Countess Constance Marchievicz (née Gore-Booth) was a painter,
revolutionary,socialist, activist, politician and a republican who dedicated her life to Ireland’s struggle for independence The story of Constance, Countess Markievicz, is a story of a woman of determination, independence, idealism and self-sacrifice in pursuit of freedom for the Irish people. It is the story of a woman who has inspired generations of Irish men and women.
The name Constance means 'Firm of Purpose' and 'Steadfastness' and it was these very traits that brought Countess Constance Markievicz into the Irish history books. I greatly admire humans who fight against formidable odds for what they believe in and there is no better example of this than the legendary and gutsy Irishwoman, Countess Constance Georgine Markievicz
She was born Constance Gore-Booth on, February 4th, 1868
at Buckingham Gate, London, the daughter of Sir Henry Gore-Booth,
explorer, philanthropist and heir to extensive estates at Lissadell,
County Sligo. When Sir Henry inherited his estates, the family moved to
Lissadell, where Constance and her younger sister Eva Gore-Booth were
educated by governesses. The young W.B. Yeats was a frequent visitor, as
was A.E. George Russell, and other literary figures of the time.
Constance was presented at the Court of Queen Victoria when she was
nineteen and took her place in society. She intended to be a full time
artist, and in 1893 went to London to study at the Slade School, and to
Paris in 1898, to the Julian School. Here she met her future husband,
Count Casimir Dunin Markievicz, a practising artist from a land-owning
family of Polish extraction in the Ukraine, Russia. The couple settled
in Dublin in 1903, and had one daughter Maeve, born at Lissadell in
1901, who was reared by her grand-parents.
Constance and her husband soon became part of the artistic and social
life of the capital. She began to make a name for herself as a
landscape artist, and though her output was small some of her work is
represented in Municipal collections and other Galleries.Soon they were the center of Dublin’s artistic set.
As he painted, she painted; he wrote plays, she starred in them; and
both were the darlings of Dublin Castle. Some time later when asked why
she no longer attended balls at the Castle, the Countess didn’t hesitate
– “Because I want to blow it up.” The Markievicz
marriage was not a success; the couple separated and Casimir left
Dublin. Thereafter, the Countess, as she was known, became increasingly
interested in nationalism and social issues.
Her transformation from society doyenne to rebel was swift, beginning
innocently enough on a painting retreat in the country. It was there
she found the writings of Irish revolutionary poet Padraic Colum and, as
she put it, “the lightning struck at last.” Back in Dublin, she joined,
in quick order, Sinn Féin, Inghinidhe na hÉireann (Daughters of
Ireland),a revolutionary women’s movement—and teamed up with her sister Eva to oppose the
election of Winston Churchill to the British parliament. As the
nationalist cause gained momentum, Constance founded the Warriors of
Ireland (Fianna Éireann), which trained teenagers in the use of
firearms. Speaking at a rally of 30,000 people opposed to King George
V’s visit to Ireland in 1911, Countess Constance experienced her first
arrest, after she helped stone the likeness of the King and Queen and
tried to burn the British flag.
During the Lock out of 1913, in which workers who supported the
union were shut out of their places of employment, the Countess assisted
in the soup kitchens where she worked tirelessly, then personally delivered
food to the poor and starving of Dublin.
She joined with “Big Jim” Larkin and James Connolly in the Lockout of
1913, that led to the formation of the Irish
Citizen Army, a band of trade union workers. The Countess, a lieutenant
in the Army, was its most enthusiastic member – she designed the Citizen
Army uniforms and wrote its theme song. Its leader, James Connolly, became, forever, her
hero.
In April 1916, Irish republicans staged an insurrection; Constance
was appointed staff lieutenant, second in command at St. Stephen’s
Green, the park in central Dublin. With her troops responsible for
barricading the park, fighting flared after Connolly shot a policeman
who had tried to prevent him from entering City Hall. Rumor had
Constance shooting a British army sniper in the head, but she was never
charged in such a death. Pinned down by British fire at St. Stephen’s
Green, she pulled her troops back to the Royal College of Surgeons,
where they held out for nearly a week before surrendering.
Taken to Kilmainham jail, Constance Markievicz was isolated from
her comrades and court-martialed for “causing disaffection among the
civilian population of His Majesty”; she was convicted and sentenced to
death, but the sentence was commuted to life in prison because of her
sex.
A few days later, she heard a volley from a firing squad at dawn and
was informed that her mentor, James Connolly, had been executed.
“Why don’t they let me die with my friends?” she asked.
At her court-martial, Constance was defiant, taunting the court, “At
least Ireland was free for a week!” Overjoyed at being condemned to
death, she was soon outraged when her sentence was reduced to penal
servitude – “I do wish your lot had the decency to shoot me.” The
British government, fearing a cult would grow around her, sent Constance to Aylesbury Prison in Buckinghamshire where she was denied the status of political
prisoner.
Eva Gore-Booth, a highly skilled activist, saw
her sister’s failing health, lobbied for more humane treatment of
prisoners, and in 1917 helped to get her sister included in an amnesty
for participants in the Easter Rising.
Constance returned to Ireland a hero and was practically carried by
a welcoming crowd to Liberty Hall in Dublin, where she declared herself
back in politics. As Sinn Fein’s new leader Eamon de Valera
saw Constance Markievicz elected to the 24-member executive council.
But in 1918, she was back in jail after the British arrested Sinn Fein’s
leaders for working against the conscription of troops for World War I,.
While in Britain’s Holloway
Prison, incredibly she ran for a seat in Parliament. The Irishwoman with the Polish
name won and became the first woman elected to the British Parliament on 28th December, 1918 beating her opponent with 66% of the vote.
In accordance with Sinn Féin, Madame refused to take an oath of
allegiance to the King and when the other Irish M.P.s voted to form the
Dáil Éireann she cast her vote as fé ghlas ag Gallaibh (“imprisoned
abroad”). Sinn Fein MPs did not take up their seats,
because they would be required to swear allegiance to the crown, which
explains why establishment figure Nancy Astor is celebrated as the first
woman to sit as an MP after winning an election in 1919.
It is important to remember
that the Constance Markievicz was not only the first woman elected to
the House of Commons, she was also elected on an openly feminist and
socialist platform. Her election was, therefore, even more extraordinary
than is usually acknowledged.
When Markievicz was released from
Holloway, she joined the revolutionary Irish Republic’s parliament –
also becoming the first elected woman cabinet minister in the world. Constance was against the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921.A staunch republican, she was again jailed during Ireland’s 1922–23 civil war, but in 1927,weakened by spells behind bars and penniless she died aged 59 on 15 July 1927 in Dublin, Ireland in Sir Patrick Dunn’s Hospital in Dublin.
Her position as an activist, a militant woman, a rebel, the first woman
MP, the first woman minister, and her radical ideas about equality (of
gender and class)
has a place in revolutionary history,and deservedly, she is now being accepted as one of the central figures, male or female, of revolutionary Ireland.Countess Markievicz was buried on 15th July 1927 in Glasnevin Cemetry alongside many of her fellow Irish patriots. Her Glasnevin funeral was attended by 300,000 people. What a woman.
"Dress suitably in short skirts and strong boots, leave your jewels in the bank and buy a revolver." Countess Constance Markievicz,
