The Life and Times of Countess Markiewicz, Irish Patriot

Countess Markiewicz was born as Constanceuniform and composing their anthem. During the
Gore-Booth in 1868 in London. Her father had an1916 Rising, she was second in command to
estate at Lissadell in the north of County Sligo,Michael Mallin in St. Stephen's Green. Under sniper
Ireland; the children grew up there and Constancefire from the surrounding buildings, including the
and her sister Eva were childhood friends of WBShelbourne Hotel, they retreated to the Royal
Yeats whose artistic and political ideas were aCollege of Surgeons. When the leaders of the
strong influence on them. Constance went toRising surrendered, she was arrested, incarcerated
study art at the Slade School of Art in London,in Kilmainham Gaol, she was sentenced to death
she became politically active and joined thebut the sentence was later commuted to a life
National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies.sentence.
She moved to Paris, marrying Count KazimierzUnder the general amnesty she was released in
Dunin-Markiewicz, a Ukranian aristocrat. The couple1917 and in 1918 she ran in the general election
settled in Dublin where Constance establishedbecoming the first woman elected to the British
herself as a landscape painter and helped foundHouse of Commons, however in line with Sinn
the United Artists Club. Socialising in artistic andFein policy, she refused to take her seat. She
literary circles, she met and became influenced bylater served as Minister for Labour in the Irish
revolutionary patriots. In 1908 she joined Sinn Feincabinet becoming the first female cabinet minister
and the revolutionary women's movement,in Europe. She left government in 1922, opposing
Inghinidhe na hEireann; she also began to performthe Anglo-Irish Treaty, fighting actively for the
in plays at the Abbey Theatre.Republican cause during the Civil War. She again
In 1909, she founded Fianna-Eireann, anwon election to government in the 1923 and 1927
organisation that instructed boys in military tacticsgeneral elections. She died in 1927 and is buried in
and the in the use of firearms. She joined JamesGlasnevin Cemetery, Dublin.
Connolly's Irish Citizen Army, designing their