His father, Francis Sheehy-Skeffington, was a pacifist and nationalist whose murder by Captain J.C. Bowen-Colthurst in 1916 during the week of the Easter Rising became a cause celebre. His mother, Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington, was a founder of the Irish Women"s Franchise League.
He was educated in the United States and in Dublin, at Sandford Park School, a non-denominational school selected by his mother in the face of strong criticism from her Catholic and nationalist friends.
Sheehy-Skeffington was brought up in Dublin, Ireland. After her husband"s murder she became increasingly nationalist, supporting the anti-Treaty Ireland Republican Army during the Irish Civil War. They resided at Hazelbrook Cottage, Rathfarnham, Dublin.
He was re-elected in 1957, but lost his seat in 1961.
He was returned to the 11th Seanad in 1965 and was re-elected for a final time in 1969. In the late 1950s the memorialist Peter Tyrrell began a long-lasting correspondence with him.
Sheehy-Skeffington encouraged Tyrrell to write his autobiography, which was published posthumously and helped to expose the brutal conditions in Irish Industrial schools, and in Letterfrack in particular. After Tyrrell committed suicide in 1967 the only clue to his identity was a card addressed to Sheehy-Skeffington.
Since 1973 Trinity College, Dublin, has offered the Owen Sheehy-Skeffington, a bursary worth 1,500 euros awarded annually, as a maintenance grant or as a travel award in alternate years.
The criteria for the award include a combination of academic promise and financial need. The maintenance grant is available to senior freshmen or junior sophisters studying French at Trinity College, while the travelling scholarship may be granted to any student attending a centre of higher education in Ireland.
Sheehy-Skeffington became a lecturer in French at Trinity College, Dublin, where he was elected in 1954 as a member of the 8th Seanad Éireann by the Dublin University constituency.
