Countess Markievicz, Artist & Revolutionary

"Dress suitably in short skirts and sitting boots, leave your jewels and gold wands in the bank and buy a revolver."
​Countess Markievicz's advice to female rebels considering taking up arms in 1916

Gouache Illustration of Countess Markievicz - Helen Magee 2016

The name Constance

The name Constance means 'Firm of Purpose' and 'Steadfastness' and it was these very traits that brought Countess Constance Markievicz into the Irish history books.

A Timely Tribute to an Irish Female Legend

I greatly admire humans (especially women), who fight against formidable odds for what they believe in and there is no better example of this than the legendary and gutsy Irishwoman, Countess Constance Georgine Markievicz (1868-1927).  

This is a timely tribute to this admirable Irishwoman with the Centenary of the 1916 Easter Rising just around the corner in which she played a very significant part.

Below is a brief introduction to the Countess which I have fittingly taken from the Lissadell House website being the late Countess's family home.

"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 in Lissadell, Sligo, Ireland, she is most famous for her leadership role in the Irish Easter Rebellion of 1916 and the subsequent revolutionary struggle for freedom in Ireland, for which she risked her life. The story of Constance, Countess Markievicz, is a story of a woman of determination, independence, idealism and self-sacrifice in pursuit of freedom for the Irish people. It is the story of a woman who has inspired generations of Irish men and women."

Countess Markievicz, nothing ordinary

I am neither political nor a history buff and have no intention in going deeply into the Countess's full story as an Irish revolutionary.  I just want to mention a few nuggets of information about Constance the woman, her extraordinary life, and her many talents. 

It is only natural that her story is so powerful.  It is dramatic, romantic and heroic.  There was nothing ordinary about her life.
​

• Born into high society and daughter of wealthy Irish landowner and Arctic explorer and adventurer Sir Henry Gore-Booth, who we know taught Constance and her sister Eva about  philanthropy at a very young age with his deep concern for working people and the poor.
• W. B. Yeats was a childhood friend who frequently visited Constance and her sister Eva at Lissadell House, they were both  greatly influenced by his artistic and political ideas.

W. B. Yeats wrote a poem about the Gore-Booth sisters giving us an idea about Constance and Eva's elegance:

"two girls in silk kimonos, both beautiful, one a gazelle"  
(the gazelle was Constance)
​

Constance the Artist

• Constance was first and foremost an artist.  In 1892 she travelled to London to study at the Slade School of Art (because only one Dublin college admitted women), later moving to Paris enrolling at the prestigious Academie Julian to study art and write plays and it was here she met her husband to be Count Casimir Markievicz.  They had a lot in common, the Count was an artist from a wealthy Polish family who was also a Nationalist who ended up fighting for the Poles against Russian domination.

• She and her husband settled in Dublin in 1903 and moved in artistic and literary circles where she gained a reputation as a landscape painter.

Glendalough, Co. Wicklow by Countess Constance Markievicz signed C.G.B. (Constance Gore-Booth)

From Art to Politics

• Later in 1905, Constance along with other influential artists including Sarah Purser, John Butler Yeats, Walter Osborne and Nathaniel Hone was instrumental in founding the United Artists Club set up to bring together the Dublin artist and literary community.  

• It was here she met and was eventually influenced by leaders of the Gaelic League including Douglas Hyde (future 1st President of Ireland) and other revolutionary patriots like Michael Davitt, John O'Leary and Maud Gonne (muse of W.B. Yeats, her old childhood friend). 
• It was then that her revolutionary and active involvement in nationalist politics took off in Ireland.  She joined Sinn Fein and Inghinidhe na hEireann ('Daughters of Ireland') founded by actress and activist Maud Gonne.

Constance the Actress

• During this period the Countess is known to have performed in the Abbey Theatre in several plays with Maud Gonne.  The Abbey Theatre played a huge part in the rise of cultural nationalism.

Constance the Philanthropist

• She was known to have sold all her jewellery and taken out loans to pay for food to distribute to the poor, she also set up and ran a soup kitchen to feed starving children.  
  
• She is also known for using her own car to gather turf and fuel and was often seen lugging sacks of coal up and down the stairs of tenements in Dublin.

Constance the Designer and Composer

• Markievicz designed the uniform for the Irish Citizen Army founded by James Connolly
• She also composed the anthem of the ICA which was based on the tune of a Polish song

From here onwards the Countess drove onwards energetically with her suffrage campaigning and Irish nationalist work and got actively involved in fighting alongside James Connolly for the Irish Citizen Army in the fighting during Easter 1916.  

In 1916 she was eventually arrested and taken to Dublin Castle then transported to Kilmainham Gaol and put into solitary confinement.  At her court martial she told the court:

"I did what I thought was right and I stand by it."

She was sentenced to death but because of her sex this sentence was changed to life in prison when she was reported to have told the court:

"I do wish your lot had the decency to shoot me"

After the Rising

After the Rising, Countess Markievicz continued in politics and her active fight for the Republican cause and went on to be involved in the Irish Civil War, her staunch republican views landing her in jail again.  The Countess was founder of the Fianna Fail party eventually elected to the 5th Dail for the new Fianna Fail party but died unexpectedly of a burst appendix before she could take up her seat.

A Fitting End

Countess Markievicz was buried at the age of 59 on 15th July 1927 in Glasnevin Cemetry alongside many of her fellow Irish patriots.  Her Glasnevin funeral was attended by 300,000 people.  What a woman.

---

Sources: Wikipedia, lissadellhouse.com