Constance: Freedom Fighter

She was an aristocrat turned suffragist, Irish rebel and political leader. We are all familiar with that Andy Warhol image of Che Guevara. But how many of us know what Constance Markievicz looked like? 

‘Madam Markievicz’ was a true warrior whose story of bravery should be taught to every school child, in my view.   In keeping with my ‘Suffragette’ focus this month (and rather belatedly, to mark St Patrick’s Day!) the spotlight today is on Constance’s HERstory as one of the greatest woman revolutionaries of all time. 

Roots in compassion 

Aristocratic Constance Markievicz was born Constance Gore-Booth in 1868 to Anglo-Irish landlord and explorer Sir Henry Gore Booth and Lady Georgina Hill. Constance was 10 when the Irish famine started, and watched her father provide food for his tenants in Sligo, which deeply affected her and instilled in her a lifelong concern and empathy for the poor.  It just shows how important it is to set an example to your kids from an early age! 

As a young woman and trainee artist in London, Constance joined the NUWSS. She met her artist husband, Casimir Markievicz in Paris and the pair settled in Dublin in 1903 and had a daughter together, Maeve. 

The Troubles

The quiet life of an upper class woman was not enough for Constance, however. It was in Dublin that she became involved with revolutionary political figures and thinkers. The nationalist divide was gaining ground at this time, the ‘Irish question’ of Home Rule a hot topic on both sides of the Irish Sea. By 1908, Constance was convinced of the cause, and joined Sinn Fein and Daughters of Ireland, a revolutionary women’s movement. She was also active in the suffrage campaign at this time, joining her sister Eva Gore Booth in Manchester to oppose Winston Churchill’s re-election to parliament. It worked, as Churchill lost to another candidate in that particular by-election! 

There was certainly a crossover between the women’s suffrage movement and Irish Republicanism, and Constance straddled both these movements.  For her, being an ‘Irish woman’ meant to be doubly enslaved -  by virtue of gender, but also by the English rulers. This is where she differed from the leaders of the WSPU, who saw women’s suffrage as a single issue, divorced from any wider political causes. 

Things ramped up after 1911. Constance started by attending demonstrations against English rule and committed acts of disorder such as desecrating pictures of the King and Queen and burning British flags. This is probably what caused the rift in her marriage. In 1913, her husband Casimir moved back to Ukraine, separating from her (although they remained cordial throughout her life.)

'Twas better to die 'neath that Irish sky…’

During the Easter Rising of 1916, Constance actively fought with the Irish Citizens Army and it was speculated that she shot and killed a policeman. She was never definitively linked to this ‘murder’, but she was very central to the fighting at St. Stephen’s Green, even helping to plan the Uprising. As a result, Constance was arrested and pleaded guilty to ‘causing disaffection among the civil population of His Majesty’. Defiantly she told the court:

“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.”

From her cell, she heard the executions of 14 of her comrades by firing squad and awaited her turn.  But being a woman saved her life. Her execution sentence was commuted to life imprisonment, to which she retorted 

“I do wish your lot had the decency to shoot me.”

But she didn’t spend her life in prison, as it turns out. She spent less than a year incarcerated. She was transferred from Dublin to England and released in 1917 after the government granted those involved in the Rising with an amnesty. 

The first woman MP

Constance’s values and political affiliations were, if anything, strengthened by her conviction and time in jail. She was re-incarcerated in 1918, and actually campaigned for election from her prison cell!  In 1918 she was elected to parliament representing Dublin as A Sinn Fein MP. But she isn’t formally recognised as being the first woman MP, because she didn’t take her seat in the House of Commons, in line with Sinn Fein policy. That title has always gone to Nancy Astor. 

She served as Minister for Labour from 1919 to 1922. Incredibly, she remained the only Irish female cabinet minister until 1979! 

But her time as a fighter hadn’t come to an end. In 1922 she continued to fight for Irish independence, helping the Republicans during the Civil war, and going to prison again, this time hunger striking. Her relentless fight for Irish independence continued until the day she died, somewhat prematurely, at 59 of peritonitis.   She was refused a state funeral by parliament but she got something that she probably would have preferred, a ‘people’s funeral’ where 300,000 people lined up to view and pay their respects to her body laid out in the Rotunda in Dublin. 

Despite being born into wealth and privilege, Constance gave up all her wealth, selling her jewellery and assets to fund the cause she believed in. She was prepared to die for it, too. So whatever you think about the IRA cause and its methods, I think it’s hard not to admire the inimitable bravery and conviction of Constance Markievicz. 

Let’s also not forget that she remained devoted to the poor her entire life, working tirelessly to set up soup kitchens and hand deliver turf to the inhabitants of the slum tenements. 

Her portrait now hangs in the House of Commons and I do wonder what she thinks of that! 

Here is a link to Sinead O’Connor and the Chieftains’ version of the Easter Rising ballad The Foggy Dew. I always find it a haunting rendition of the song and I think Constance would’ve appreciated a woman singing it so proudly. Sinead was another Irish woman who wasn’t afraid to speak out against oppression and corruption, so it seems fitting.

“…The world did gaze with deep amaze

At those fearless men but few

Who bore the fight that freedom's light

Might shine through the foggy dew” 

That’s it for this month, thanks for reading. Share this with others and online if you like it. And remember, ‘One (wo)man’s terrorist is another (wo)man’s freedom fighter”

Herstorical Tours…x