Constance Markievicz - Rebel countessConstance Markievicz, née Gore-Booth, (1868-1927), was b

Constance Markievicz - Rebel countessConstance Markievicz, née Gore-Booth, (1868-1927), was born in London, though her family owned an estate in County Sligo, Ireland. Instead of being a well-to-do lady, Constance wanted to become an artist and left for Paris. There she met a destitute Polish count, Casimir Dunin Markievicz and married him. She gave birth to a daughter in 1901. In 1903, the family settled in Dublin, where Constance helped establish the United Arts Club, but the couple soon became estranged.By 1907, Constance started to fight for women’s rights. In 1908, she co-founded a scouting organization and trained young people to fight for the nationalist cause. In 1913, she joined the Irish Citizen Army, a group created to protect demonstrators from the police during the 1913 Lockout. Constance also borrowed money and sold her jewelry to feed the starving protesters. In 1915, she advised women who wanted to be involved in the cause to:“Dress suitably in short skirts and strong boots, leave your jewels and gold wands in the bank, and buy a revolver. Don’t trust your “feminine charm” and your capacity for getting the soft side of men, but take up your responsibilities and be prepared to go your own way depending for safety on your own courage, your own truth and your own common sense, and not on the problematic chivalry of the men you may meet on the way”.Constance fought during the 1916 Easter rising, an Irish nationalist and republican rebellion. She was second-in-command of the forces at St. Stephen Green and one of the only two female officers in the Irish Citizen Army. Fourteen other women fought actively among the rebels. Among the insurgents, Constance and Margaret Skinnider were reportedly the best snipers among the insurgents. Constance wore trousers and carried a gun. She wrote about her part in the fight:“This work was very exciting when the fighting began. I continued round and round the Green, reporting back anything that was wanted, or tackling any sniper that was particularly objectionable”.The rebels were forced to surrender after six days. Constance refused at first, but had to give up. She kissed her revolver before handling it to her foes. On may 4, she was tried and sentenced to be executed, but her sentence was commuted to life imprisonment on behalf of her sex. When learning of the verdict she said: “I do wish your lot had the decency to shoot me”.She was, however, released in 1917 and became the first woman elected to the parliament, in Britain and Ireland and later, as minister of Labour, the second female cabinet minister anywhere in the world.She fought again during the 1922-1923 Irish civil war. A rifleman who fought by her side gave the following account:“It made my position in the shelter of the cornice as dangerous a one as you could find. I was due for relief and I wasn’t sorry for that. But when my relief came, who was it but Madame (Constance) (…) I didn’t like the idea of a woman taking over that position. But Madame just waved me to one side with that imperious air she could put when she wanted to have her own way. She slipped into what little shelter there was, carrying with her an automatic Parabellum Pistol (…). I couldn’t rightly say how long she was up there, for I was so tired that I drowsed off to sleep. But when I woke up, the first thing I noticed was something different in the sound of the firing. The steady, continuous rattle of fire that I learned to pick out from the sound of rifle and machine gun fire up and down the street had ceased; the sniper’s post in Henry Street was silent”.Constance died in 1927, at the age of 59, officially from appendicitis. By then, she had given almost all her fortune to the poor. She received official funerals in Dublin.Bibliography:Banerjee Sikata, Muscular Nationalism: Gender, Violence, and Empire in India and Ireland, 1914-2004“Constance Markievicz”, Women’s museum of IrelandCook Bernard, “Constance Markievicz”, in: Cook Bernard (ed.), Women and war: an historical encyclopedia from antiquity to the presentNaughton Lindie, Markievicz: A Most Outrageous RebelSigillito Gina, The Daughters Of Maeve: 50 Irish Women Who Changed World -- source link
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