Firstly I just want to say that I personally thought the lecture on Countess Markievicz was amazing and I think the rest of the class will agree. The lecturer gave straight to the point facts and was made everything really interesting.
Dr. Maryann Valiulis pointed out that women are hidden from history, and although Countess Markievicz (CM) played a big role in 1916 rising not many people no about her.
CM was born in Sligo and was from a fairly well off family her father was a land lord and was caring and sympathetic man during her early years CM wanted to be an artist so she decided to flee to Paris to fulfil her dreams, it is here that she met her husband Cashmere Markievicz. They married in Paris but returned to Dublin shortly after.
CM was always an out spoken woman who rebelled against the conditions for women so it was no surprise when she joined the suffragettes.
At the time of the first meeting CM was attending a ball in Dublin Castle, so she arrived at the meeting all done up in a ball gown! This made people weary of her. But soon after she spoke out on her views about women and Ireland people warmed up to her.
She was among those who protested the visit of Queen Elizabeth. When CM spoke about England and its people she referred to them as slugs.
In 1913 she was involved in a lock out, and it was during this time that she showed her kind heart. She ran the kitchens which were giving the starving people food, and not only did she run them she put a lot of her own money into these kitchens to help out. Although a lot of people grew to love her because of this she earned a few enemies. Sean o Casey hated her! He was continuously writing really mean and hurtful things about her in the paper, he said that she only helped out and gave money to the kitchens for attention! Which I think was a horrible thing to say. There where much easier and cheaper ways to get public attention if that’s all she was after! But even he acknowledged her bravery. She was one of the disciples of James Connelly.
In 1917 she founded Fianna. This was a scouts group for young boys. CM set this up so she could teach young boys how to scout, fight and use a gun, everything necessary for a revolutionary war. Sinn Fein told her not to set up the scouts and told her they did not approve, but she went ahead and did it anyway. It was here that she established reputation as someone who would be very useful in a revolutionary war.
CM was one of the head leaders in 1916 along side James Connolly, Thomas Clark Patrick Pearse, Joseph Plunkett, Eamonn Ceantt, Sean MacDiarmada, Thomas MacDonagh, and Eamonn De Valera. All these people were arrested and imprisoned in Wales. All except CM and De Valera were executed. Eamonn De Valera was excused because of his American status and Countess Markievicz’ death sentence was taken back because they refused to kill a woman. She did not want this so she argued with them to execute her too but they refused and just kept her in prison for awhile instead.
When she came out she became the first woman to be elected to British parliament, although she refused. When Sinn Fein set up the Dail Eireann she was selected to be a Minster for labour and it was 50 years until another women was elected! In 1926 Finna Fail is set up and she decides to go anti-treaty with DeValera.
During the Irish Anglo war she is arrested a number of times of times and her health seriously suffers from this. Even during her sickness she continues to give speeches on women. During her time in hospital even people who did not know her came to visit her and sent her flowers. These were poor times and bread and flowers were expensive so it showed how grateful people were for the work she had done for the country.
On 15 July 1927 she dies. The reasons for her death are unclear some say it was cancer, some say it was her appendix and others say she wore herself out.
She was not aloud to lie in state. She was given a huge funeral at which DeValera spoke out about her.
Even though CM spent her whole life driving and working for a better country she did not succeed because even now what she stood for is still not run in this state. Her whole career was based around labour, nationalism and feminism and although she did not achieve what she wanted to, I think she made such a difference in Ireland.
Nobody can disagree that she is an amazing woman with bags of courage.
Women have played a big role in history and I really agree with Dr. Maryann Valiulis that women are hidden from history and there should be more about them!
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12 comments:
awww jessica well done on teh blog its great, and i just want link into what you mention in the beginning, that i also taughtthe lecture by Dr. Maryann Valiulis was one of th most interesting lectures ive ever been to, straight away i was captured by the spirit of her taught and how she descrbd "CM".
it was inspiring to the point that i wanted to go over to the libarrary and read books on CM.
also reading this blogi found the whole story remarkable and fasinating, well done buddy.
Yeah what the lecturer said is probably she is the only woman that ever gets any coverage in Irish history. Even on the leaving course she is the only woman that is talked in any detail. But I think that if she hadn't got involved in the 1916 rising then she wouldn’t have been mentioned at all. I think the main reason as to why women aren’t mentioned in Irish is cause until cm and the suffragettes all the women just obeyed conformity kept to there place in the home as a mother and wife. They didn’t dare attempt to challenge tradition and look for more rights and a bigger role in life and more power.
The only women that did make any attempt to challenge the social norm were the suffragettes and those with famous and powerful close relatives. But even then they had very little impact or influence in politics or any big movements.
I agree with you Michael. If she had no involvement in the 1916 rising all the good she had done would never been known today because she was a woman. Which kinda sucks as she was really a great woman with some amazing views.
yeah she was a woman wasnt afraid to get stuck in and get her hands dirty.In a sense she was a woman who was way ahead of her time and like isnt it said that all great and revolutionary people are way ahead of there time.the thing is if we didnt have these sort of people who where willing to challenge the social norm and progress things that were pretty stagnenet.i guess what im tryin to say that we need these type of people to advence things at a much faster pace than there moving at otherwise we would be stuck in like the 19th century way of doing things where women r jus seen as wife and baby-making machine.instead they are now only a small bit behind men and maybe they will get proper equality in terms of pay and position if hills-bills get elected over in yankee-dandee-doodle land
i agree with you, but for the fact CM was inravlled in the rising i doubt very much she would be mentioned in so much detail. dispite the great work she`s done.
this is because and im sorry to say it, the male population are predominatly shovenistic. yes were not as bad in todays world as we were in 1916 but even today the idea of a woman changing the corse of history does not apeal to the magortory of men, however i am in the minority that thinks that both men and women should be treated equally (execpt in the bed room haha jus buzen) nd i would whole hartedly support more historical facts which show women changing teh corse of history for the better.
isnt that what the whole 1916 rising was for equail right for both men women and child alike equally togeather. isnt that what parnel pro clamed on the great steps of the GPO.
I really love the Blogg Jesse! Oh I beg to differ Michael, the Ladies Land League played a big (but not as big) role in Irish history during Parnell’s days. I think men just like to whitewash over the true place of women in history, unfortunately its completely impossible to downplay Countess Markievicz’s role in Irish history, so they’re pretty much stuck with her!
Oh and Constance wasn’t actually born in Sligo , she was born in London but downplayed this fact as it cost her some embarrassment, apparently her family weren’t exactly absentee but they did spend a good bit of time outside Ireland. The Fianna were also taken over eventually by the IRB, she didn’t like thay all that much because she thought of underground activist movements as a “Breeding Ground for the Second rate”. Love that phrase!
In conclusion Markievicz rocks my world even if her husband is named after a jumper! And I’m raging I missed the lecture! GRRR!!!
john thats rude! less of that talk on my blog!! haha
Do yous all want to hear what i found interesting? I did a little private test in the last lecture on Eamon De Valera. the personal test was, remember Dr. Maryann Valiulis pointed out that women are hidden from history, and although Countess Markievicz played a big role in 1916 rising not many people no about her. The reason for this men dont mentions her or other women. Although I really enjoyed the lecture on Eamon De Valera i noticed that the lecturer never mentioned any women. Even when he was talking about the 1916 rising he never mentioned Countess Markievicz. he talked about lots of Irish heroes who earned their name in the 1916 rising but he never really talked about Countess Markievicz and she was sentenced to death along with- de Valera and James Connolly and the other leaders at the time, because she was a women she was never executed and de Valera had an Irish passport so he was not sentenced to death. I find this intresting
why are women not mentioned?
Why did Countess Markievicz join De Velera's side on the anti treaty side??????
In the June 1927 election, she was re-elected to the 5th Dáil as a candidate for the new Fianna Fáil party, "which was pledged to return to Dáil Éireann", but died only five weeks later, before she could take up her seat. What woyld of happened if she did't die and took her seat would she of helped womend get more rights and equalities????or would things have turned out the same?
The lecturer was brilliant the best yet!! Yeah jess even better than the Cromwell guy ha!
Even though CM doesn’t get enough recognition she was a tremendous figure for women of the time. Without people like CM our society may not have developed in the way it has. Society today is almost equal and this has a lot to do with the role of CM and the Suffragettes. These women rebelled against tradition and this then set the stage for women across Ireland to break the mould and voice there opinions.
Ya don’t see the stuff that happened years ago happening now ain’t our generation real boring???
yea are society is a lil boring but there is nothing really left to fight about...
women like to think they are equal but there are many ways there not
1 Women still earn less than men in many work situations.
2 Women are still portrayed in a superficial manner in many television shows and films.
3 Look at international sporting. How many professional female leagues are as successful as their male ones
4 Most governments still are made up in their majority of men.
ok so there is still something for girls to cry about cause thats all they do anyways moan out of them
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