Countess Constance Markievicz

153 years ago today, Constance Georgine Markievicz (née Gore-Booth; 1868 – 1927), known as Countess Markievicz, was born. Constance was an Irish politician, revolutionary, nationalist, suffragist, socialist, the first woman elected to the Westminster Parliament, and was elected Minister for Labour in the First Dáil, becoming the first female cabinet minister in Europe. Quite a record.

Constance Georgine Gore-Booth was born in London in 1868, daughter of the Arctic explorer and adventurer Sir Henry Gore-Booth and Lady Georgina Hill. During the Irish Famine of 1879–80, Sir Henry provided his tenants with free food on his estate in the north-west of Ireland. Their father's example inspired in Gore-Booth and her younger sister, Eva, a deep concern for working people and the poor. Eva later became involved in the labour movement and women's suffrage in Great Britain, although initially Constance did not share her sister's ideals.

Constance decided to train as a painter, but at the time only one art school in Dublin accepted women students, so in 1892 she returned to London to study at the Alexandra House for Art Pupils, Kensington Gore. It was here that Gore-Booth first became involved in politics and joined the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS). She then moved to Paris and enrolled at the prestigious Académie Julian where she met her future husband, Casimir Markievicz, an artist from a wealthy Polish family from Ukraine. Markievicz was known in Paris as "Count Markievicz", although the validity of this title was cast in doubt. Markievicz was married, though separated, at the time that they met, but when his wife died in 1899 he and Gore-Booth married in London a year later. She was henceforth known as "Countess Markievicz". She gave birth to their daughter, Maeve, in November 1901, however her daughter was raised by Constance’s parents and was largely estranged from her mother. However, Constance did raise Casimir’s son, Stanislas, as her own. 

The Markieviczes settled in Dublin in 1903 and moved in artistic and literary circles where Constance gained a reputation as a landscape painter. In 1905, she was instrumental in founding the United Arts Club, which aimed to bring together all those in Dublin with an artistic and literary bent. Although formally apolitical and concerned with the preservation of the Irish language and culture, the league brought together many patriots and future political leaders. In 1907, Markievicz rented a cottage in the countryside near Dublin. The previous tenant, the poet Padraic Colum, had left behind copies of The Peasant and Sinn Féin, revolutionary journals promoting independence from British rule. Reading these proved to be the spark which ignited Constance’s political activism.  

In 1908, Markievicz 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. Markievicz 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 (#queen). Unsurprisingly, this was greeted with some hostility from the members, however, this actually pleased her as she was fed up 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, Markievicz played a dramatic role in the women's suffrage campaigners' tactic of opposing Winston Churchill's election to Parliament during the Manchester North West by-election, flamboyantly appearing in the constituency driving an old-fashioned carriage drawn by four white horses to promote the suffragist cause. A male heckler asked her if she could cook a dinner, to which she responded, "Yes. Can you drive a coach and four?" Along with her sister and her sister’s room mate, they campaigned against Winston Church, who lost the election in part because of Suffragist activism. 

“I have always hated war and am by nature and philosophy a pacifist, but it is the English who are forcing war on us, and the first principle of war is to kill the enemy.”

In 1909 Markievicz and Bulmer Hobson founded Fianna Éireann, a para-military nationalist scouting organisation that taught teenage boys how to use firearms. Constance was almost expelled at the first meeting on account of her gender, with some objecting that women did not belong in a physical force movement. However, Hobson supported her, and she was elected to the committee. She was jailed for the first time in 1911 for speaking at an Irish Republican Brotherhood demonstration against George V’s visit to Ireland, attended by 30,000 people. During this protest she also handed out leaflets, erected great masts bearing the slogan “Dear land thou art not conquered yet”, participated in stone-throwing at pictures of the King and Queen and attempted to burn the giant British flag taken from Leinster House. Eventually she succeeded in burning the flag - although James McArdle was imprisoned for o the incident, despite Markievicz testifying in court that she was responsible.

Markievicz also joined James Connolly's socialist Irish Citizen Army (ICA), a small volunteer force formed to defend the demonstrating workers from the police. Markievicz recruited volunteers to peel potatoes in a basement while she helped distribute food. food. Constance funded all the food from her own pocket and was forced to take out many loans and sell her jewellery. That same year, with Inghinidhe na hÉireann, she ran a soup kitchen to feed poor school children. She definitely didn’t let her class stop her from getting her hands dirty and doing the real labour that needed to be done. 

"Dress suitably in short skirts and strong boots, leave your jewels in the bank and buy a revolver."

In 1913 Markievicz's husband moved back to Ukraine, never again living in Ireland. (However, they remained in contact and he was by her side when she died). As a member of the ICA, Markievicz took part in the 1916 Easter Rising. She was deeply inspired by the founder of the ICA, James Connolly. Markievicz designed the Citizen Army uniform and composed its anthem, based on the tune of a Polish song, inspired by her husband. In the Rising, Markievicz fought in St Stephen's Green, where—according to one report—she shot a member of the (unarmed) Dublin Metropolitan Police, Constable Lahiff, who later died of his injuries. Other accounts place her at City Hall when the policeman was shot, only arriving at Stephen's Green later.

Markievicz supervised the setting-up of barricades on Easter Monday and was in the middle of the fighting all around Stephen's Green, wounding a British army sniper.  The Stephen's Green garrison held out for six days, ending the engagement when the British brought them a copy of the surrender order. Incidentally, the British officer de Courcy Wheeler, who accepted the surrender was married to Markievicz's cousin.

The rebels were taken to Dublin Castle and Markievicz was transported to Kilmainham Gaol, jeered by the crowds. There, she was the only one of 70 women prisoners to be placed in solitary confinement. At her court martial on 4 May 1916, Markievicz pleaded not guilty to "taking part in an armed rebellion...for the purpose of assisting the enemy," but pleaded guilty to having attempted "to cause disaffection among the civil population of His Majesty". She was sentenced to death, but the court recommended mercy "solely and only on account of her sex". The sentence was commuted to life in prison. When told of this, she said to her captors, "I do wish your lot had the decency to shoot me". Not amused by inequality, even when it saves her life = true feminism. 

“I remain a rebel, unconverted and unconvertible. There is no word strong enough for it. I am pledged as a rebel…to the one thing – a free and independent Republic.”

Markievicz was transferred to Mountjoy Prison, Holloway Prison and then to Aylesbury Prison in England in July 1916. She was released from prison in 1917, along with others involved in the Rising, as the government in London granted a general amnesty for those involved. It was around this time that Markievicz converted to Catholicism.  

In 1918, she was jailed again for her part in anti-conscription activities. At the 1918 general election, Markievicz was elected with 66% of the vote for the constituency of Dublin St Patrick's - one of 73 Sinn Féin MPs. The results were called on 28 December 1918. This made her the first woman elected to the United Kingdom House of Commons. However, in line with Sinn Féin abstentionist policy, she did not take her seat in the House of Commons.

Markievicz was in Holloway prison, when her colleagues assembled in Dublin at the first meeting of the First Dáil, the Parliament of the revolutionary Irish Republic. When her name was called, she was described, like many of those elected, as being "imprisoned by the foreign enemy". She was re-elected to the Second Dáil in the elections of 1921.

Markievicz 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 both the first Irish female Cabinet Minister and at the same time, only the second female government minister in Europe. She was the only female cabinet minister in Irish history until 1979. 

"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 and I stand by it."

Markievicz left government in January 1922 in opposition to the Anglo-Irish Treaty. She fought actively for the Republican cause in the Irish Civil War, including at the occupation of 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 Dáil seat. She was arrested again in November 1923. In prison, she went on hunger strike and was released within a month.  

She left Sinn Féin and joined the new Fianna Fáil party on its foundation in 1926, chairing the inaugural meeting of the new party. In the June 1927 general election, she was re-elected to the 5th Dáil as a candidate for Fianna Fáil but died only five weeks later, before she could take her seat.

Markievicz died aged 59 on 15 July 1927, of complications related to appendicitis. Having given away the last of her wealth, she died "among the poor where she wanted to be".  She was refused a state funeral by the Free State government, and was buried at Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin.

Irish writer Seán O'Casey memorialised her in these words: "One thing she had in abundance—physical courage; with that she was clothed as with a garment.” I think every aspect of her life attests to the truth of that.