Countess Markievicz - 1916 Poster

A very rare Constance Georgine Markievicz 1916 commemorative poster. Constance Georgina Markievicz (Polish: Markiewicz ); née Gore-Booth;(4 February 1868 – 15 July 1927), also known as Countess or Madame Markievicz, was an Irish politician, revolutionary, nationalist, suffragist, socialist, and the first woman elected to the Westminster Parliament. A founding member of Fianna Éireann, Cumann na mBan and the Irish Citizen Army, she took part in the Easter Rising in 1916. She was elected Minister for Labour in the First Dáil, becoming the second female cabinet minister in Europe. She served as a TD for the Dublin South constituency from 1921 to 1922 and 1923 to 1927. She was an abstentionist Member of Parliament (MP) for Dublin St Patrick's from 1918 to 1922.

The Markievicz's had settled in Dublin in 1903 and moved in artistic circles, with Constance gaining a reputation as a landscape painter. In 1905 she was instrumental in founding the United Arts Club, which was an attempt to bring together all those in Dublin with an artistic and literary bent. This group included the leading figures of the Gaelic League founded by the future first President of Ireland, Douglas Hyde. In 1907, Markievicz rented a cottage in the countryside near Dublin. The previous tenant, the poet, Padraic Colum, had left behind copies of The Peasant and Sinn Féin. Markievicz read them and was propelled into action in 1908.

In 1909 Markievicz founded Fianna Éireann, a nationalist scouting organisation for teenage boys. She was jailed for the first time in 1911 for speaking at an IRB demonstration attended by 30,000 people, organised to protest against George V's visit to Ireland. Markievicz joined James Connolly's socialist Irish Citizen Army (ICA), a volunteer force formed to defend the demonstrating workers from the police during the ‘1913 Lockout’. In the Inghininidhe na h-Éireann magazine Bean na h-Éireann, her advice to women was: "Dress suitably in short skirts and strong boots, leave your jewels in the bank and buy a revolver."

As a member of the ICA during the Rising, Markievicz fought in St Stephen's Green, where on the first morning she shot an unarmed member of the Dublin Metropolitan Police, Constable Lahiff, who subsequently died of his injuries. In a naive military plan trenches were dug in the Green, sheltered by the front gate; however, after British fire from the rooftops of tall buildings on the north side of the Green, the ICA troops withdrew to the Royal College of Surgeons on the west side of the Green.
Their garrison held out for six days until the British brought them Pearse's surrender order. They were taken to Dublin Castle and then to Kilmainham Gaol  There, she was the only one of 70 women prisoners who was put into solitary confinement. At her court-martial on 4 May 1916, Markievicz pleaded not guilty to "taking part in an armed rebellion...for the purpose of assisting the enemy," but pleaded guilty to having attempted "to cause disaffection among the civil population of His Majesty". She was sentenced to death, but the court recommended mercy "solely and only on account of her sex". The sentence was commuted to life in prison. When told of this, she said to her captors, "I do wish your lot had the decency to shoot me".

In 1918, jailed again for her part in anti-conscription activities, Markievicz was elected for the constituency of Dublin St Patrick's, making her the first woman elected to the United Kingdom House of Commons. During the Treaty Debates and the Civil War Markievicz was very anti-treaty.  After the Civil War she left Sinn Féin and joined the Fianna Fáil party on its foundation in 1926, chairing the inaugural meeting of the new party.. In the June 1927 general election, she was re-elected to the 5th Dáil as a candidate for Fianna Fáil, which was pledged to return to Dáil Éireann, but died only five weeks later of complications after two appendicitis operations. Refused a state funeral by the Free State government, she was laid out in the Rotunda, where thousands of the Dubliners who loved her lined O'Connell Street to pass by her body and pay their respects to 'Madame'. It took four hours for the funeral, to reach the gates of Glasnevin Cemetery. 

Originally published and printed by O'Loughlin, Murphy and Boland, using a photo by Keogh Bros., the text below the photograph states: "COUNTESS MARKIEVICZ, Sentenced to Death; Commuted to Penal Servitude for Life. "

This is a fine reproduction of this extraordinary woman on 210 gsm satin art paper , beautifully mounted on a mottled green suede background and set behind glass in a handmade, aged dark mahogany finish frame with a gold gilt sightline.