Rebel Countess Markievicz – Revolutionary T-Shirts
Our Spring Summer collection is about to hit our shop at rebellions16.com … here is a sneak preview! 🙂
Rebel Countess Markievicz T-Shirt
“Dress suitably in short skirts and strong boots, leave your jewels in the bank and buy a revolver. – Countess Constance Georgina Markievicz
To find out more about the Rebel Countess Markievicz, read below for a brief outline of one of Ireland most renowned female historical figure’s.
Countess Markievicz [née Gore-Booth] (1868-1927) was a revolutionary leader, suffragette and politician. Despite her affluent background, she had tremendous respect for working people and the poor which was most likely inspired by her father Sir Henry Goore Booth. Sir Henry was an Anglo-Irish landlord who was renowned for providing free food for his tenants during the famine years. It wasn’t long before Countess Markievicz became actively involved in nationalist politics in Ireland. She joined many revolutionary groups including James Connolly’s socialist Irish Citizen Army (ICA), Inghinidhe na hÉireann (‘Daughters of Ireland’), a revolutionary women’s movement founded by the actress and activist Maud Gonne and she also co-founded Fianna Éireann alongside Bulmer Hobson.
She played a key role in the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin where she helped organise the St Stephen’s Green garrison by supervising and setting up barricades. The Stephen’s Green garrison held out for six day’s before they were captured and brought to Kilmainham Jail. Countess Markievicz was spared the death sentence simply because she was a woman, much to her annoyance she reportedly said to her captors;
“I do wish your lot had the decency to shoot me”
In 1918 Countess Markievicz was the first woman elected to the British House of Commons, a seat she refused to take in line with the republican abstentionist policy.
Markievicz left government in January 1922 in opposition to the Anglo-Irish Treaty. She fought actively in the Irish Civil war after which she toured the United States to drum up support for the republican cause. In 1926 she joined Fianna Fail and was elected to the 5th Dáil but died only five weeks later, before she could take up her seat.
We do hope you like our homage to Countess Markievicz. Its coming soon to our on-line store. Sign up to our newsletter and we will let you know when it is available to purchase.
