#Constance markievicz

[stairnaheireann]

#OTD in 1914 – Cumann na mBan, Irish women’s Republican movement, was founded.

Ní saoirse go saoirse na mban. Over 100 women gathered in Dublin to discuss the role of women in the lead-up to revolution. The meeting, at Wynn’s Hotel, was presided over by Agnes O’Farrelly. The first provisional committee of Cumann na mBan included Agnes MacNeill, Nancy O’Rahilly, Mary Colum, Jenny Wyse Power, Louise Gavan Duffy and Elizabeth Bloxham. They adopted a constitution which stated…

[burnitalldownism]

Countess Constance Georgine Markievicz

Founder of Cumann na mBán (the women’s branch of the Irish Citizens Army), she was in command of Stephen’s Green during the 1916 Rising and the only commander not executed by the British army “on account of the prisoner’s sex”, to which she responded “I do wish you lot had the decency to just shoot me.”

First woman elected as a member of the Irish Parliament. First woman elected to the British Parliament. First woman to be made a minister in any European government.

And never sat a day in any of those positions. Pre-Independence Dáil was illegal. As a Republican she refused to take her seat in Westminster. After independence she sided with anti-treaty forces in the civil war. After the civil war she was again elected but died before she could take her seat.

[quelanalalesbiana]

Irish revolutionary and politician Constance Markievicz photographed in uniform by Keogh Brothers, Dublin, 1916 (courtesy of this article)

[whats-in-a-sentence]

'Can you cook dinner?' shouted a heckler. 'Yes! Can you drive a coach and four?' replied Constance Markievicz (1868-1927) on her campaign for women's votes driving her carriage with four matched grey horses. The daughter of an Arctic explorer in an Anglo-Irish family, she fought against the British occupation of Ireland and was sentenced to death, though released in 1917 under a general amnesty. Arrested again the following year for protesting conscription in the First World War, she stood for Sinn Féin and took 66 per cent of the vote from prison, and refused to take her seat – then she was in any case, still imprisoned.

"Normal Women: 900 Years of Making History" - Philippa Gregory

[wirekn0t]

Letter from Constance Markievicz to Madeleine ffrench-Mullen, 12 August 1916

'much love to you & yours & my soldier girls'

Source

[soulmaking]

William Butler Yeats, from “In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth and Con Markievicz”

[mabelsguidetolife]

i think a group of necromancers should gather at constance markievicz’s grave to bring her back and send her after england again

[aoawarfare]

Cumann na mBan and the Irish Civil War

Despite the many challenges facing them, women were not passive observers of the Irish War of Independence or the Irish Civil War. Many women joined Cumann na mBan, a nationalist organization that worked closely with Sinn Fein and the IRA to achieve an independent Ireland. Cumann na mBan would be the first organization to reject the treaty and provide the anti-treaty side with its iron and…

[oh2e]

Obsessed with the way that you apparently need ID and proof of address to get a library card in Ireland and yet I a) have not shown either and b) my date of birth is the 1st of January with one card and the 31st of December with my other.

[the4chambersofmystery]

Countess Constance Markievicz

[werewolfetone]

Reminder that if you're looking to learn about a woman involved in a late 18th century revolution who was an early feminist icon, you don't have to girlbossify Charlotte Corday. Mary Ann McCracken is always there

[stairnaheireann]

#OTD in 1868 – Birth of Irish patriot and revolutionary, Countess Constance Markievicz, née Gore-Booth in London.

Countess Markievicz, born Constance Georgine Gore Booth, politician, revolutionary, tireless worker with the poor and dispossessed, was a remarkable woman. Born into great wealth and privilege, she lived at Lissadell House in Co Sligo. She is most famous for her leadership role in the 1916 Easter Rising and the subsequent revolutionary struggle for freedom in Ireland. Born in 1868, Constance was…

[memecucker]

TIL that the first female Member of Parliament in the UK was Constance Markievicz who was a countess born into an upper class family of Protestant Anglo-Irish origin but she never actually sat at Westminster because Markievicz was elected as a member of Sinn Fein and a lifelong supporter of the Irish nationalist movement and supported the anti-Treaty side during the civil war. So like, if the UK doesn’t commemorate her as much as you’d think the first woman elected to parliament would be, I think that’s why

Also

In 1908, Markievicz became actively involved in nationalist politics in Ireland. She joined Sinn Féin and Inghinidhe na hÉireann ('Daughters of Ireland'), a revolutionary women's movement founded by the actress and activist Maud Gonne, muse of WB Yeats. Markievicz came directly to her first meeting from a function at Dublin Castle, the seat of British rule in Ireland, wearing a satin ball gown and a diamond tiara. Naturally, the members looked upon her with some hostility. This refreshing change from being ‘"kowtowed" to’ as a countess only made her more eager to join, she told her friend Helena Molony.

She seems cool

[marimoes]

L-R Madeleine ffrench Mullen (1880 -1944), Dr Kathleen Lynn (1874-1955) with Constance Markievicz (1868 - 1927) pictured in 1919

Madeleine ffrench Mullen and Dr Kathleen Lynn were a couple who met through their nationalist and feminist activism. During the 1916 Rising, ffrench Mullen served as a lieutenant in the Irish Citizen Army and Dr Lynn served as captain and the ICA's chief medical officer. Dr Kathleen Lynn was elected as a Sinn Féin TD in 1923

Together they founded Saint Ultan's Children's Hospital in 1919 which became the first hospital in Ireland to administer the BCG vaccine against TB.

[theperfectpints]

Constance Markievicz was born 156 years ago.

"But while Ireland is not free I remain a rebel, unconverted and unconvertible."

[gentlyepigrams]

Lieutenant Constance Markievicz in Citizen Army uniform (c. 1915). Her advice to women was: "Dress suitably in short skirts and strong boots, leave your jewels in the bank and buy a revolver."