge's Hunger Strike Medal is now held in the Lisburn Museum.
Trial and release
At Metge's and the others' trial, as well as the police finding the footsteps trail and a linen handkerchief from the scene, further evidence was presented, including four sets of muddy boots and damp coats with spent fuse matches in their pockets at Metge's house.
A local shopkeeper gave evidence that Mrs Metge had asked to buy dynamite a few months previously saying it was 'to blow up a tree in her garden'.
As at other suffragette court appearances, the women on trial did not co-operate with the court, shouting out, making long speeches for their cause, pushing the police, and at one stage 13 policemen were involved in holding the four women back, as an apple was thrown at the Crown Prosecutor, Mr Moorhead, who said the throw 'wasn't bad ... for a woman'.
Metge demanded to be released saying 'there is one law for women and another for men. A woman could not get justice here'.
Despite the strong evidence, the women were never sentenced as the UK
Home Secretary
The secretary of state for the Home Department, otherwise known as the home secretary, is a senior minister of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom. The home secretary leads the Home Office, and is responsible for all national ...
had intervened in the 'votes for women' campaign, which WSPU had said was being stood down due to imminent war
(as
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
was about to break out)
and all court actions against suffragettes stopped and the women already imprisoned were released.
but Metge's release was also conditional on her taking no further activism.
Later life
Metge pursued peaceful campaigning for women's rights during the War, writing for the ''Citizen'' and working with the Irish Suffrage and British Women's Social and Political Union leaders.
She led a
Women's Freedom League
The Women's Freedom League was an organisation in the United Kingdom which campaigned for women's suffrage and sexual equality. It was an offshoot of the militant suffragettes after the Pankhursts decide to rule without democratic support fro ...
campaign in the
North East
The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sepa ...
of England, launched at the
Bigg Market in
Newcastle, bringing
Ada Broughton as keynote speaker, on the issue of
Temperance, when the law (known as the
Hartlepool
Hartlepool () is a seaside and port town in County Durham, England. It is the largest settlement and administrative centre of the Borough of Hartlepool. With an estimated population of 90,123, it is the second-largest settlement in County ...
restriction) stopped 'the sober sex' drinking in bars but would not consider total
prohibition
Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic ...
.
Dorothy Evans also talked at
Gosforth
Gosforth is a suburb of the city and metropolitan borough of Newcastle upon Tyne, England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish ...
and
I.L.P. on 'the duty of civil disobedience', and they had newly-released
Emily Davison
Emily Wilding Davison (11 October 1872 – 8 June 1913) was an English suffragette who fought for votes for women in Britain in the early twentieth century. A member of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) and a militant fighte ...
collecting for the women's suffrage cause.
Some women were granted the
right to vote
Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise, is the right to vote in public, political elections and referendums (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote). In some languages, and occasionally in English, the right to v ...
after the War in 1918, and Metge gave up her activism in 1920 (not long after her daughter Gwendoline committed suicide). She moved from Lisburn to
Shrewsbury
Shrewsbury ( , also ) is a market town, civil parish, and the county town of Shropshire, England, on the River Severn, north-west of London; at the 2021 census, it had a population of 76,782. The town's name can be pronounced as either 'S ...
for a while, then went to live in Dublin.
Metge was left a gold watch in the will of Dorothy Evans, which had originally been given by 'Belfast suffragette friends' when Evans died in 1944.
Metge herself died on 10 May 1954 in Dublin. She is buried in
Deansgrange Cemetery, Dublin.
See also
*
Irish Women's Suffrage Society
The Irish Women's Suffrage Society was an organisation for women's suffrage, founded by Isabella Tod as the North of Ireland Women's Suffrage Society in 1872. Determined lobbying by the Society ensured the 1887 Act creating a new city-status munici ...
*
Suffragette bombing and arson campaign
Suffragettes in Great Britain and Ireland orchestrated a bombing and arson campaign between the years 1912 and 1914. The campaign was instigated by the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), and was a part of their wider campaign for women's ...
*
List of suffragists and suffragettes
This list of suffragists and suffragettes includes noted individuals active in the worldwide women's suffrage movement who have campaigned or strongly advocated for women's suffrage, the organisations which they formed or joined, and the public ...
including more on different suffrage societies in Ireland
*
List of suffragette bombings
*
Women's suffrage in the United Kingdom
A movement to fight for women's right to vote in the United Kingdom finally succeeded through acts of Parliament in 1918 and 1928. It became a national movement in the Victorian era. Women were not explicitly banned from voting in Great Brita ...
*
Hunger Strike Medal
The Hunger Strike Medal was a silver medal awarded between August 1909 and 1914 to suffragette prisoners by the leadership of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU). During their imprisonment, they went on hunger strike while serving ...
*''
The Irish Citizen''
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Metge, Lillian
1870s births
1954 deaths
Year of birth uncertain
People from County Meath
Irish suffragettes
Irish women's rights activists
Hunger strikers
Hunger Strike Medal recipients