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Constance Markievicz (1868 - 1927)
Irish Revolutionary,
Suffragette, Citizen Army Soldier, Easter Rising Participant,
First Female elected to the Westminster
Parliament, and Labor Minister in the First Dail
Eireann
Constance
Markievicz was prominent amongst a number of
brave women born into the British aristocracy who
through their exposure to the abject poverty of
the native Irish under British colonial rule
and the systemic destruction of their cultural
identity became leaders in Ireland's struggle
for independence and for the preservation of its
unique cultural identity. Constance's commitment
to Ireland was total and uncompromising, a
commitment that led to vilification by her
former peers, a commuted death sentence, and
numerous terms of imprisonments. Her place in
modern Irish history is secure and beyond
reproach, and her exploits are immortalized
alongside those of Ireland's greatest heroes.
 Early
Carefree Years
Constance
Gore-Booth was born on February 4, 1868, at
Buckingham Gate in London, the eldest of three
daughters and two sons born to Henry Gore-Booth
and Georgina Mary Gore-Booth, nee Hill. Shortly
after Constance's birth, the family relocated to
their Lissadell estate in Drumcliffe, Co.
Sligo. She and her four siblings---Josslyn,
Eva, Mabel, and Mordaunt---were the third
generation of Gore-Booths to live in Lissadell
House, which was built for her paternal
grandfather, Sir Robert Gore-Booth, in the early
1830s.
Constance’s father, Henry Gore-Booth, was a
landowner, Arctic explorer, and author of
articles on Arctic exploration and other
Arctic-related topics. He succeeded to the
Gore-Booth Baronetcy of Artarman in Co. Sligo
after the death of his father, Sir Robert
Gore-Booth, in 1876. The Baronetcy, created in
1760, comprised a title, a 32,200-acre estate,
and a residence, Lissadell House. Sir Henry did
not involve himself in politics, preferring
instead to focus on the management and
development of the estate. In addition to his
estate-related duties, he served as president of
the Sligo Agricultural Society and chairman of
the Sligo, Leitrim, and Northern Counties
Railway. He also held a number of appointed
ceremonial and administrative-type positions
including High Sheriff of Sligo, Deputy
Lieutenant, and Justice of the Peace. By all
accounts he was a good landlord who cared for
his workers and tenants, and took care that they
were fed and clothed during the famine of
1879/80. That was in contrast to his father, Sir
Robert, who, during the Great Hunger years of
the 1840s, cleared his estate of workers and
tenant farmers by packing them into leaky,
overcrowded coffin ships and shipping them off
to Canada and America.
Constance's mother, Georgina, the daughter of
Colonel Charles J. Hill, a British Army officer,
and Lady Frances Charlotte Arabella
Lumley, established a school at Lissadell to
train women in crochet, embroidery, and
darn-thread work. With their new acquired
skills, the women were able to earn a wage to
supplement their meager household income. That
undertaking by their mother, and the way their
father cared for his workers and tenants during
the
famine
of 1879/80, had a positive influence on
Constance and her sister Eva that would factor
into their evolving life choices.
Constance,
as well as her siblings, had the most idyllic
childhood one could imagine, growing up and
coming of age on a vast estate on the shores of
Sligo Bay, within sight of Benbulbin. She wanted
for nothing. Horseback riding, sailing, parties,
and travel filled her carefree life. The meager
existence of the estate's servants and workers
was a fact of life that did not unduly concern
her. Despite that, she mingled with them and
treated them with respect. The fear and
disruptions caused by the famine of 1879/80 was
an early learning moment for Constance, a
reminder that life could be cruel and merciless
for the working class, and that their plight
could impact her life also. That experience in
itself did not change her charmed lifestyle. It
would be many years later before Constance cast
aside the trimmings of nobility and donned the
cloak of social reform and revolution.
Constance
and her female siblings, Eva and Mabel, were
educated at home by governesses. As was
customary in the prevailing
patriarchal-dominated society, her male siblings
were sent off to exclusive boarding schools and
universities for their education. Constance was
intelligent and somewhat rebellious, more
interested in exploring the countryside on her
pony than conforming to the niceties of high
society. In addition to her mastery of the
literacy and numeracy skills, Constance was
fluent in French, German, and Italian. She also
demonstrated a talent for painting. As part of
her education, she did the customary Grand Tour
of Europe. In 1887, at the age of nineteen, she
was presented to Queen Victoria, as was the
custom for young ladies of her station in life.
Ever since
the famine of 1879/80 the winds of change were
blowing across the Irish landscape and fanning
the ever-present discontent between landlords
and tenant farmers, particularly in the west of
Ireland, the area most impacted by the famine.
Constance was still too young to understand the
implications of what was happening next door in
Co. Mayo where
Michael Davitt was organizing tenant farmers
to resist unreasonable rent increases and
arbitrary evictions by landlords. Despite the
ongoing demonstrations, evictions, boycotts,
killings, and heightened political activity, the
Gore-Booths ignored all of it as it did not
directly impact them. As politics and social
issues were taboo within the confines of
Lissadell, Constance was unaware of the rising
tide of Nationalism and anti-imperialism
sweeping across Ireland.
Early Activism and Marriage
Shortly
after completing a European tour in 1892 with
their mother, Constance and Eva set out to forge
their own life's journey and assert their
independence, notwithstanding the fact that they
were still reliant on their parents for the
finances to support their nascent independence.
Constance, who was a talented amateur painter,
enrolled in the
Slade School of Art in London to improve her
painting skills and gain professional status.
Eva went to live in Manchester with English
suffragist and pacifist Esther
Roper
whom she had met on the
European tour. The two women would
spend the rest of their lives together, working
on social issues ranging from workers’ rights to
capital punishment.
During
subsequent visits to Lissadell, both Constance
and Eva became involved in women's suffrage, to
the consternation of their parents. They founded
the Sligo Women's Suffrage Association in 1896
and held information and recruitment meetings
explaining to women what the issues were and why
they should join the organization. At one such
meeting in Drumcliffe, Constance made a rousing
speech touting, amongst other accomplishments,
the increasing number of women attending
meetings and signing petitions in support of
women's suffrage.
It was
also during these visits to Lissadell that
Constance and Eva met and became friends with W.
B. Yeats who frequently visited the Gore-Booths
in Lissadell during visits to his uncle in
nearby Thornhill.
In 1898,
in furtherance of her art studies, Constance
enrolled at the prestigious Académie Julian in
Paris where she met her future husband, Casimir
Markievicz. Casimir, an artist and scion of
a wealthy Polish family, was married with two
children when they first met. He was separated
from his wife at that time. In September of
1900, after the death of his wife, Constance and
Casimir were married in London. In 1901, the
Markieviczes visited Lissadell where Constance
gave birth to their daughter, Maeve. After
spending some time in Lissadell, they
visited Paris and the Markieviczes' estate in
the Ukraine. In 1903 they returned to Dublin
with Casimir's surviving son and took up
residence in Frankfort Ave., Rathgar.
Constance's reputation as a talented landscape
artist brought her in contact with other
artists, writers, and actors, many of whom were
involved in the Gaelic League and other
Nationalist-leaning organizations. At that
time, she was still apolitical, more interested
in the suffrage movement and the arts than in
the affairs of state. Her interest in the arts
found expression in the presence of such
notables as
Lady Gregory, cofounder of the Abbey
Theatre; George
'AE' Russell, writer and Irish Nationalist;
Thomas MacDonagh, poet, playwright, and
Irish revolutionary; and W.
B. Yeats, poet and dramatist whom she knew
from her days in Lissadell.
The
Markieviczes became close friends with AE who,
after first meeting Constance, opined that she
embodied the spirit of a rebel. Always willing
to do favors for friends, AE arranged to have
the Markieviczes' paintings displayed alongside
his own at various exhibitions. He also gave
Constance a part in his play Deirdre, performed
at the Abbey in 1907.
Over the
years Constance appeared in a number of other
plays in the Abbey. In 1908, she was cast as
Maeve in Edward Martyn's Maeve, and also as
Daphne Tisdall in Casimir's Seymour's
Redemption. In 1910 she was cast as Norah in
Casimir's The Memory of the Dead. Through 1912
she was cast in a number of other plays staged
in Dublin and elsewhere throughout the country.
In 1905,
in collaboration with some of her newfound
friends and acquaintances, Constance cofounded
the United Artists Club to bring together
members of the arts and literary communities to
discuss and collaborate on issues of common
interest. It was at the club's meetings that
Constance met many of Ireland's luminaries
including Michael Davitt, John O'Leary, Douglas
Hyde, Arthur Griffith, and
Maud Gonne.
Transition to Nationalism
1908 was a
pivotal year for Constance. She journeyed to
Manchester to support her sister Eva and her
partner Esther Roper and other suffrage
activists in their campaign to defeat Winston
Churchill in the Manchester Northwest
parliamentary by-election for his refusal to
oppose legislation that prohibited women from
working after 8:00 pm. Though they succeeded in
denying him the seat, Churchill won a
by-election in another nearby constituency a few
months later.
Also in
1908, at the invitation of
Helena Moloney, Constance joined Maud
Gonne's
Inghinidhe na hÉireann (Daughters of
Ireland) whose stance was political, social, and
feminist. Its aims were to de-anglicize Ireland,
foster the creation of a sovereign Irish nation,
and promote Irish manufacturing. After joining
the organization, Constance helped Helena
Moloney and
Sydney Gifford launch Bean na hEireann
(Women of Ireland), a monthly news journal
advertised as the first Irish women's paper.
Constance designed its masthead and contributed
articles on gardening and on a number of other
issues impacting women until it ceased
publication in 1911.
Encouraged
by Bulmer Hobson, a member of the Irish
Republican Brotherhood, Constance joined Arthur
Griffith's
Sinn Fein (We Ourselves), an umbrella
organization whose original aim was to achieve
Irish independence under a dual monarchy similar
to the Austria-Hungary model. As the
organization evolved, its aims also evolved away
from Griffith's dual monarchy model and pacifist
beliefs. Soon after Constance was elected to its
executive she was caught up in the maneuvering
between factions as to whether the organization
should join a breakaway group of the
Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP) in
contesting seats in the 1910 general election.
After the proposal to join the breakaway failed,
and Sinn Fein lost the 1908 North Leitrim
by-election, the party lost support. Sinn Fein
split into a Home Rule faction and a militant
faction, which was supported by Constance.
Early in
1909 Constance rented a cottage at Sandyford in
the foothills of the Dublin mountains where she
and Casimir could get away from the city and
find quite spots to paint. The last occupant of
the cottage was Padraic Colunm who left books,
pamphlets, and newspapers behind. Leafing
through the trove, Constance came across
Robert Emmet's speech from the dock.
Intrigued by Emmet’s courage and sacrifice, she
embarked on a quest to thenceforth educate
herself on Ireland’s quest for national
sovereignty. To that end she read about Eoghan
Rua O’Neill,
Wolfe
Tone, Thomas Davis, and other heroes of
Ireland's past. From what she learned it was
evident to her that many of Ireland's sons and
daughters had not surrendered or acquiesced to
the conquest of Ireland. She also realized that
many of her new friends were of the same
mind-set as Tone and Emmet. From then on,
Constance's transformation from a progeny of
imperial privilege to a fervent Irish
revolutionary was irreversible.
Having
fully embraced Irish Nationalism, Constance
revised her approach to women's suffrage to
include national sovereignty as an issue of
equal importance for Irish women as both were
inherent basic rights denied them because of
their gender and race. Going forward, her
speeches to suffrage gatherings were laced with
Nationalist rhetoric implying that the forces
denying women their rights were the same forces
denying their homeland its right to national
sovereignty, therefore they should fight for
both. She also encouraged women to unionize and
not to depend on men for
leadership. Nonetheless, she encouraged women to
support
James Larkin, the founder of the Irish
Transport and General Workers Union, and his
successor James Connolly, both of whom treated
women as equals.
Militancy and Revolution
Perhaps
the more enduring aspect of Constance's legacy
was
Na Fianna Eireann
(The Fianna of Ireland),
an Irish Nationalist youth organization she and
Bulmer Hobson founded in August of 1909. When
she initially discussed the idea with Sinn Fein,
they rejected it out of hand, stating that they
had no intention of creating a military arm. Not
deterred by their rejection, Constance went
ahead and founded the Fianna, perhaps the most
consequential decision of her life. The Fianna's
accomplishments were many and history making and
included the launch of the
Irish Volunteers, the Howth and Kilcoole
gunrunning operations, the 1916 Easter Rising,
the War of Independence, and the Treaty War
(Civil War). Padraic Pearse stated before his
execution "that without the Fianna there
would be no Volunteers in 1913 and no Rising in
1916".
In the
latter months of 1909, Constance leased Belcamp
House and the surrounding acreage located on the
north side of Dublin for use as the Fianna
headquarters and as a self-supporting farm and
market gardening enterprise. It was also
intended to be a learning center where the
Fianna boys would learn how to grow and harvest
fruits and vegetables. The boys who came from
the Dublin slums had no interest in farming,
preferring instead to spend their time camping,
drilling, and in shooting practice. In 1911,
after the enterprise failed to gain traction,
Constance was forced to vacate Belcamp House.
In 1911
during a visit to Belfast to lecture to the
Fianna, Constance met Ina and
Nora Connolly who had helped organize the
Betsy Gray sluagh (army), the only Fianna sluagh
for girls in Ireland. After the lecture, the
girls brought Constance to their home where she
met their father,
James Connolly. She was captivated by
Connolly's take on Nationalism and how he viewed
the fight for Irish freedom as inseparable from
labor rights and women's rights, the core
elements of a just society. Unlike many of his
fellow Nationalists and labor leaders, Connolly
was a feminist who believed that women should be
equally represented in all aspects of life and,
when the time came, as soldiers in Ireland's
fight for freedom.
After
embracing Connolly's definition of a just
society, Constance included the exploitation of
labor in her ever-expanding repertoire of
deserving causes. Going forward, her speeches
argued that women's rights, labor rights, and
cultural and political rights were unachievable
under British colonial rule, therefore Irish
independence was the porthole to freedom and to
a just and equitable society.
In 1911
Constance and
Helena Moloney were arrested for taking part
in a demonstration against the visit of King
George V to Ireland. After being manhandled by
the police Constance was released the following
day without charge. Around that same time, she
joined in the campaign with Connolly, Larkin,
and Maud Gonne to extend the 1906 Provision of
School Meals Act to Ireland.
In 1912,
Constance and Casimir rented the Surrey House on
Leinster Road in Rathmines. During the four
years that she lived there, Surrey House was an
open house for political activists, including
Liam
Mellows, Bulmer Hobson, James Connolly,
James Larkin, and the Fianna boys, as well as
for members of the arts community. It housed a
printing press where posters, pamphlets, and
other protest-related materials were designed
and printed. It also was one of the hiding
places for guns from the 1914 Howth gunrunning
operation.
During the
Dublin Lockout in 1913, Constance, Delia Larkin,
Hanna Sheehy Skeffington,
Seán O’Casey, and other volunteers set up
kitchens in Liberty Hall to feed the locked-out
workers and their families. Every day for the
duration of the Lockout, Constance cycled from
her home in Rathmines to Liberty Hall to oversee
the collection of food and help in the kitchens.
Although the Lockout ended in failure for the
trade unions and many of the business owners, it
nonetheless established the role of trade unions
as a force to be reckoned with in labor disputes
and workers’ rights in Ireland.
One legacy
of the Lockout was the founding of the
Irish Citizen Army (ICA) whose original
purpose was to protect union demonstrators from
the police who were baton charging, beating and
killing unarmed demonstrators and passersby at
the behest of the business owners. The ICA was
founded on November 23, 1913, by Larkin,
Connolly, and other officers and members of the
Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union.
Constance was a member of its executive council
and a co-treasurer.
On
November 25, two days after the founding of the
ICA, the Irish Volunteers was founded at the
Rotunda in Dublin. Its purpose was to counter
the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) founded in 1912
to oppose Home Rule for Ireland and maintain the
union with Britain. In 1914, John Redmond
co-opted 75% of the Irish Volunteers to fight
for the British Empire in WWI. The Volunteers
who heeded Redmond’s call were renamed the
National Volunteers. Those who ignored his call
retained the original name, the Irish
Volunteers.
The
Easter Rising and Its Aftermath
During the
years 1914 and 1915, a series of consequential
events transpired within and outside of Ireland
that factored into the decision to launch
the Easter Rising of 1916. These events
included the passing and subsequent suspension
of the 1914 Home Rule Act for Ireland, the
Curragh mutiny by British Army officers, the
Larne and Howth gunrunning operations, the onset
of WWI, the co-opting of the Irish Volunteers,
the British Army's enlistment campaign, and the
all-important convergence of Irish cultural and
political Nationalism. As all of these events
unfolded, the ICA had morphed from a
workers-type security detail to a fully fledged
militia, ready to do battle for freedom and a
just society. As the downward spiral to
insurrection continued, Constance participated
in military training and preparedness alongside
her ICA compatriots. One of her closest
compatriots in that endeavor was
Margaret Skinnider
from Glasgow who, like Constance, was an
excellent markswoman, courageous and ready to
fight.
On Monday
April 24, 1916, at the onset of the Easter
Rising, Constance arrived at St. Stephen's
Green/College of Surgeons garrison where she
assumed her role as second-in-command to
Michael Mallin. During the ensuing week,
Constance was, as most accounts suggest,
responsible for neutralizing four British
combatants and possibly others lodged in the
Shelbourne Hotel from her sniper perch in the
College of Surgeons. She may also have killed or
wounded a policeman who tried to prevent entry
to the College of Surgeons during the retreat
from St. Stephen's Green.
On Sunday,
April 30, the garrison surrendered after
receiving a surrender order from
Padraic Pearse,
the Commander in Chief of the Irish
Volunteers. After surrendering their arms at the
College of Surgeons, the ICA Volunteers,
including Constance, were arrested. After a
trial before a British Field General Court
Martial, a secret trial without a defense or
jury, Constance was sentenced to death by firing
squad. To her dismay, the death sentence was
commuted to life in prison because of her
gender. The real reason for the commutation may
have to do with the specter of executing a woman
before a firing squad, a gruesome spectacle that
would tarnish the British oft-touted portrayal
of their presence in Ireland as that of a force
for good, a welcomed and benevolent ruler.
After
Constance's sentence was commuted to life in
prison, she was moved to Mountjoy jail in Dublin
before being transferred to Aylesbury prison in
Buckinghamshire in England where she would serve
her sentence.
In the
meantime, the sentiment in Ireland changed from
originally opposing to supporting the Rising due
to the arbitrary and barbaric executions of the
Rising leaders and the random and widespread
arrests and imprisonment of thousands of
noncombatants in its aftermath. That sentiment
manifested itself in the defeat of Irish
Parliamentary Party (IPP) candidates in a number
of subsequent by-elections. The IPP supported
Britain's handling of the Rising but warned
against the subsequent executions, a warning the
British ignored.
Simultaneously, Britain's efforts to convince
the United States to join in its war with
Germany were faltering due to the U.S.
Declaration of Neutrality, a policy supported
by the American public but not necessarily by
the Wilson administration. Ongoing efforts by
President Wilson to circumvent that policy were
vehemently opposed by noninterventionist and
pacifist groups. The most vocal and possibly
influential of these groups were the Irish who
opposed helping Britain and its Empire after its
brutal slaughter of Irish children and civilians
during the Rising and the barbaric execution of
prisoners of war afterwards.
In an
attempt to mitigate these setbacks, the British
government opted to grant a general amnesty to
all prisoners rounded up and imprisoned after
the Rising. Constance was amongst those released
on June 18, 1917. She was greeted back in
Ireland on June 21 by cheering throngs along the
train line from Dun Laoghaire to Dublin City.
Once
released, Constance resumed her work with the
labor movement, promoting the rights of Irish
women workers and raising funds for the James
Connolly Labor College. She also supported Sinn
Fein candidates running for seats in a number of
constituencies including the East Clare
by-election where de Valera won the seat. After
a number of such by-election losses the British
government tried to stop Sinn Fein from further
upsetting the applecart by arresting a number of
its leaders, including
Thomas Ashe who
later died on hunger strike.
In April
of 1918, after the death of John Redmond, the
British government extended the Military Service
Bill, aka conscription, to Ireland. The reaction
in Ireland was swift and substantial. The Irish
Parliamentary Party and its offshoot, the
All-for-Ireland League, joined forces with Sinn
Fein and Labor in opposing the provisions of the
Bill that applied to Ireland. The Catholic
hierarchy, who never opposed the British
presence or imperialist policies in Ireland,
threw its support behind the effort. As a
consequence, the British government balked and
did not proceed with its implementation.
Smarting
from their failure to implement conscription in
Ireland, the British blamed Sinn Fein. In
retaliation they arrested and interned, without
charge, 73 leading Sinn Fein members, including
all their elected representatives. Constance
was amongst those arrested in order to stop her
from demonstrating against conscription and
advocating for the end to British rule in
Ireland and the establishment of an Irish
Republic. She was whisked off to Holloway Jail
in London where she joined Maud Gonne and
Kathleen Clarke,
the other prominent women who challenged the
British government and their enforcers in
Ireland.
The
Irish Republic, Dail Eireann, and War of
Independence
In
November of 1918, after a general election was
called for December 14, the first election in
which women over thirty were allowed to vote and
run for office, Sinn Fein nominated Constance to
stand for the Dublin St. Patrick's Division
seat. While still incarcerated and unable to
campaign, she nonetheless outvoted the IPP
candidate by a margin of 7,835 to 3,741. Sinn
Fein garnered 73 of the 105 seats contested in
Ireland. On January 21, 1919, when the
first Dail Eireann (Irish Parliament) met in
the Mansion House in Dublin, Constance was one
of the 35 Teachtai Dail (deputies) who were
called out as 'Fe ghlas ag Gallaibh'
(imprisoned by the foreign enemy).
As
the first Dail Eireann met on January 21, nine
members of the Third Tipperary Brigade of the
Irish Volunteers ambushed a convoy transporting
explosives near Soloheadbeg in Co. Tipperary. In
the ensuing gunfight two members of the Royal
Irish Constabulary (RIC), were killed. That
ambush is widely regarded as the beginning of
the War of Independence.
On March
10, 1919, Constance was released from prison
with the rest of the Sinn Fein detainees. Maud
Gonne and Kathleen Clarke had been released a
few months earlier due to their deteriorating
health.
Constance
was appointed Secretary for Labor at the second
Dail Eireann meeting which was held on April 1,
1919. On June 15, 1919, she was arrested and
sentenced to four months' imprisonment for a
speech she had made in Newmarket in Co. Cork.
She served the sentence in Cork jail. While she
was still in prison, Dail Eireann, Sinn Fein,
Cumann na mBan, the Irish Volunteers, and the
Gaelic League were declared illegal. After her
release on October 18, 1919, she continued her
work as Secretary of Labor in the government of
the Irish Republic, arbitrating labor disputes
and attending meetings at various secret
locations.
In
November of 1919, an order was issued for her
arrest. For the following 10 months she was on
the run, moving around Dublin on her bike and
avoiding capture. On September 26, 1920, she
was arrested again on her way back to Dublin
after visiting Maud Gonne in Wicklow. She was in
a car driven by Sean McBride, Maud Gonne’s son.
On December 2, 1920, she was court-martialed
and sentenced to two years of hard labor in
Mountjoy jail for organizing the Fianna ten
years earlier. On July 24, 1921 Constance was
released after the Lloyd George/de Valera truce
went into effect.
Anglo-Irish Treaty, United States Lecture Tour
and the Treaty War
On October
2, 1921, a delegation headed by Arthur Griffith
was sent to London by de Valera to 'negotiate
and conclude on behalf of Ireland a treaty or
treaties of settlement, association and
accommodation, between Ireland and the British
Commonwealth'. On December 6, 1921, the
delegation relented to British pressure and
signed the Anglo-Irish Treaty (Treaty) that
violated the Proclamation of 1916, eviscerated
the Irish Republic declared in 1919, and set the
stage for a bitter war. Needless to say,
Constance opposed the Treaty as did the women of
Cumann na mBan by a vote of 419 to 63.
In April
of 1922 Constance traveled to the United States
accompanied by Kathleen Barry, sister of Kevin
Barry. The visit was arranged by de Valera under
the auspices of the American Association for the
Recognition of the Irish Republic. Because of
her drawing power and reputation as a die-hard
Republican, Constance
was added to a delegation already in the United
States that included Austin Stack, J.J.
O’Kelly, Father
Michael O'Flanagan,
and Brian O'Higgins. The delegation's tour, which included
every major city from coast to coast, was
greeted at every stop with fanfare, dignitaries,
and large crowds. The tour generated widespread
publicity regarding the undemocratic provisions
of the Anglo-Irish Treaty that eviscerated the
burgeoning Irish Republic and partitioned
Ireland into two entities subject to British
sovereignty. Due to support for the Treaty by
John Devoy
and Judge Cohalan of Clan na
Gael, the crowds that greeted the delegation in
New York were smaller than elsewhere in the
country. Nonetheless, Constance returned to
Ireland at the end of May 1922 having raised
$20,000, a sum equal to $275,000 in today's
currency.
On June
28, 1922, a month or so after Constance's return
from the United States, the Treaty War, aka the
Civil War, started with the bombardment of the
Four Courts occupied by anti-Treaty Republican
forces. From the onset, the anti-Treaty
Republicans were outnumbered, outgunned, and
underfinanced compared to the British-backed
Free State forces, aka the
National Army, who had unlimited
British-supplied armament, manpower, and funds
at its disposal. At the end of the war in May of
1923, the National Army of 58,000 was comprised
mostly of disgruntled 'Redmondites', Irish-born
Volunteers who joined the British Army to defend
its Empire during WWI. Having survived the
Western Front and Gallipoli, they returned to
Ireland, not as the heroes they expected to be,
but rather as misguided defenders of the British
Empire. In addition to the rank-and-file
Redmondites, the command of the National
Army was mostly in the hands of retired
high-ranking British Army officers. In essence,
the National Army was a British enterprise, a
bulwark to ensure the Free State would prevail
at any cost. Without the National Army it's
doubtful that the Free State would have survived
a civil war against the anti-Treaty Republican
side who garnered the support of two-thirds of
the Irish Republican Army's Volunteers after
terms of the Treaty were debated and signed.
Constance,
who was 54 at the time, did not stand idly by.
During the Battle of Dublin (June 28 to July 5)
she helped man a sniper position on the roof of
the Hammam Hotel on Henry Street. On July 5,
she was amongst the women ordered to leave the
burning hotel through the back door by
Commandant Cathal Brugha as he stormed out the
front door with blazing guns to provide cover.
He was mowed down and died two days later. After
July 5, the war moved to the countryside,
primarily to Munster where most of the ensuing
action took place. In the meantime, Constance
was on the run. While on the move she wrote
articles for pro-Republican publications in the
United States, helped the Women's Prisoners
Defense Fund, and delivered speeches in
Republican-held towns. On a number of occasions
she narrowly avoided capture. However, on
November 20, Constance's luck ran out when she
was arrested in Dublin while canvassing with
Hanna Sheehy Skeffington. She was first held in
the Bridewell Prison without charge before been
transferred to the North Dublin Union, a former
workhouse and British military barracks.
Immediately after her arrest she joined the
other Republican prisoners in an ongoing hunger
strike. Three days later, on November 23, the
hunger strike ended in all prisons. After
spending five weeks in prison, she was released
on Christmas Eve.
In the
1923 general election Constance won the Dublin
South constituency seat she vacated in 1922 in
opposition to the Anglo-Irish Treaty. Like the
other successful candidates, she did not take
her Dáil seat in keeping with the Republicans'
abstentionist policy.
Fianna Fail and Death
After the
Treaty War ended, Constance remained active
within Cumann na mBan and Sinn Fein. She also
spent a considerable amount of time working with
the Fianna, especially after its reorganization
in 1925 when more emphasis was placed on
traditional Irish games, music and art,
scouting, and first aid. In 1925 she served on
the Rathmines and Rathgar District Council. She
also reengaged with the theater by helping to
establish the Republican Players Dramatic
Society and writing a number of plays that the
Society produced.
In March
of 1926, Sinn Fein held a meeting at the Rotunda
in Dublin to discuss the future of the party. A
number of their members, including Constance,
were concerned that the Free State party was
passing repressive and self-serving laws with
impunity, therefore they should take their Dail
seats contingent on the abolition of the Oath of
Allegiance to the British monarch specified in
the Treaty. After a motion to that effect was
defeated by the delegates, de Valera resigned as
the Sinn Fein leader and set up a new party,
Fianna Fail. Most of the Sinn Fein delegates
joined the Fianna Fail, including Constance.
In the
general election held in June of 1927 Constance
stood successfully as a Fianna Fail candidate in
the Dublin South constituency.
A month
later she fell seriously ill and was admitted to
Sir Patrick Dun’s hospital. She was suffering
from peritonitis that did not respond to the
available treatment at that time. Constance
Markievicz died at 1:25 a.m. on the morning of
July 15, 1927. Her husband, Casimir, who had
returned to his homeland in 1913 was by her side
as was
Dr. Kathleen Lynn. She is buried in Glasnevin
Cemetery, Dublin. It was estimated that
250,000 to 300,000 people
lined the streets of Dublin for her funeral.
She is
commemorated by a limestone bust in St.
Stephen’s Green, a plaque in St. Ultan’s
Hospital, a football ground, and in W. B.
Yeats’s poem, ‘In
memory of Eva Gore-Booth and Con Markievicz’.
Contributed by Tomás Ó Coısdealbha
cemetery AND grave location
Name:
Glasnevin
Cemetery
ADDRESS: Finglas
Road, Glasnevin, Dublin 11, Ireland
LOCATION:
Republican Plot
REPUBLICAN PLOT
GRAVE MARKER
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