Constance Markievicz

Born in London on 4th February 1868 into the Anglo-Irish Gore-Booth family. Grew up on the family estate at Lissadell, Co. Sligo. Married Casimir Markievicz, a Polish count, in 1900 and adopted his title.

Trained as a painter in Paris before turning revolutionary socialist. Fought in the 1916 Easter Rising as an officer in the Irish Citizen Army. Sentenced to death, then reprieved on grounds of sex. Her response: “I do wish your lot had the decency to shoot me.”

On 28th December 1918, while she was still in Holloway Prison, she was elected the first woman ever to win a seat in the House of Commons. She refused to take it. She served as Minister for Labour in the first Dáil from 1919, the second woman to hold a cabinet position anywhere in Europe.

She gave away her inheritance to the poor of Dublin and died of peritonitis on 15th July 1927 in the public ward of Sir Patrick Dun’s Hospital, aged 59.