Immortalized by Irish poet William Butler Yeats, Constance’s life embodied the early twentieth struggles for national independence, women’s equality, and an intense flair for the dramatic.
Born in Count Sligo on the west coast of Ireland, Constance Gore-Booth Markievicz lived in the massive stone country mansion called Lissadell, which now serves a museum. Being Anglo-Irish meant that her ancestors were actually some of the English who settled in Ireland but she strongly identified with the native Irish and the striking countryside in which she grew up.
Markievicz as an Artist in Paris and Meeting the Polish Count
Driven by her artistic instincts, Constance studied art in Paris as a young woman. She married a fellow artist, Casimir Markievicz, an impoverished young man who happened to inherit the title of Count from his Polish family. Constance painted figures of her family and the butler on the dining room wall at Lissadell, where they remain today.
Easter Rising of 1916: The Fight for Irish Independence
In her early forties, Constance became fully involved with the growing movement for Irish independence from England. The movement’s goal was for Ireland to become a self-governing country again, no longer subject to the English government. With periodic food and labor shortages, workers in particular embraced the movement as well as several wealthier people intrigued by the American democratic success and numerous social revolutions regarding women’s rights, socialism, and other causes.
With James Connolly, Padraic Pearse and others, Constance helped plan for the upcoming rising by organizing a large group of boys called the Fianna Eireann, almost like boy scouts, and teaching them how to shoot. Using her artistic background, she used dried up paint mixed with mustard to paint “Irish Republic” and a harp on a green flag to use in the rebellion. Her dog Poppet tore a small bit off the flag, adding his own mark.
In April 1916, Constance and her fellow revolutionaries struck in what is now called the Easter Rising. She took part in an armed parade to take St. Stephen’s Green in Dublin. Realizing that its open spaces could actually trap the rebels, she ran into an adjacent building from which she could shoot at British officers returning from lunch at the Shelbourne Hotel. Her genteel upbringing and artist’s eye made her an excellent markswoman, and her sniper skills were observed by several shocked witnesses.
After the Irish Rebellion: Executions and Imprisonment
After the suppression of the rising, Constance and her fellow conspirators were sentenced to death by firing squad and the sentences for her peers were carried out in the Kilmainham Gaol courtyard over several days. Because of her gender, Constance’s sentence was ultimately commuted to life imprisonment, although she was later freed.
Sources:
Constance Markievicz: Irish Revolutionary by Anne Haverty. Pandora, 1988.
Terrible Beauty: A Life of Constance Markievicz by Diana Norman. Poolbeg Press, 1988.
Lissadell Collection, Sligo, Ireland.
Bonnye Good - Bonnye Busbice Good received an Editor's Choice award for her article on Your Historic Home's Interior Design Secrets and has also written ...
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