Constance and Eva

Constance Markievicz and Eva Gore-Booth, two very remarkable sisters, were born into the privilege, comfort and security of the Anglo-Irish aristocracy.

Constance, (1868-1927), studied in Paris where she met Count Casimir Markievicz. In 1908 she joined Sinn Fein, although she disagreed with the pacifism of its leader, Arthur Griffith. During the infamous Dublin 'lock-out' of 1913 she worked increasingly providing relief for the strikers' families from her soup kitchen at Liberty Hall.

When rebellion broke out in 1916, Constance was 2nd-in-command in St Stephen's Green. Arrested and court martialled, she was sentenced to death - commuted to life imprisonment. It was while in prison that she became the first female to be elected to the House of Commons. As a member of Sinn Fein, however, she did not sit at Westminster but became a member of the first Dail Eireann with a cabinet post as Minister for Labour (April 1919 - August 1921), although she spent much of this period in prison.

Constance fought on the anti-treaty faction during the Civil War, during which she was interned, and was a founder member of Fianna Fail. She died on 15 July 1927, after an appendix operation. 300,000 lined the streets for her funeral and she was buried at the Republican Plot at Glasnevin.

Eva Gore-Booth (1870-1926) was born two years after her sister Constance. Eva also turned her back on her life of comfort and privilege and spent all her life working for the female poor of Manchester. She campaigned for women's right to work, their right to a just wage and, of course, their right to vote. In 1900 Eva became co-secretary of the Manchester and Salford Womens T.U.C. and co-secretary of the Women's Textile Committee. She was soon recognised as a writer on political and economic subjects. Her first book, Poems (1898), was greeted by William Butler Yeats as a work of 'poetic feeling ... and great promise'. A complete edition of her works was published in 1929, edited by her friend and fellow suffragist, Esther Roper.

* This exhibition is no longer on display at PRONI.