Title
Countess Constance Markievicz.
Date
1915
Subject
Vintage Photograph
Description
The sister of poet Eva Gore-Booth, Countess Markievicz appears in an Irish Citizen Army uniform, a handgun in her holster, in conversation with rebel Cathal O’Shannon at O’Donovan Rossa’s funeral, an event that helped spark the Easter Rising. An expert marksman, having founded and led a nationalist organization for boys, she served as an active combatant in the Rising and was sentenced to death with other leaders. When the British later commuted her sentence to life imprisonment because they feared the repercussions from executing a woman, she said, "I do wish your lot had the decency to shoot me."
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