Constance Georgina Markievicz Part I

Constance was born in 1868, to a Victorian Anglo Irish upper class family Sir Henry and Lady Gore Booth. Her home was at Lissadell County Sligo where her parents had an estate. She was one of the first women to become involved in Irish politics. Her family knew the young Yeats and were interested in art and culture but they were part of the landlord system, and accepted the social divisions of Victorian life. Her family tried to be good landlords, and the children grew up knowing the local poor and trying to help them. Eva, Constance's sister, was a gentle soul but she became a radically minded socialist and pacifist and moved to England to work as a reformer. She lived with a woman friend, who shared her radical views, called Esther Roper. She also wrote poetry. Con was a more energetic active girl who loved country life and horses and was happy enough to take part in the social rituals and to enjoy sports such as hunting. Constance took part in the Social season and was something of a tomboy... She was also interested in art, and after a few years she married a Polish Count, Casimir de Markievicz who was also artistically minded. He had been married and had a son, Stanislas. Her family were very dubious about her marrying a foreign aristocrat, but the marriage went ahead and they had one child, Maeve. Constance had an aristic salon, and tried to unite upper class Anglo Irish society with more liberal minded Nationalists. She and Casimir did not have much money. Gradually she became more radical in her politics, more of a republican socialist.