Countess Constance Markievicz (1868-1927)
There is no record of Countess Markievicz in the 1911 Census. She may have been in jail1, as in 1911 she was arrested when she took part in a demonstration against the visit of King George V to Ireland, or as a suffragette she may not have filled out the Census form. There is however a Census record of her daughter Maeve, aged 9, who lived in Sligo with Constance’s mother, Georgina Gore Booth, aged 67. A reunion of mother and daughter took place when Maeve was 20 and her mother was 53. Maeve did not recognise her mother and had to be persuaded that it really was her2.
Census Report 1911 for the family of Countess Markievicz
Census 1911 Address: 1, Ballinvoher, Drumcliff East, Sligo3.
Apart from Maeve and her grandmother, Georgina, there were five other people in the house. A visitor to the house, Janet Claigton (22), gave her occupation as a governess. There were three female servants – Kane Johnson (22), a ladies maid, Lizzie McGloghlan (24), a parlour maid and Mary Feeheley (26), a cook. There was also a stable boy, Tom McKeown (15). The mix of religions in the house is interesting. Both Georgina Gore Booth and the visitor, Janet Claigton, were Church of England while Maeve and two of the servants, Kane Johnson and Lizzie McGloghlan, were Church of Ireland. The cook, Mary Feeheley and the stable boy, Tom McKeown, were both Catholics.
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Sligo/Drumcliff_East/Ballinvoher/756052/
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/reels/nai003260614/
Census Report 1911 for Casimir Dunin Markievicz
Census 1911 Address: 44, St. Stephens Green East, Dublin3.
There is also a Census record of Count Casimir Dunin Markievicz, the estranged husband of Countess Markievicz, who moved to the Ukraine in 1913. He is recorded as a boarder and a Russian noble aged 37 on Census night.
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/reels/nai000208710/
Constance Gore-Booth was born in 1868 in London and was brought up in Lissadell House, County Sligo. Constance and her sister Eva were the daughters of Baronet and Arctic explorer Sir Henry Gore-Booth and his wife Georgina. Both girls were presented to Queen Victoria at Buckingham Palace but despite this background both sisters became prominent social activists, supporters of women’s suffrage and the Irish republican movement.
Photo: Constance Markievicz in a ball gown
Constance married a Polish Count, Casimir Dunin Markievicz, in 1900 and her daughter Maeve was born in 1902.
Constance became active in nationalist politics and in 1908 she joined Sinn Féin and Maud Gonne’s women’s group, Inghinidhe na hÉireann (Daughters of Ireland). She became a regular contributor to Bean na hÉireann (Women of Ireland). This was Ireland’s first women’s nationalist journal and was founded by Helena Molony, who would become her closest friend. She met Maud Gonne who asked her to take over looking after boys’ classes.
“I gave over to her the boys' classes which we ran and which were too much for the Inghinidhe as the boys wore so unruly. The Countess managed then wonderfully and we never had a day's trouble with them once she took them over4”. In 1909 she founded Na Fianna, an organisation to teach boys military drills and the use of weaponry.
During the 1913 Lockout “Madame”, as she was known, worked in the soup kitchen. She ran a food depot for locked-out workers in her home and was helped by Maud Gonne and their socialist and feminist friends. She gave up the material advantages of being a member of the ruling Anglo-Irish class to devote her time to the working class of Dublin.
“Mme. Markievicz, who was a great friend of mine, ran a soup kitchen in Liberty Hall, while the workers' strike was on. She was a great woman and I always think she does not get the credit she should. Sean Ó Faolain and O' Casey make me angry with their sneers at her in their books4”.
Photo: Surrender of Constance Markievicz (second figure on right)
She was undoubtedly the prominent female leader of the Easter Rising. A suffragette and socialist, Constance Markievicz became a member of the Irish Citizen Army which was founded by James Connolly. She served as an Officer during the Rising which entitled her to give orders, make tactical decisions and carry weapons. During the Rising it was intended that she would travel around the various outposts in Dr. Kathleen Lynn’s car but when she got to St. Stephen's Green she stayed there with Michael Mallin. Her rank was Staff Lieutenant and she became Second-in-Command in the garrison. Following the surrender she was arrested and became the only woman of the Rising to be sentenced to death though this was commuted to life imprisonment. The scandal of the German execution of English nurse Edith Cavell in 1915 may have led to the decision to spare the Countess5. She was released in 1917.
Photo: British Army note re possible execution of Constance Markievicz
In the General Election of 1918 she was elected as MP for the St. Patrick’s Division of Dublin. She was the first woman to be elected to the British House of Commons but refused to take her seat. Constance was a member of the first Dáil Éireann when it met on the 21st of January 19196. She was both the first Irish female Cabinet Minister (for Labour) and the first female Cabinet Minister in Europe. The death of her sister Eva in 1926 left her very lonely and depressed. She ran for and won a seat in 1927 in the Fifth Dáil for Dublin South. In June that year she fell ill and was taken to Sir Patrick Dun’s Hospital by her friend Dr. Kathleen Lynn. Countess Constance Markievicz died on the 15th July 1927. At her bedside were her husband Casimir, her daughter Maeve, her stepson Stanislaus and some female friends. She lay in State in the Rotunda but was given a large public funeral rather than a State one.
Sources:
Other reference:
http://www.tcd.ie/Library/1916/two-girls-in-silk-kimonos/
Go to Dr. Kathleen Lynn
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