COUNTESS
MARKIEVICZ (1868 - 1927)
Constance
Gore-Booth was born on 4th February, 1868, in London. She was educated
by a governess in her family home at Lissadell, Co. Sligo. She studied
art in Paris and it was there that she met Count Dunin- Markievicz,
a Polish catholic nobleman. He moved to Ireland with his ill wife
and when she died he married Constance in 1900.
Countess
Markievicz became involved in both the Gaelic league and the Irish
literary revival, in 1906 she joined the youth movement of the Irish
republican brotherhood. During the 1913 lockout and general strike,
she ran a soup kitchen in Dublin. During the 1916 Rising, she was
second in command in the college of surgeons
She
was elected M.P. for St. Patrick's Division, Dublin. In the first
Dail, which met in 1919 she was made minister for labour. She was
active during the war of Independence and opposed the treaty. She
joined Fianna Fail in 1926 and elected to the Dail again in 1927 but
died on 15th July that same year.