Constance, Countess Markiewicz (4 February, 1868 –
15 July, 1927), was an Irish
Sinn Féin and Fianna Fáil politician, revolutionary nationalist and suffragette. She was the first woman elected to the British House
of Commons, though she did not take her seat and along with the other Sinn Féin TDs
formed the first Dáil Éireann. She was
also the first woman in Europe to hold a cabinet position (Minister of
Labour of the Irish Republic, 1919–1922).
Early life
She was born Constance Georgine Gore-Booth at Buckingham Gate in London, the elder daughter of the Arctic explorer and
adventurer Sir Henry Gore-Booth, 5th Baronet and Lady Georgina née Hill. Unlike
many Anglo-Irish landowners in Ireland, he was an enlightened landlord who administered his
forty square mile (100 km²) estate with compassion. During the famine of 1879–80,
Sir Henry provided free food for the tenants on his estate in the north west of Ireland. Their
father's example inspired in Gore-Booth and her younger sister, Eva Gore-Booth, a deep
concern for the poor. The sisters were childhood friends of the poet W. B. Yeats,
who frequently visited the family home Lissadell House in County Sligo, and were influenced by his artistic and political ideas. Eva later became involved in the
labour movement and women's suffrage in England, although initially the future countess
did not share her sister's ideals.
Marriage and early politics
Gore-Booth decided to train as a painter, but at the time only one art school in Dublin accepted female students. In 1892 she
went to study at the Slade School of Art in London. It was at this time that Gore-Booth first became politically active and joined the
National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS). Later
she moved to Paris and enrolled at the prestigious Académie Julian where she met her future husband, Count Kazimierz Dunin-Markiewicz, a Polish aristocrat [1][2]. He
was married at the time, but his wife died in 1899 and he wed Gore-Booth in 1901 making her Countess Markiewicz. She gave birth
to their daughter, Maeve, at Lissadell shortly after the marriage. The child was raised by her Gore-Booth grandparents and
eventually became estranged from her mother. Countess Markiewicz also undertook the role of mother to Nicolas, Kazimierz's son
from his first marriage, who then accompanied Markiewicz and Kazimierz to Ireland. It was claimed that Markiewicz was
particularly fond of him and was devastated by his decision to return to Poland. Knowing that her arrest was imminent after the
1916 Rising, Countess stashed the silver shotgun that Nicolas had given her.
The Markiewiczes settled in Dublin in 1903 and moved in artistic and literary circles, the
Countess gaining a reputation for herself as a landscape painter. In 1905, along with artists Sarah Purser, Nathaniel Hone, Walter Osborne and John Butler Yeats, she was instrumental in
founding the United Artists Club, which was an attempt to bring together all those in Dublin with
an artistic and literary bent. At this time, there was nothing tangible to link her to revolutionary politics, but socialising in
this milieu she met the leading figures of the Gaelic League founded by the future
first President of Ireland, Douglas Hyde.
Although formally apolitical and concerned with the preservation of the Irish language and culture, the league brought together
many patriots and future political leaders. Sarah Purser, whom the young Gore-Booth sisters first met in 1882, when she was
commissioned to paint their portrait, hosted a regular salon where artists, writers and intellectuals on both sides of the
nationalist divide gathered. At Purser's house, Markiewicz met with revolutionary patriots Michael Davitt, John O'Leary and Maud
Gonne. In 1906, Markiewicz rented a small cottage in the countryside around Dublin. The previous tenant was the poet
Padraic Colum who had left behind old copies of The Peasant and Sinn Féin.
These revolutionary journals promoted independence from British rule. The Countess read these publications and was propelled into
action.
In 1908, Markiewicz became actively involved in nationalist politics in Ireland. She joined Sinn
Féin and Inghinidhe na hÉireann ('Daughters of Ireland'), a revolutionary
women's movement founded by the actress and activist Maud Gonne, muse of W. B.
Yeats. Markiewicz came directly to her first meeting from a function at Dublin
Castle, the seat of British rule in Ireland, wearing
a satin ball-gown and a diamond tiara. Naturally, the members looked upon her with some hostility. This refreshing change from
being "Kowtowed"-to as a countess only made her more eager to join. She performed with Maud Gonne
in several plays at the newly-established Abbey Theatre, an institution that played an
important part in the rise of cultural nationalism. In the same year, Markiewicz stood for Parliament, contesting the Manchester constituency
in opposition to Winston Churchill. Her sister Eva
Gore-Booth had moved there to live with fellow suffragette Esther Roper and they
both campaigned for her. The Countess lost the election, but in the space of two years she had gone from a life oriented around
art, to a life centred on politics and Irish independence in particular.
In 1909 Markiewicz founded Fianna Éireann, a para-military organisation that instructed teenage boys in the use of firearms. Pádraig Pearse said that the creation of Fianna Éireann was as important as the creation of the
Irish Volunteers in 1913 . The Countess was jailed for the first time in 1911 for
speaking at an Irish Republican Brotherhood demonstration attended by
30,000 people, organized to protest against George V's visit to Ireland.
During this protest Markiewicz handed out leaflets, erected great masts: Dear land thou art not conquered yet., engaged in
stone throwing and attempted to burn the giant British flag at Leinster House but to no avail. Her friend Helena Moloney was the
first woman ever to be tried and arrested for the stone throwing she engaged in with Markiewicz. Markiewicz also joined
James Connolly's Irish Citizen Army (ICA), a
small volunteer force formed in response to the lockout of 1913, to defend the
demonstrating workers from the police. Markiewicz, though an aristocrat, held sympathy with the ordinary workers. Markiewicz
recruited volunteers to peel potatoes in a basement while she worked and others worked on distributing the food. All food was
paid out of her own pocket, Markiewicz was forced to take out many loans at this time and sold all her jewellery. That same year,
with Inghinidhe na hÉireann, she started a soup kitchen to feed poor school children.
Easter Rising
In 1913, her husband moved to the Ukraine, and never returned to live in Ireland. However
they corresponded and Kazimierz was present by her side when she died in 1927. As a member of the ICA Markiewicz took part in the
1916 Easter Rising. The Countess was deeply inspired by the founder of the
ICA, James Connolly. For him she designed the ICA uniforms and composed the anthem
for the ICA, a polish song with the lyrics changed. Markiewicz held the position of an officer, above the rank-and-file members
making her a decision maker, and more importantly, able to carry arms.
Lieutenant Markiewicz was second in command to Michael Mallin in St. Stephen's Green. She supervised the setting-up of barricades as the rising began and was in the
middle of the fighting all around Stephen's Green, wounding a British sniper. Inspired by
newsreel footage from the Western Front, they initially began to dig trenches in the Green. British fire from the rooftops of
adjacent tall buildings, including the Shelbourne Hotel, however, soon convinced them of the folly of this tactic, and they
withdrew to the adjacent Royal College of Surgeons.
Mallin and Markiewicz and their men would hold out for six days, finally giving up when the British brought them a copy of
Pearse's surrender order. The English officer who accepted their surrender was a Captain Wheeler, a relative of Markiewicz.
They were taken to Dublin Castle and the Countess was then transported to Kilmainham
Gaol. They were jeered by the crowds as they walked through the streets of Dublin. There, she was the only one of 70 women
prisoners who was put into solitary confinement. At her court-martial she told the court, "I did what was right and I stand by
it." However in recent transcripts[citation needed] it has been recorded by a member of the court that Markiewicz broke down in
cross examination pleading for her release because of her gender. Her conviction was assured, only her sentence was in doubt. She
was sentenced to death, but General Maxwell commuted this to life in prison on "account of the prisoner's sex." She told the
court, "I do wish your lot had the decency to shoot me".
The Countess was released from prison in 1917, along with others involved in the Rising, as the government in London granted a
general amnesty for those who had participated in it. It was around this time that Markiewicz, born into the Church of Ireland converted to Catholicism.
First Dáil
In 1918, she was jailed again for her part in anti-conscription activities. In the December 1918 general election, Markiewicz was elected for the constituency of
Dublin St Patrick's as one of 73 Sinn Féin MPs. This made her the first woman elected to the
British House of Commons. However, in line with Sinn Féin policy, she refused
to take her seat.
Countess Markiewicz joined her colleagues assembled in Dublin as the first incarnation of
Dáil Éireann, the unilaterally-declared Parliament of the Irish Republic. She was re-elected to the Second Dáil in the
House of Commons of Southern Ireland elections of 1921.
Markiewicz served as Minister for Labour from April 1919 to January
1922, in the Second Ministry and the Third Ministry of the Dáil. Holding cabinet rank from April to August 1919, she became the
first Irish female Cabinet Minister. She was the only female cabinet minister in
Irish history until 1979 when Máire
Geoghegan-Quinn was appointed to the then junior cabinet post of Minister for the Gaeltacht for Fianna Fáil.
Civil War and Fianna Fáil
Markiewicz left government in January 1922 along with Éamon de Valera and others in
opposition to the Anglo-Irish Treaty. She fought actively for the Republican cause in the Irish Civil War helping to defend
Moran's Hotel in Dublin. After the War she toured the United States. She was not elected
in the 1922 Irish general election but was returned in the 1923 general election for the Dublin South constituency. In common with other Republican candidates, she did not take her seat. However her staunch republican views led her to
being sent to jail again. In prison, she and 92 other female prisoners went on hunger strike. Within a month, the Countess was
released. The hunger-strikes of the suffragettes had been a huge embarrassment to the British government before the war.
She joined Fianna Fáil on its foundation in 1926, chairing the inaugural meeting of the
new party in La Scala Theatre. In the June 1927 general election, she
was re-elected to the 5th Dáil as a candidate for the new Fianna Fáil party, which was pledged to return to Dáil
Éireann, but died only five weeks later, before she could take up her seat.
She died at the age of 59, on 15 July 1927, possibly of
tuberculosis (contracted when she worked in the poorhouses of Dublin) or complications
related to appendicitis. Her estranged husband and daughter and beloved stepson were by her side. She was buried in
Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin. Éamon de Valera, the
Fianna Fáil leader, gave the funeral oration.
The by-election for her Dáil seat in Dublin South was held on 24 August,
1927 and won by the Cumann na nGaedhael candidate
Thomas Hennessy.
| “ |
One thing she had in abundance—-physical courage; with that she was clothed as with a
garment |
” |
|
—Seán O'Casey
|
See also
Sources
Further reading
- Anne Marreco, The Rebel Countess: The Life and Times of Constance Markievicz (1967)
- Diana Norman, Terrible Beauty: A Life of Constance Markievicz, 1868-1927 (1987)
- Anne Haverty, Constance Markievicz: Irish Revolutionary (1993)
- Joe McGowan, Constance Markievicz: The People's Countess (2003)
External links
Political career
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