Constance Markievicz

(2018; master's capstone) Eva Gore-Booth (b. Co. Sligo, Ireland, 1870; d. London, England, 1926) was a poet and dramatist, part of the Irish literary revival of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Simultaneously, she was a political and social activist, an early intersectional feminist focused on the lot of poor and working-class women in urban England. As a committed pacifist, Gore-Booth took a strong stand against the First World War, articulating Gospel-based non-resistance and championing peace and the rights of conscientious objectors. This capstone argues that the depth and profound integration of her thinking is revealed in her response to armed Irish nationalism in the form of the April, 1916, Easter Rising, in which her sister, Constance Markievicz, was a principal participant. Far from the nationalist, or “provisional” defender of anti-colonial violence, Gore-Booth is sometimes held to be, our analysis of her political, poetic, and theological writings reveals Eva Gore-Booth’s fundamental rejection of nationalism, hierarchy, and political rule in favor of a universalist ethic of love transcending artificial divisions.

Hibernia was a briefing paper, intended for a dramatic production which did not proceed past the initial exploratory phase. This is NOT an academic paper and does not reflect academic rigours, referencing or argumentation standards. All citation of this work is undertaken at the user’s own risk.

The work was to centre on female characters directly involved or unintentionally caught up in the Easter Rising of 1916. This does not represent what the finished dramatic work would have been (or might yet be depending on time and/or budgetary constraints), yet it should provide the reader with a
greater understanding of the social and societal complexities at work during the Rising and larger the Anglo-Irish War (1913-1923).

The era which the Rising took place in (late Edwardian) results in difficulties for women to play full unfettered role in the rebellion in particular, their roles in nationalism having already been defined and allocated. Even in Irish Citizen Army, class and status played a role. Cumann na mBan was an auxiliary to the Volunteers, but never equal, especially in the eyes of the men themselves.