PROFILE CONSTANCE MARKIEVICZ Aristocratic leader of men

The 1916 story sought a handy Joan of Arc figure and this daughter of the gentrified world fitted the bill, writes Conor Mulvagh

T is perhaps predictable to SNAPSHOT Gonne’s Inghinidhe na hÉireann. In 1909, focus on the figure of Constance alongside , she founded Markievicz when considering CONSTANCE MARKIEVICZ Fianna Éireann, a republican boy-scouts the role of women in the Irish Born: Constance Gore-Booth, organisation. Its members, mostly boys Revolution. Markievicz was 4 February 1868, London from ’s most economically deprived I one of the most identifiable neighbourhoods, developed a deep and iconic female of Educated: Slade School of Art, personal devotion to their Chief Scout, the period. To her supporters, she was London; Académie Julien, Paris Madame Markievicz, and she actively selfless and principled; she had foregone Affiliation: / encouraged their harassment of the rival a life of comfort and opulence in order IRB/Cumann na mBan Baden Powell Scouts and Boys’ Brigade to champion the causes of labour and members. republicanism; and she had suffered Career: Painter, activist, MP, Markievicz had added to her for it. To her detractors, and there have Minister for Labour expanding range of political interests been several, she has been denigrated Died: 15 July 1927, Sir Patrick when she joined the Women’s Workers both for her gender and her class. She Dun’s Hospital, Dublin Union in 1911. Arrest that year for anti- has been singled out as the aristocrat monarchist activities was followed by who descended from the gentrified world experience of police violence during the of her youth and hogged the limelight, a ‘bad mother’ has been levelled at 1913 Lockout. Further eschewing the posing as a diva among Dublin’s poor, both Markievicz by many of her detractors. preconceptions of her gender, she later during the 1913 Lockout and in the 1916 However, it is interesting that Constance became one of the only women to take a Rising. Constance Markievicz has posed a herself was raised by a governess for much full command and combat role in the Irish challenge both to her contemporaries and of her youth and the same criticism has Citizen Army. to later biographers: she is anomalistic not been levelled at her parents. Equally, In 1916 itself, Markievicz has been among Ireland’s leading revolutionaries among the Easter rebels, none of the criticised for the killing of an unarmed both in terms of her class and her gender. fathers who went out knowing the risks of policeman and for taking credit for the Born in London to the prominent Anglo- their struggle have had the same criticism actions of the Irish Citizen Army around Irish Gore-Booth Family of Lissadell, Co hang over them. Consider Connolly, St Stephen’s Green when it was Michael Sligo, Constance was the eldest of five Ceannt, Mallin, and MacDonagh. All Mallin and not her who was in command. children. Her prowess in horsemanship left behind bereaved wives with young On the latter charge, it should be borne is something still celebrated at Lissadell families. It speaks to the preconceptions in mind that Mallin had tried to avoid today with photographs demonstrating of gender and motherhood both then and detection as garrison commander when her equestrian ability on display. now that this criticism has stubbornly his unit surrendered. He had four young Underlining the position of the Gore- adhered to Markievicz’s legacy. children and his wife was pregnant with So what place does Constance Booths in society, at 19 Constance made A variety of explanations and a fifth. It is a compelling theory that Markievicz have in Irish history? All her debut in high society being presented turning points have been identified in Markievicz’s highly theatrical surrender revolutions are subjected to retrospective to Queen Victoria. A grand tour of the Markievicz’s political awakening: the may have been calculated to detract mythologisation. Likewise, all states and continent deepened Constance’s interest Boer War, encountering in attention from him. When Mallin’s nations craft their foundation narratives. in art and, despite parental reluctance, London, the Anglo-Irish literary revival, daughter was born four months after her Think of America’s 1776, of France’s 1789, at 25 she entered art college in London. encountering Russian oppression on two father’s execution, her mother christened of Russia’s 1917, and of the cultural and Student life exposed her to new ideas. summers home with Casimir, the list the child Mary Constance. civic importance of Germany’s unification The historian Senia Paseta notes how, goes on. Underlining her rejection of her It is unnecessary to go through the well- in 1870 and of its re-unification in 1990. when she returned to Sligo from London, background and her dual commitment to worn but nonetheless remarkable story Foundation narratives do not have to be Constance founded the Sligo Women’s and nationalism, around 1908 of Markievicz from 1916 through to her triumphs, nations can be forged through Suffrage Society. Markievicz joined Sinn Féin and Maud election as the first female MP in British adversity. Ireland’s 1916 was transformed Art also brought new people into history to the crowning achievement from defeat into a triumph of failure. This her life. In 1898, further study in art of being granted one of eight has created two 1916s, one historical and brought her to Paris. There she met cabinet portfolios when De Valera one which is theatrical, elegiac, mythic. a fellow art student, a member of the announced the first Republican The former can never fully be recovered, Polish nobility, recently widowed cabinet in . As Minister the latter can never fully be unravelled. with a young son but, at 25, six years for Labour, Markievicz’s ministry What does all this have to do with her junior. Casimir Dunin-Markievicz was no mere window dressing. With Constance Markievicz, the daughter married Constance in 1900 and, after a staff largely comprised of women of aristocrats who turned on her own a difficult birth, their only daughter, and an office that prided itself class and died a pauper? I would argue Maeve, was born in 1901. Like her on never having been discovered, that, in assembling Ireland’s foundation step-brother Stanislaus, Maeve spent the Ministry of Labour proved narrative out of the rubble of 1916 and much of her infant years being reared highly successful in dealing with all that followed, Markievicz presented a by her grandmother and a governess arbitration cases and related unique opportunity for the myth makers. at Lissadell. Once Constance’s industrial relations issues. This was Certainly there had been women casualties political life took off in 1908, Maeve at a time when other departments of of the Rising, they numbered among the was left almost permanently in the Countess Markievicz arriving at Hall marking the government were wounded and the dead but, out of these, care of Lady Gore-Booth. the return of Irish Republican prisoners in June 1917. coming in for harsh criticism for no martyr was found. Borrowing from the Interestingly, the charge of being UCD ARCHIVES PETER PAUL GALLIGAN PAPERS inefficiency and disorganisation. French national tradition, what the Easter

8 | Irish Independent 1916 Collection Irish Independent I Thursday 4 February 2016 PROFILE

From left: Constance Markievicz as a debutante in 1886, stirring soup in the kitchen and with a revolver.

COURTESY OF: MUSEUM (17PC-1K43-08); SOUTH DUBLIN LIBRARIES HET LEVEN COLLECTION; SOUTH DUBLIN LIBRARIES JOHN MULLEN COLLECTION

Below: Eva Gore-Booth with her sister, Constance Markievicz

‘Comrades’ Eva Gore-Booth The peaceful night that round me flows, Breaks through your iron prison doors, Free through the world your spirit goes, Forbidden hands are clasping yours. The wind is our confederate, The night has left her doors ajar, We meet beyond earth’s barred gate, Where all the world’s wild Rebels are.

AN ASSESSMENT DR LUCY COLLINS

EVA GORE-BOOTH, poet and activist, was the sister of Constance Markievicz. Both women rejected their privileged upbringing in different ways: Constance became a revolutionary 1916 story needed was a Joan of Arc, a , , debated 1927 Juries Bill. She lived on until nationalist while Eva Liberty storming the barricades, ideally Hanna Sheehy Skeffington, and Madeleine the 25th anniversary of the Rising in 1941. chose pacifism and social reform. immortalised in some sort of Hibernicised ffrench-Mullen. One who is worth Constance Markievicz became valuable Though the sisters disagreed on the Delacroix painting. They found it in a rebel examining briefly here is Jennie Wyse to propagandists because she was subject of violent , ‘Comrades’ Countess. Power. Ten years Markievicz’s senior, Wyse dead. Unlike Lynn, Skinnider, Sheehy powerfully expresses their deep personal Markievicz was perfect in many ways. Power was a veteran of the Ladies’ Land Skeffington, or ffrench-Mullen, she bond — its simplicity reflects the poet’s She had been handed down a death League, she campaigned in the first Sinn could not speak back and pose awkward need to speak of feelings unfettered by sentence; she had been dramatic in her Féin by-election of 1908. Before the Rising, questions about what the revolution had the descriptive detail of everyday life. surrender and arrest; and she had been she ran a vegetarian restaurant on Henry achieved in terms of gender equality. After Night, traditionally a time for poetic a leader of men. Unlike the women of Street which became a focal point for all 1927, Markievicz was exactly where those reflection on mortality, offers release; Cumann na mBan who shades of advanced politics who crafted the mythologised 1916 wanted single syllable words aptly express the had been consigned to in the city. Indicating the her — she could be seen but not heard. flow of emotion across all obstacles and the roles of cooks, nurses, proximity of Jennie Wyse the convergence of these two lives. and messengers, she Power to the leadership The sisters were convinced of their “ Dr Conor Mulvagh is a lecturer was an equal and not a Markievicz became of the IRB, it was in her power to communicate telepathically in Irish History at the School of subordinate. However, this restaurant that the leaders since childhood, and here their valuable to propagandists History at University College was only half the reason of the Rising signed the instinctive closeness finds poetic form. Dublin (UCD) with special Markievicz best fit the bill. because she was dead. Proclamation. In the spirit of love and solidarity responsibility for the Decade of She had also died relatively After independence the poem charts a move beyond earthly Unlike Lynn, Skinnider, Commemorations. He is the author of early on, in 1927, before however, Wyse Power lived states towards spiritual transcendence ‘Irish Days, Indian Memories - VV Giri the paint had dried on the Sheehy Skeffington, or on. A leading pro-treaty — the place of pure feeling where and Indian Law Students at University canvass of Ireland’s “four Cumann na mBan member, idealists unite. ffrench-Mullen, she could College Dublin, 1913-16’, which launches glorious years.” she became a Cumann na today. Dr Mulvagh is co-ordinating Roy Foster has recently not speak back and pose nGaedheal senator in 1922 Globalising the Rising, a conference Dr Lucy Collins is a lecturer in examined the lives of but broke from the party awkward questions taking place in UCD tomorrow and English at University College revolutionary women after in 1925. As an independent Saturday, February 5th and 6th, which Dublin (UCD). She is the curator independence. Eclipsed about what the revolution senator, she railed against will consider the impact and legacy of of ‘Reading 1916’, launching behind Markievicz were economically and gender- had achieved in terms 1916 on global political systems: www. tomorrow night, an exhibition a host of other women regressive legislation ucd.ie/centenaries/events-calendar at UCD Special Collections activists, among them of gender equality including the hotly-

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