Biography of countess markievicz

The exploits of the ‘Larkinite rebel countess’, Constance Markievicz, dominated contemporary press accounts of the Easter Rising. The scene at the College of Surgeons when she kissed her revolver before handing it over to the British officer at the moment of surrender passed instantly into Irish nationalist mythology.

Constance Markievicz was born in London.

Countess markievicz family

Her Protestant ascendancy family, the Gore-Booths, owned Lissadell, an extensive estate in Co. Sligo. She was presented at court to Queen Victoria in the monarch’s Jubilee year, The unpredictable pattern of her subsequent career began when she married a Polish Count, Casimir Markievicz; with little in common, they separated amicably at the outbreak of World War One when he went off to the Balkans as a war reporter.

In , she first became known to British intelligence for her role in helping found Na Fianna Éireann, a nationalist scouts organisation whose purpose was to train boys for participation in a war o