Constance markiewicz biography

Constance Markievicz, nee Gore-Booth, was born in 1868 into the Anglo-Irish gentry. Rejecting familial expectations, she pursued a lifetime of political activism guided by the principles of Irish nationalism, feminism and socialism.

A military leader in the 1916 Easter Rising, Markievicz was spared court martial on account of her gender.

The brutally swift “trials” and executions of rebel leaders reshaped the political climate, and Constance Markievicz was elected on a Sinn Fein ballot in 1918. The first woman to be elected to Westminster was in an English jail at the time and was elected on an anti-English vote.

Here are 7 key facts about Constance Markievicz:

1.

She rejected the social and patriarchal norms of her Anglo-Irish Ascendancy class

The Gore-Booths, one of the largest landholding families in Co Sligo, resided in Lissadell House and were firmly set within the Protestant Anglo-Irish gentry.

After rejecting eligible suitors throughout several ‘seasons’ in the court of