Constance Markievicz and the Sun
“Dress suitably in short skirts and strong boots, leave your jewels in the bank, and buy a revolver.”
— Constance’s advice to women from the Inghininidhe na h-Éireann magazine “Bean na h-Éireann”.
Constance Gore-Booth was born in 1868, the eldest of five children. Her father, Henry Gore-Booth, owned the Lissadell estate in Sligo, where she grew up. She was presented at court to Queen Victoria in the monarch’s Jubilee year, 1887.
At 25, she went to London to study art at the Slade School of Art and when she returned to Sligo, she helped set up a local women’s suffrage group with her sister Eva. She was often seen driving a carriage and four white horses to raise awareness of the suffrage campaign. During one such excursion, a man heckled her, asking if she could cook a dinner. Constance responded:
“Yes. Can you drive a coach and four?”
In 1900, while studying art in Paris, she married a fellow student, Count Casimir Markievicz. A widower with a young son, he and Constance went on to have a daughter named Maeve. They settled in Dublin in 1903, where she began to support the fight for Irish independence. In 1908, she attended her first Sinn Féin meeting and joined Maud Gonne’s radical Irish nationalist women's organisation Inghinidhe na hÉireann (Daughters of Ireland) and helped found Bean na hÉireann (Woman of Ireland), the first women’s nationalist journal in Ireland. She also formed Fianna Éireann, a republican version of the Boy Scouts. She and her husband separated in 1909.
In 1911, she was jailed for the first time after speaking at an Irish Republican Brotherhood protest against George V’s visit, for burning a British flag taken from the Irish parliament. In 1913, Constance became a founder of the Irish Citizen Army (ICA) alongside socialist James Connolly. She worked tirelessly to help the strikers’ families during the Dublin Lockout of the same year, and organised soup kitchens in the Dublin slums and at Liberty Hall. She co-founded the Irish Neutrality League in 1914, in opposition to Ireland’s involvement in British War effort.
She was second-in-command of a troop of Citizen Army combatants in the Easter Rising of 1916, and became part of the group that held St. Stephen’s Green in Dublin. After the failure of the Rising, she was arrested. At her hearing she said:
“I went out to fight for Ireland’s freedom, and it does not matter what happens to me. I did what I thought was right.”
She was sentenced to death which was commuted to a life sentence because she was a woman. Upon learning this, she exclaimed:
“I do wish your lot had the decency to shoot me”.
During the 1918 general election – while in prison on account of her alleged involvement in a treasonous ‘German plot’ – Constance was elected to the Westminster parliament as one of 73 Sinn Féin MPs. Rather than taking their seats, the republicans set up the Irish Dáil Éireann (government). Constance served as Minister for Labour from 1919 to 1922. She was the second ever female government minister in Europe. She lost her seat in 1922 and continued to work for the republican cause in the Irish Civil War, touring the United States to raise awareness of it. Constance was again elected to the Dáil in 1923 but in protest did not take her seat. She joined the new Fianna Fáil party in 1926 and was elected to the fifth Dáil in 1927, but died a month later. At her funeral, her former ICA comrade, the playwright Sean O’Casey remarked:
“One thing she had in abundance—physical courage. With that she was clothed as with a garment.”
Over 300,000 people lined the streets of Dublin for her funeral.
XIX The Sun
Even when the sun is hidden by clouds, it always re-emerges. A card of optimism and joy, The Sun suggests that if we're going through a hard time, things will start to get better. Life may have its dark chapters, but they can’t last forever. The Sun reminds us not to dim our light to suit others. It speaks to the alchemy that takes place following the work we do to integrate our shadows, as well as the happiness that ensues from living in alignment with our true selves. The card can herald the successful completion of a job well done – and can inspire further passion in our work. A card of vitality and adventure, it invites us to recognise the potential for growth that lies within each of us while making the best of the circumstances that surround us and have confidence in ourselves, like Constance did. She lived to see the success of initiatives she fought so hard for when women got the vote in 1918 and the Irish Free State was established in 1922. She was the first woman elected to the Westminster Parliament (where she refused to take her seat). As Ireland’s ‘Rebel Countess’’, her legacy lives on to inspire the generations who followed.
Oh I loved reading this - it felt as though her spirit leapt right from the page (or screen rather :D).
What an incredible read and piece of history. Thank-you Regina!!!!!