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''.
![[An Phoblacht]](http://republican-news.org/graphics/title_gifs/aprn.gif)