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17 September 1998 Edition

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Remembering the Past: Constance Markieviez - aiming for the stars

By Jim McVeigh

Unlike many of her contemporaries, Constance Markieviez was born into the aristocratic class, the wealthy Gore-Booths of Co Sligo. At a young age she married a Polish aristocrat, Count Markieviez, and they had a daughter, Maeve, their only child. The marriage did not last very long and they parted amicably.

She burst onto the political scene at the turn of this century. This was the period of `National Awakening' when groups such as the GAA and the Gaelic League emerged, giving expression to a developing Irish consciousness and cultural self confidence.

She began her political career with involvement in the women's suffrage movement in Ireland. The story is told that Helena Moloney, another politically active woman at the time, invited her to a meeting to discuss the establishment of a Nationalist Women's Journal. Coming direct from a dinner in Dublin Castle she entered the meeting in her elegant ball gown, and quickly offered to sell her jewellery to finance the project. While resented by some because of her aristocratic background and flamboyance, she won many others over with her enthusiasm and obvious ability. She was active in `Inghinidhe na hEireann' (Daughters of Ireland), first established in 1900, and then went on to become a regular contributor to the journal `Bean na hEireann'. This journal as well as being suffragist and nationalist in its sympathies, was sympathetic towards the Socialist cause.

The Gaelic revival also saw the emergence of Sinn Fein, initially as a loose umbrella for an amalgamation of groups and only later as a republican poitical party. Following its establishment in 1908 the Countess was selected to join its executive. One of its first challenges came in 1910 with the proposed visit of King George to Dublin. It was decided by Sinn Fein to organise opposition to the visit, and with great gusto she threw herself into the planning. This enthusiasm and indeed militancy was to become characteristic of her involvement in the struggle. With the help of other Sinn Fein members, some boys from Na Fianna Eíreann (the scout movement she helped to found in 1909) and a handful of socialists, they attempted to protest along the route of the Royal procession.

Handbills denouncing the King as a despot were distributed to a largely bemused crowd and the Countess was arrested after trying to burn a Union Jack.

Her experiences, as well as her radical instincts, led her to form an association with James Connolly that was to have a profound effect on her political outlook. Appalled by the poverty and slum conditions in many parts of Dublin, the Countess, Helena Moloney and Grace Gifford, with the help and support of Connolly, set up free food kitchens for the working class people of that city in 1912. It was during this period that she established a close relationship with the men and women of the Irish Labour Movement. She rallied to the banner of the workers during the lockout of 1913.

In response to the crisis over Home Rule and the establishment of the Irish Volunteers, Cumann na mBan was formed and once again the Countess assumed a prominent position in its ranks. Despite this she remained critical of the limitations placed upon the organisation by the male leadership of the Volunteer movement. She had no intention of allowing her male comrades to dictate her role in the coming battle.

She was elected honorary treasurer of the newly formed Irish Citizens Army and increasingly took part in its military preparations. She was appointed to the rank of lieutenant in the ICA and by 1916 and the Easter Rising she was in effect acting as Connolly's second in command.

She played a prominent role in the battle of Easter week. Michael Mallin appointed her his second-in-command in St Stephen's Green and she took every opportunity to take an active part in the fighting. When the order came to surrender she did so with her usual style and courage. As she and Mallin led their troops out of the Royal Collage of Surgeons, she shook hands with all of them and kissed her revolver before handing it to the British officer in charge.

She was court-martialled along with the other leaders and sentenced to death. Ironically because of her sex and probably because the British authorities were reluctant to execute such a prominent woman, her sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. She was shipped to Aylesbury Prison in England, where she was held in isolation and very poor conditions until her release in June 1917.

It was in no small part due to the influence of women like Markieviez and James Connolly that the Proclamation posted outside the GPO contained an explicit commitment to suffrage for women in the new Irish Republic, a commitment revoluntionary for its time.

Following the executions more and more outraged Irishmen and women rallied to the Republican cause. During these years, according to Cathal Brugha, ``it was women who kept the spirit alive, who kept the name alive and the flag flying''.

Markieviez returned from prison to a tumultuous welcome, greeted by large crowds, bands and well wishers. Once again she threw herself back into the struggle, becoming the President of Cumann na mBan and an executive member of Sinn Fein.

The years between her return to Ireland and the Treaty of 1922 saw her jailed again a number of times. It was from Holloway Prison in 1918 that she was elected a Sinn Fein MP, the first woman ever to be elected to such a position in Britain or Ireland.

When in 1919 she was released, she joined the first Dáil and was appointed Minister for Labour.

The Tan War had begun in earnest in 1918 and continued ferociously until the Truce in 1921. The war drew many Irish women into the various national organisations but this did not mean that all or even most men in these organisations shared their aspiration for equality. Patriarchal attitudes permeated every level of the national movement. Indeed, although appointed Minister for Labour again in the Second Dáil, her brief was effectively downgraded when it was given no cabinet status. She and many other republican women complained, but they were ignored by De Valera. While this may have exemplified De Valera's antipathy towards the question of women's equailty, her strongly held socialist views may have been a contributing factor. This was no revolutionary government.

During the Treaty debates in 1922, like most of her female comrades there, she rejected the terms on offer and reaffirmed her commitment to an independent workers' Republic. In the elections of that year she stood as an anti-Treaty candidate but lost her seat. When the Civil War began with the shelling of the anti-Treaty forces in the Four Courts in Dublin, she rushed to offer her services again as an ordinary soldier in the Republican ranks. For a few short days she once again fought alongside her male comrades in Moran's Hotel with rifle in hand.

In the months and years that followed she remained an implacable opponent of the Treaty and the new Free State government. In 1923 she was re-elected TD for Dublin South and in November of that year she was jailed again, this time by her former comrades. She continued to lead Cumann na mBan during these years but left to join Fianna Fáil at its founding in April 1924.

It was as an abstentionist Fianna Fail TD that she was elected again in 1927. Fianna Fáil, the `slightly constitutional party' was not the Fianna Fáil of today. Many republicans had high hopes for the party and indeed for De Valera himself, hopes that would be cruelly dashed in later years. Given her strong republican and socialist views it would seem improbable that had she lived, she would have been able to support the increasingly conservative and anti-republican policies of Fianna Fáil.

On 15 July 1927, Constance Markieviez died following an operation for appendicitis. She was 59 years of age at the time of her death. The words she used to describe herself and her attitude during the Treaty debates sum up her indomitable spirit.

``While Ireland is not free I remain a rebel, unconverted and inconvertible. I have seen the stars and I am not going to follow a flickering will-o-the-wisp''.

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