Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Constance Countess Markievicz
-
Standard Name: Markievicz, Constance,,, Countess
Birth Name: Constance Georgina Gore-Booth
Married Name: Constance Georgina Markievicz
Titled: Countess Constance Georgina Markievicz
Nickname: Con
Nickname: Rebel Countess
Nickname: Red Countess
CCM
, a leader in Ireland's nationalist struggle for independence (and latterly for the unification of independent Ireland), is, and has always been, better known for her appearances in creative works by others than for her own literary production. But during her career she frequently published journal articles and pamphlets; she also kept a diary, and wrote poems, plays, and letters.
CD
's will requested that she be buried in Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin—a renowned Republican cemetery. Her funeral cortège started in Belfast with only two cars, but there were more than fifty by the time...
Family and Intimate relationships
Eva Gore-Booth
EGB
's elder sister Constance
(later Countess Markievicz
) was an Irish patriot and the first woman MP in Britain (though as a member of Sinn Féin
she did not take her seat). The sisters'...
Fictionalization
Eva Gore-Booth
W. B. Yeats
(who first met the Gore-Booth family in about 1894, and associated with Eva and her sister Constance Markievicz
for the rest of their lives)
Haverty, Anne. Constance Markievicz: An Independent Life. Pandora, 1988.
37
wrote In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth and...
Friends, Associates
Charlotte Despard
CD
met Gandhi
in London in 1914, and was also a good friend of Irish patriot Constance Markiewicz
.
“Papers of Charlotte Despard”. AIM25: London Metropolitan University: Women’s Library.
Friends, Associates
Maud Gonne
In her later years MG
confirmed her friendships with a number of politically-involved women such as Charlotte Despard
(with whom she shared a house for more than a decade), Constance Markiewicz
, and Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington
Material Conditions of Writing
Eva Gore-Booth
EGB
wrote poetry from an early age: with her sister Constance
, she worked in the glory hole, a spare drawing room they claimed for their own at Lissadell.
Haverty, Anne. Constance Markievicz: An Independent Life. Pandora, 1988.
33
Lewis, Gifford. Eva Gore-Booth and Esther Roper: A Biography. Pandora Press, 1988.
15
names
Medbh McGuckian
BirthName: Medbh McCaughan
Her first name is pronounced Maeve. This was the name of.the legendary ancient Irish queen after whom the early twentieth-century rebel and patriot Constance, Countess Markievicz
, named her daughter.
Married: McGuckian
politics
Teresa Deevy
From the time of her return from England to Ireland, TD
took an energetic part in Irish nationalist politics, to the disapproval of her family. She visited Republican prisoners in jail in Waterford, became...
politics
Katharine Tynan
KT
witnessed the release of Irish republican Constance Markievicz
in June 1917, after Markievicz had been held in prison for fourteen months following the Easter Rebellion.
Tynan, Katharine. The Years of the Shadow. Constable, 1919.
278-80
politics
Maud Gonne
In the long, agonising, and ultimately successful struggle for independence MG
was again strenuously active in Ireland. She supported political prisoners and those condemned to execution, and worked with Charlotte Despard
for the Irish White Cross
politics
Eva Gore-Booth
EGB
and Esther Roper
spent a week in Dublin supporting a number of the surviving Easter Rising rebels, particularly Gore-Booth's sister Constance Markievicz
.
Lewis, Gifford. Eva Gore-Booth and Esther Roper: A Biography. Pandora Press, 1988.
In addition to her intense suffrage and labour activism, EGB
wrote poetry, periodical essays, political pamphlets, religious criticism, plays, and an autobiograpical sketch. Her work was admired by her contemporaries Katharine Tynan
, Æ (...
Publishing
Eva Gore-Booth
EGB
published The Death of Fionavar from The Triumph of Maeve, a shorter version of her play of 1905, with illustrations by her famous sister, Constance Markievicz
.
Gore-Booth, Eva. “Introduction”. The Plays of Eva Gore-Booth, edited by Frederick S. Lapisardi, EMText, 1991, p. iii - xi.
x
Textual Production
W. B. Yeats
WBY
's The Winding Stair and Other Poems was published; its opening poem commemorates Irish writers and activists Eva Gore-Booth
and Constance Markiewicz
.
Wade, Allan, and Russell K. Alspach. A Bibliography of the Writings of W.B. Yeats. Hart-Davis, 1968.
172
“Dictionary of Literary Biography online”. Gale Databases: Literature Resource Center-LRC.
19
Timeline
November 1908: Bean na h-Eireann (whose title means Woman...
Writing climate item
November 1908
Bean na h-Eireann (whose title means Woman of Ireland) began publishing in Dublin as the organ of the nationalist group Inighnidhe na h-Eireann
, Daughters of Ireland.
Haverty, Anne. Constance Markievicz: An Independent Life. Pandora, 1988.
61-2, 72-3, 77, 79
1 June 1912: Women suffragists, nationalists and trades...
National or international item
1 June 1912
Women suffragists, nationalists and trades unionists held a mass meeting in Dublin to insist that female suffrage be included in the Home Rule Bill; their demands were ignored by the Irish Parliamentary Party
.
Owens, Rosemary Cullen. Smashing Times: A History of the Irish Women’s Suffrage Movement 1889-1922. Attic, 1984.
51-3
Ward, Margaret. “’Suffrage First--Above All Else!’ An Account of the Irish Suffrage Movement”. Feminist Review, Vol.
10
, 1982, pp. 21-36.
27
June 1913: There was widespread protest in Ireland against...
National or international item
June 1913
There was widespread protest in Ireland against the Cat and Mouse Act of 25 April after an attempt was made to implement it.
MacCurtain, Margaret. “Women, the Vote and Revolution”. Women in Irish Society: The Historical Dimension, edited by Margaret MacCurtain and Donncha Ó Corráin, Greenwood, 1979, pp. 46-57.
51
Owens, Rosemary Cullen. Smashing Times: A History of the Irish Women’s Suffrage Movement 1889-1922. Attic, 1984.
66-7
Murphy, Cliona. The Women’s Suffrage Movement and Irish Society in the Early Twentieth Century. Temple University Press, 1989.
106
Ward, Margaret. “’Suffrage First--Above All Else!’ An Account of the Irish Suffrage Movement”. Feminist Review, Vol.
10
, 1982, pp. 21-36.
29
21 August 1913: The Lock-Out Strike began in Dublin when...
