1 00:00:01,160 --> 00:00:04,120 Speaker 1: Welcome to steph you missed in History Class from how 2 00:00:04,160 --> 00:00:14,240 Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot Com. Hello and welcome to the podcast. 3 00:00:14,400 --> 00:00:18,040 Speaker 1: I'm Tracy the Wilson and I'm Holly fry So. Back 4 00:00:18,079 --> 00:00:21,840 Speaker 1: in and also as our most recent Saturday classic, we 5 00:00:21,880 --> 00:00:24,959 Speaker 1: did an episode on the Easter Rising, that was an 6 00:00:25,120 --> 00:00:28,880 Speaker 1: armed rebellion that struck Ireland in nineteen sixteen, and in 7 00:00:28,920 --> 00:00:32,080 Speaker 1: that episode we made a couple of brief mentions of 8 00:00:32,200 --> 00:00:36,120 Speaker 1: Constance Markavitch, and I made an aside that she was 9 00:00:36,159 --> 00:00:38,640 Speaker 1: one of the most fascinating characters that I learned about 10 00:00:38,680 --> 00:00:40,640 Speaker 1: while we're searching that episode, and that if I had 11 00:00:40,640 --> 00:00:43,720 Speaker 1: found out about her earlier, the episode might have been 12 00:00:43,720 --> 00:00:48,159 Speaker 1: all about her of about the Easter Rising in general. 13 00:00:48,760 --> 00:00:51,160 Speaker 1: So she's been on my short list ever since then, 14 00:00:51,240 --> 00:00:53,800 Speaker 1: which probably gives you a sense of how long my 15 00:00:53,960 --> 00:00:56,360 Speaker 1: short list is, since that was two years ago and 16 00:00:56,400 --> 00:00:59,040 Speaker 1: we are just now getting around to it. We've also 17 00:00:59,160 --> 00:01:01,760 Speaker 1: gotten a few were quests for a show on her recently, 18 00:01:01,840 --> 00:01:03,480 Speaker 1: so I thought it was finally time for her to 19 00:01:03,720 --> 00:01:06,200 Speaker 1: make it up to the top of that list. There 20 00:01:06,480 --> 00:01:11,040 Speaker 1: was a lot of conflict in Ireland during this period 21 00:01:11,040 --> 00:01:16,040 Speaker 1: of history, and uh Constance Markevitch was involved in a 22 00:01:16,080 --> 00:01:18,840 Speaker 1: lot of it, so we're not going to get back 23 00:01:18,880 --> 00:01:22,480 Speaker 1: into the details of the Easter rising again. That is 24 00:01:22,480 --> 00:01:25,080 Speaker 1: why we had it as our most recent Saturday Classic 25 00:01:25,480 --> 00:01:27,360 Speaker 1: for maybe folks who are newer to the show or 26 00:01:27,400 --> 00:01:29,720 Speaker 1: don't really remember, so that is easy to find in 27 00:01:29,760 --> 00:01:33,200 Speaker 1: the archive um for that part of the story. But 28 00:01:33,319 --> 00:01:35,560 Speaker 1: there's a lot more to talk about, so we're not 29 00:01:35,560 --> 00:01:38,600 Speaker 1: going to get into the Easter rizing so much today. 30 00:01:39,280 --> 00:01:43,840 Speaker 1: Constance Markovitch was born Constance Georgine Gore Booth on February 31 00:01:43,880 --> 00:01:48,120 Speaker 1: four eight. Her father was Henry Gore Booth and her 32 00:01:48,160 --> 00:01:52,279 Speaker 1: mother was Georgina may Hill. Constance was their oldest child, 33 00:01:52,360 --> 00:01:54,400 Speaker 1: and she was born in a townhouse that the family 34 00:01:54,520 --> 00:01:58,320 Speaker 1: kept near Buckingham Palace in London. She'd eventually have four 35 00:01:58,360 --> 00:02:01,760 Speaker 1: younger siblings that she was always closest to her sister, Ava, 36 00:02:01,840 --> 00:02:05,680 Speaker 1: who was two years younger. Constance grew up and was 37 00:02:05,800 --> 00:02:09,760 Speaker 1: educated at Lisadel House. Although her mother was from Yorkshire 38 00:02:09,880 --> 00:02:12,680 Speaker 1: on her father's side, the family had lived in this 39 00:02:12,720 --> 00:02:16,400 Speaker 1: part of Ireland since sixty one. That was when Paul 40 00:02:16,480 --> 00:02:18,760 Speaker 1: Gore was made a baronet and granted part of the 41 00:02:18,840 --> 00:02:22,720 Speaker 1: land that would become Lizadella state. The house itself that 42 00:02:22,840 --> 00:02:25,240 Speaker 1: she was raised in was a lot newer than that, 43 00:02:25,280 --> 00:02:28,079 Speaker 1: though it was only about thirty years old when Constance 44 00:02:28,160 --> 00:02:31,520 Speaker 1: was born. This was a forty eight room country house 45 00:02:31,600 --> 00:02:35,600 Speaker 1: decorated with paintings by the old masters, and there the 46 00:02:35,680 --> 00:02:40,080 Speaker 1: young Constance was educated by governesses and tutors. She was 47 00:02:40,120 --> 00:02:44,160 Speaker 1: described as a happy child, high spirited, and excellent on horseback. 48 00:02:44,800 --> 00:02:47,800 Speaker 1: Her father made repeated expeditions to the Arctic, almost as 49 00:02:47,840 --> 00:02:50,560 Speaker 1: a hobby, and he seemed to raise his oldest daughter 50 00:02:50,600 --> 00:02:54,200 Speaker 1: with the same eye for adventure. She was also tomboyish 51 00:02:54,240 --> 00:02:56,359 Speaker 1: and she didn't like most of the activities that were 52 00:02:56,360 --> 00:02:59,799 Speaker 1: considered feminine. She did like to draw into sketch and 53 00:02:59,880 --> 00:03:02,040 Speaker 1: she was considered to be quite good at it, and 54 00:03:02,160 --> 00:03:04,600 Speaker 1: she got older, she also learned to shoot, and she 55 00:03:04,680 --> 00:03:09,120 Speaker 1: developed a fondness for playing pranks on people. This is 56 00:03:09,160 --> 00:03:12,839 Speaker 1: a very affluent family. Constants and her family were part 57 00:03:12,880 --> 00:03:15,720 Speaker 1: of the Protestant Ascendancy, and this is a term that 58 00:03:15,800 --> 00:03:19,000 Speaker 1: was coined in the eighteenth century to describe the domination 59 00:03:19,120 --> 00:03:23,520 Speaker 1: of majority Catholic Ireland by a Protestant and mostly English minority. 60 00:03:24,040 --> 00:03:27,760 Speaker 1: It was also used to describe the members of the 61 00:03:27,840 --> 00:03:31,359 Speaker 1: Protestant aristocracy that were part of this domination as well. 62 00:03:31,880 --> 00:03:34,520 Speaker 1: So even though this term came into use in the 63 00:03:34,560 --> 00:03:38,560 Speaker 1: eighteenth century, the practices involved with it went back much farther. 64 00:03:39,000 --> 00:03:42,800 Speaker 1: They were largely associated with Oliver Cromwell's conquest of Ireland 65 00:03:43,080 --> 00:03:45,839 Speaker 1: and with the period following the Glorious Revolution in six 66 00:03:46,400 --> 00:03:51,640 Speaker 1: eight the Protestant ascendancy turned former Irish Catholic landowners into 67 00:03:51,720 --> 00:03:56,240 Speaker 1: tenant farmers working for Protestant landlords, many of whom were English, 68 00:03:56,720 --> 00:03:59,920 Speaker 1: and generations later these landlords were not viewed as proper 69 00:04:00,000 --> 00:04:04,960 Speaker 1: really Irish and were instead described as Anglo Irish constance. 70 00:04:05,000 --> 00:04:08,360 Speaker 1: As father had at least a thousand families as tenants, 71 00:04:08,440 --> 00:04:12,360 Speaker 1: although some of his tenants managed huge acreages that they 72 00:04:12,400 --> 00:04:16,280 Speaker 1: subdivided and then least to other tenants, So he had 73 00:04:16,320 --> 00:04:19,880 Speaker 1: these direct tenants and then sort of an indirect pool 74 00:04:19,920 --> 00:04:22,560 Speaker 1: of tenants that some of his tenants were managing. A 75 00:04:22,640 --> 00:04:25,680 Speaker 1: lot of this property was adjoining Lisadel, but some of 76 00:04:25,680 --> 00:04:29,320 Speaker 1: it was in Manchester. To be clear, this entire system 77 00:04:29,480 --> 00:04:33,080 Speaker 1: of Protestant landowners managing land that had previously been owned 78 00:04:33,080 --> 00:04:37,560 Speaker 1: by Irish Catholics directly was exploitive and unjust, and it 79 00:04:37,600 --> 00:04:41,520 Speaker 1: contributed to a lot of problems in Irish history, but 80 00:04:41,600 --> 00:04:45,040 Speaker 1: as landlords went, Henry gore Booth had a reputation for 81 00:04:45,160 --> 00:04:50,880 Speaker 1: being fair and reasonable. Many Protestant landlords were basically absentee landlords, 82 00:04:50,920 --> 00:04:54,120 Speaker 1: but the gore Booth family was in residence at Lisadel 83 00:04:54,200 --> 00:04:57,479 Speaker 1: for at least part of every year. Henry gore Booth 84 00:04:57,560 --> 00:05:00,279 Speaker 1: also charged lower rents than the market value you and 85 00:05:00,360 --> 00:05:03,600 Speaker 1: he ran the whole enterprise in a very organized, thoroughly 86 00:05:03,680 --> 00:05:08,599 Speaker 1: documented way, with orderly, up to date bookkeeping. If this 87 00:05:08,640 --> 00:05:13,279 Speaker 1: seems like a really low bar kind of is, but 88 00:05:13,400 --> 00:05:17,000 Speaker 1: it's also indicative of like how messed up this whole 89 00:05:17,040 --> 00:05:19,440 Speaker 1: system was. That like that was the blar that made 90 00:05:19,440 --> 00:05:23,120 Speaker 1: a person just be seen as a good landlord. He 91 00:05:23,240 --> 00:05:26,760 Speaker 1: also did seem to treat his tenants pretty compassionately, if 92 00:05:26,920 --> 00:05:31,039 Speaker 1: also paternalistically. In the late eighteen seventies, just a couple 93 00:05:31,040 --> 00:05:34,440 Speaker 1: of decades after the Great Famine in Ireland, heavy rains 94 00:05:34,480 --> 00:05:38,440 Speaker 1: crossed widespread crop failures, and for a lot of Irish 95 00:05:38,480 --> 00:05:41,320 Speaker 1: tenants this meant going to a workhouse and losing their 96 00:05:41,360 --> 00:05:45,320 Speaker 1: homes and their land. Many of Henry gore Booth's tenants 97 00:05:45,360 --> 00:05:48,400 Speaker 1: still wound up in workhouses, but he arranged for them 98 00:05:48,440 --> 00:05:52,120 Speaker 1: to go to one that he personally oversaw without having 99 00:05:52,160 --> 00:05:55,120 Speaker 1: to forfeit their lands or their homes to do it. 100 00:05:55,200 --> 00:05:57,520 Speaker 1: So it's still a bad situation, but not as bad 101 00:05:57,560 --> 00:06:00,360 Speaker 1: as it could have been. The rest of the family 102 00:06:00,480 --> 00:06:04,040 Speaker 1: was part of this approach as well. During this same time, 103 00:06:04,240 --> 00:06:07,719 Speaker 1: Lady gore Booths, Constance and the older children set up 104 00:06:07,720 --> 00:06:10,960 Speaker 1: a food distribution system for the tenants, and they arranged 105 00:06:11,040 --> 00:06:13,880 Speaker 1: delivery of straw to homes where there weren't any beds. 106 00:06:14,600 --> 00:06:18,000 Speaker 1: Both Constance and Ava tried to be benevolently helpful, and 107 00:06:18,040 --> 00:06:21,160 Speaker 1: apparently they were genuine enough about it that they really 108 00:06:21,240 --> 00:06:24,640 Speaker 1: endeared themselves to the tenants, who they referred to as 109 00:06:24,680 --> 00:06:29,360 Speaker 1: country people. In eighteen eighty six, when Constance turned eighteen, 110 00:06:29,560 --> 00:06:32,279 Speaker 1: she spent six months in Italy with a governess before 111 00:06:32,360 --> 00:06:36,000 Speaker 1: making her formal debut. She was presented to Queen Victoria 112 00:06:36,080 --> 00:06:39,240 Speaker 1: as a debutante on March seventeenth, eighteen eighty seven, which 113 00:06:39,240 --> 00:06:43,120 Speaker 1: was during the Queen's Golden Jubilee. Year. After her debut, 114 00:06:43,480 --> 00:06:46,640 Speaker 1: Constant spent several seasons in London, where she was always 115 00:06:46,680 --> 00:06:50,640 Speaker 1: described as the life of the party. Although she was popular, 116 00:06:50,720 --> 00:06:54,200 Speaker 1: her behavior wasn't considered very ladylike. While the other young 117 00:06:54,240 --> 00:06:57,800 Speaker 1: women in London tended to be coy and demure, Constance 118 00:06:57,839 --> 00:07:01,400 Speaker 1: was vivacious and direct. Those pranks that she liked to 119 00:07:01,400 --> 00:07:04,359 Speaker 1: play on people could also be kind of mocking and 120 00:07:04,400 --> 00:07:07,880 Speaker 1: mean spirited, which may have turned off some suitors. She 121 00:07:07,920 --> 00:07:11,520 Speaker 1: could also be very daring. One night, she actually jumped 122 00:07:11,520 --> 00:07:14,160 Speaker 1: out of her carriage to physically get in between two 123 00:07:14,160 --> 00:07:16,800 Speaker 1: men who were fighting on the street, calling for other 124 00:07:16,880 --> 00:07:19,480 Speaker 1: passers by to come help her break up the bit. 125 00:07:20,520 --> 00:07:24,440 Speaker 1: In one oft repeated story from this time in Consences Life, 126 00:07:24,880 --> 00:07:27,600 Speaker 1: one night, a male guest at Lisadel was making a 127 00:07:27,720 --> 00:07:30,720 Speaker 1: number of unwanted advances toward her, and then he was 128 00:07:30,760 --> 00:07:33,760 Speaker 1: seated next to her at dinner. While they were eating, 129 00:07:33,840 --> 00:07:36,680 Speaker 1: he put his hand on her knee, and her response 130 00:07:36,800 --> 00:07:39,440 Speaker 1: was to pick it up, hold it up for everyone 131 00:07:39,480 --> 00:07:42,560 Speaker 1: to see, and exclaim, just look what I have found 132 00:07:42,560 --> 00:07:47,720 Speaker 1: in my lap. That's a pretty good story. By the 133 00:07:47,760 --> 00:07:51,520 Speaker 1: time she turned twenty five, tensions were high between Constants 134 00:07:51,520 --> 00:07:55,040 Speaker 1: and her parents. She was basically a spinster at that point, 135 00:07:55,040 --> 00:07:57,480 Speaker 1: and she was seen as an annoyance and a burden 136 00:07:58,040 --> 00:08:01,080 Speaker 1: as they were all increasingly at with each other. At home, 137 00:08:01,560 --> 00:08:04,560 Speaker 1: Constance started asking to go away to art school, and 138 00:08:04,600 --> 00:08:07,440 Speaker 1: she spent more time on art than socializing during her 139 00:08:07,480 --> 00:08:12,400 Speaker 1: eighteen season in London. They finally gave her permission to 140 00:08:12,480 --> 00:08:15,080 Speaker 1: go to the Slade School in London, which we will 141 00:08:15,080 --> 00:08:25,120 Speaker 1: get to. After a quick sponsor break, Constant started studying 142 00:08:25,280 --> 00:08:27,920 Speaker 1: art at the Slade School in London in eighteen ninety three. 143 00:08:28,320 --> 00:08:30,880 Speaker 1: She still spent a lot of time back home in Slago, 144 00:08:31,040 --> 00:08:35,280 Speaker 1: but just being able to have some measure of independence 145 00:08:35,320 --> 00:08:38,000 Speaker 1: helped to ease some of the tension between her and 146 00:08:38,040 --> 00:08:41,960 Speaker 1: her parents. Constance and her sister Ava started socializing with 147 00:08:42,080 --> 00:08:45,880 Speaker 1: lots of artists and writers, including William Butler Yates, who 148 00:08:45,920 --> 00:08:49,360 Speaker 1: had ongoing connections with the gore Booth family and with 149 00:08:49,400 --> 00:08:52,160 Speaker 1: the part of Ireland that they were living in. In 150 00:08:52,240 --> 00:08:57,200 Speaker 1: eight Constance, Ava and their sister Mabel became focused on 151 00:08:57,200 --> 00:09:00,959 Speaker 1: the issue of women's suffrage. Together they started a Votes 152 00:09:01,000 --> 00:09:05,280 Speaker 1: for Women organization in County Sligo, with Constance serving as president, 153 00:09:05,559 --> 00:09:10,000 Speaker 1: Ava as secretary, and Mabel as treasurer. And a speech 154 00:09:10,040 --> 00:09:13,040 Speaker 1: at one of their meetings, Constance posed the question of why, 155 00:09:13,280 --> 00:09:16,800 Speaker 1: if women were so incompetent, had there been no enormous 156 00:09:16,920 --> 00:09:22,000 Speaker 1: uprising against Queen Victoria. She also argued against organizations having 157 00:09:22,160 --> 00:09:26,000 Speaker 1: separate auxiliary units just for women, because doing so set 158 00:09:26,040 --> 00:09:31,160 Speaker 1: up women as a separate class from men. In Constance 159 00:09:31,200 --> 00:09:33,920 Speaker 1: continued her study of art by moving to Paris to 160 00:09:33,960 --> 00:09:37,560 Speaker 1: study at a studio run by Rodolph Julienne. She was 161 00:09:37,600 --> 00:09:40,800 Speaker 1: at this point completely dedicated to this study, even wearing 162 00:09:40,840 --> 00:09:44,360 Speaker 1: a wedding ring to symbolize that she was married to art. 163 00:09:45,200 --> 00:09:47,920 Speaker 1: But not long after arriving in Paris, she met Polish 164 00:09:48,000 --> 00:09:53,560 Speaker 1: playwright and artist Count Kasimir Markovic. Constance and Kasimir were 165 00:09:53,640 --> 00:09:57,360 Speaker 1: immediately taken with each other. He was tall and handsome 166 00:09:57,400 --> 00:10:00,280 Speaker 1: and six years younger than she was. He was also 167 00:10:00,360 --> 00:10:04,160 Speaker 1: a very good painter. He was, being from Poland, very 168 00:10:04,280 --> 00:10:06,440 Speaker 1: unlike most of the people that she had known in 169 00:10:06,480 --> 00:10:10,040 Speaker 1: her life. He was also married, although his wife died 170 00:10:10,080 --> 00:10:12,400 Speaker 1: in eighteen ninety nine, just a few weeks after he 171 00:10:12,480 --> 00:10:16,360 Speaker 1: and Constance met. By the time Kasimir's wife died, he 172 00:10:16,440 --> 00:10:19,960 Speaker 1: and Constance were already quite close. They had a passionate 173 00:10:20,080 --> 00:10:22,839 Speaker 1: romance that involved lots of bicycling and at one point 174 00:10:22,880 --> 00:10:26,920 Speaker 1: a duel that Kasimir fought to defend Constance's honor after 175 00:10:26,960 --> 00:10:30,760 Speaker 1: someone insulted her at a costume ball. On September twenty 176 00:10:30,840 --> 00:10:35,680 Speaker 1: nine hundred, they got married. Constance's younger sister, Mabel, who 177 00:10:35,679 --> 00:10:38,839 Speaker 1: had been engaged for years, also got married not long after, 178 00:10:39,280 --> 00:10:42,440 Speaker 1: suggesting that the family was traditional enough to insist that 179 00:10:42,520 --> 00:10:46,440 Speaker 1: the oldest daughter get married before the younger ones. Although 180 00:10:46,520 --> 00:10:50,480 Speaker 1: Kasimir styled himself as a count, it is not completely 181 00:10:50,559 --> 00:10:54,600 Speaker 1: clear whether he actually was one if he did have 182 00:10:54,880 --> 00:10:56,959 Speaker 1: some kind of title, he did not have a lot 183 00:10:57,000 --> 00:11:00,040 Speaker 1: of money, and even though Constance came from quite a 184 00:11:00,040 --> 00:11:02,480 Speaker 1: lot of money, her father had died in January of 185 00:11:02,600 --> 00:11:06,200 Speaker 1: nineteen hundred and virtually the entire estate was settled on 186 00:11:06,240 --> 00:11:10,240 Speaker 1: her brother. So as the newlywed couple divided their time 187 00:11:10,280 --> 00:11:14,120 Speaker 1: among Paris, Lisadel, and the Markovic family estates in Poland, 188 00:11:14,240 --> 00:11:16,960 Speaker 1: they mostly did it with the financial help of the family. 189 00:11:17,640 --> 00:11:21,800 Speaker 1: On November nineteen o one, they had a daughter named Mayev. 190 00:11:22,880 --> 00:11:25,840 Speaker 1: In nineteen o three, the Markovic family moved to a 191 00:11:25,880 --> 00:11:28,160 Speaker 1: home in wrath Guar, which was at the time its 192 00:11:28,160 --> 00:11:32,120 Speaker 1: own village but today is a suburb of Dublin. Constance's 193 00:11:32,200 --> 00:11:34,400 Speaker 1: mother had secured the house for them and was also 194 00:11:34,559 --> 00:11:39,000 Speaker 1: largely raising young mave Stanislaus the count's son by his 195 00:11:39,080 --> 00:11:41,920 Speaker 1: first marriage, moved into the wrath Car home and may 196 00:11:41,920 --> 00:11:46,040 Speaker 1: have visited from time to time. While living in Ireland, 197 00:11:46,120 --> 00:11:49,520 Speaker 1: Constance and Casimir started spending more and more time among 198 00:11:49,640 --> 00:11:53,640 Speaker 1: artistic and literary circles, and they joined an art society 199 00:11:53,720 --> 00:11:57,360 Speaker 1: with William Butler, Yates and George A. E. Russell, and 200 00:11:57,520 --> 00:12:02,559 Speaker 1: Constance became increasingly interested in Irish nationalism. She met maud Gonne, 201 00:12:02,600 --> 00:12:05,959 Speaker 1: who was the founder of the Irish nationalist women's organization 202 00:12:06,080 --> 00:12:10,800 Speaker 1: Daughters of Ireland, and started becoming involved in other nationalist organizations. 203 00:12:12,280 --> 00:12:17,000 Speaker 1: At first, Constance's involvement in Irish nationalism was viewed with suspicion. 204 00:12:17,760 --> 00:12:19,720 Speaker 1: It didn't make a lot of sense that the oldest 205 00:12:19,800 --> 00:12:22,760 Speaker 1: daughter of an ascendancy family would take the side of 206 00:12:22,800 --> 00:12:26,520 Speaker 1: Irish nationalists at all. After all, she was part of 207 00:12:26,520 --> 00:12:29,839 Speaker 1: a minority ruling class that was almost the exact opposite 208 00:12:29,840 --> 00:12:34,080 Speaker 1: of the idea of a free, independent Ireland. Aside from Ava, 209 00:12:34,120 --> 00:12:37,200 Speaker 1: her relatives didn't approve of the connections she was making, 210 00:12:37,640 --> 00:12:42,000 Speaker 1: and those connections suspected she was really a spy. She 211 00:12:42,120 --> 00:12:45,040 Speaker 1: stuck with it, though, even as she and Kasimir started 212 00:12:45,040 --> 00:12:48,160 Speaker 1: to drift apart. When they met They had both had 213 00:12:48,200 --> 00:12:52,359 Speaker 1: a tremendous passion for art and common and now Constance's 214 00:12:52,400 --> 00:12:57,000 Speaker 1: passion was becoming Irish nationalism and fighting for a free Ireland. 215 00:12:57,040 --> 00:12:59,440 Speaker 1: And this was a passion that Kasimir just didn't share. 216 00:13:00,200 --> 00:13:03,600 Speaker 1: You wouldn't necessarily think he would share it. He was 217 00:13:03,640 --> 00:13:08,160 Speaker 1: not Irish. Earlier in their marriage, Constance had styled herself 218 00:13:08,200 --> 00:13:11,080 Speaker 1: as a countess because she had married a count, but 219 00:13:11,120 --> 00:13:14,280 Speaker 1: as they grew apart, she started calling herself madam, which 220 00:13:14,360 --> 00:13:17,679 Speaker 1: was a fashionable thing to do among women in the movement. 221 00:13:18,640 --> 00:13:22,400 Speaker 1: In the early nineteen hundreds, there were several different nationalists 222 00:13:22,440 --> 00:13:26,600 Speaker 1: and separatist organizations operating in Ireland who wanted Ireland to 223 00:13:26,640 --> 00:13:30,400 Speaker 1: be independent from the British Empire. In nineteen o five, 224 00:13:30,640 --> 00:13:35,200 Speaker 1: Arthur Griffith established shin Fayne meaning We Ourselves or Ourselves Alone, 225 00:13:35,640 --> 00:13:40,280 Speaker 1: which absorbed some of these organizations. Constance began attending shin 226 00:13:40,360 --> 00:13:43,200 Speaker 1: Fayne meetings in nineteen o eight, and she joined its 227 00:13:43,240 --> 00:13:47,080 Speaker 1: council in nineteen o nine. Also in nineteen o nine, 228 00:13:47,120 --> 00:13:50,840 Speaker 1: she co founded Nafena Aaron also known as just the Fienna, 229 00:13:51,240 --> 00:13:55,520 Speaker 1: which was an Irish nationalist scouting organization for boys. Part 230 00:13:55,520 --> 00:13:58,760 Speaker 1: of its purpose was paramilitary. They were training boys and 231 00:13:58,840 --> 00:14:03,040 Speaker 1: marksmanship and drill and basically preparing them to join nationalists 232 00:14:03,080 --> 00:14:06,360 Speaker 1: and Republican militia as they got older. A lot of 233 00:14:06,360 --> 00:14:09,520 Speaker 1: these boys were living in extreme poverty and thinking that 234 00:14:09,559 --> 00:14:13,200 Speaker 1: a country life would help them. Constance least a large 235 00:14:13,280 --> 00:14:17,680 Speaker 1: country house and basically operated it as a commune for them. 236 00:14:17,760 --> 00:14:20,760 Speaker 1: Sometimes the Fenna was known to pick fights with some 237 00:14:20,880 --> 00:14:25,120 Speaker 1: of the more affluent Anglo Irish boys and more wealthy neighborhoods, 238 00:14:25,160 --> 00:14:29,800 Speaker 1: which was something that Constance tacitly allowed. Throughout all of this, 239 00:14:30,080 --> 00:14:34,440 Speaker 1: Constance also became more serious about feminism, but she didn't 240 00:14:34,440 --> 00:14:38,160 Speaker 1: see this issue as separate from Irish nationalism. From her 241 00:14:38,160 --> 00:14:40,160 Speaker 1: point of view, it would do no good for women 242 00:14:40,160 --> 00:14:42,480 Speaker 1: to have the right to vote if Ireland did not 243 00:14:42,560 --> 00:14:45,640 Speaker 1: have its own parliament to represent them. And it wasn't 244 00:14:45,680 --> 00:14:47,720 Speaker 1: just about having the right to vote because that was 245 00:14:47,760 --> 00:14:50,680 Speaker 1: the right men had. Every person who had the right 246 00:14:50,720 --> 00:14:53,320 Speaker 1: to vote needed to be making an active and positive 247 00:14:53,360 --> 00:14:57,480 Speaker 1: contribution to the society they were living in. So she 248 00:14:57,680 --> 00:15:01,400 Speaker 1: thought Ireland needed to be its own free nation, and 249 00:15:01,440 --> 00:15:05,440 Speaker 1: that a free Ireland also needed to incorporate equal rights 250 00:15:05,480 --> 00:15:09,200 Speaker 1: for women as its core identity. As a nation. She 251 00:15:09,400 --> 00:15:12,560 Speaker 1: also felt that a free Ireland needed to be free 252 00:15:12,600 --> 00:15:15,720 Speaker 1: of the kinds of wealth disparities that she had personally 253 00:15:15,760 --> 00:15:19,880 Speaker 1: benefited from for her whole life. So in reality, Constance's 254 00:15:19,960 --> 00:15:24,880 Speaker 1: political views united feminism, socialism, and Irish nationalism all into 255 00:15:25,000 --> 00:15:29,920 Speaker 1: one package. And in this work Constance gave speeches she 256 00:15:30,000 --> 00:15:33,640 Speaker 1: wrote and edited for a feminist journal. In nineteen ten, 257 00:15:33,840 --> 00:15:36,840 Speaker 1: she demonstrated against a visit of King George the Fifth 258 00:15:36,880 --> 00:15:40,400 Speaker 1: and Queen Mary, avoiding arrest herself but having to bail 259 00:15:40,440 --> 00:15:42,960 Speaker 1: out one of her friends and later testify that she, 260 00:15:43,720 --> 00:15:45,840 Speaker 1: not the man on trial, was the one who had 261 00:15:45,840 --> 00:15:48,840 Speaker 1: burned a flag in protest. This, by the way, did 262 00:15:48,840 --> 00:15:51,120 Speaker 1: not sway the court, and the man in question went 263 00:15:51,160 --> 00:15:54,560 Speaker 1: to prison. In nineteen twelve, Constants and some of her 264 00:15:54,600 --> 00:15:57,920 Speaker 1: friends started serving Irish stew to school children, both to 265 00:15:57,960 --> 00:16:00,600 Speaker 1: feed them because they were living in poverty, and also 266 00:16:00,720 --> 00:16:03,560 Speaker 1: to draw attention to the fact that a law that 267 00:16:03,600 --> 00:16:07,480 Speaker 1: was allowing local authorities to provide school lunches had been 268 00:16:07,520 --> 00:16:11,320 Speaker 1: written not to include Ireland, where a disproportionate number of 269 00:16:11,360 --> 00:16:15,120 Speaker 1: school children were living in poverty. She did similar work 270 00:16:15,200 --> 00:16:18,760 Speaker 1: during the nineteen thirteen Dublin lockout. This was a massive 271 00:16:18,840 --> 00:16:22,320 Speaker 1: labor dispute in which companies responded to growing efforts to 272 00:16:22,440 --> 00:16:27,160 Speaker 1: unionize by locking employees out of their jobs. This dispute 273 00:16:27,160 --> 00:16:30,400 Speaker 1: started at the Dublin United Tramway Company and then spread 274 00:16:30,440 --> 00:16:34,760 Speaker 1: out through other industries. Eventually, about twenty thousand workers in 275 00:16:34,840 --> 00:16:37,720 Speaker 1: Dublin had been locked out of their jobs, and violent 276 00:16:37,760 --> 00:16:42,600 Speaker 1: clashes between workers and police were ongoing. Constance Markovich and 277 00:16:42,720 --> 00:16:46,360 Speaker 1: Delia Larkin, who was the sister of labor organizer James Larkin, 278 00:16:46,840 --> 00:16:49,520 Speaker 1: ran a soup kitchen during this lockout that fed about 279 00:16:49,560 --> 00:16:54,880 Speaker 1: three thousand people a day. By August thirteen, James Larkin 280 00:16:55,080 --> 00:16:58,280 Speaker 1: was a wanted man. He stayed at the Markovitch home 281 00:16:58,400 --> 00:17:01,240 Speaker 1: on August that year here and then the next day 282 00:17:01,400 --> 00:17:04,880 Speaker 1: Constance and some others helps to smuggle him past police 283 00:17:04,920 --> 00:17:07,879 Speaker 1: presence so that he could make a promised public appearance. 284 00:17:08,480 --> 00:17:11,880 Speaker 1: That appearance did not last long, though, He got onto 285 00:17:11,960 --> 00:17:15,760 Speaker 1: a balcony at the Imperial Hotel, where police promptly spotted 286 00:17:15,800 --> 00:17:19,480 Speaker 1: him and arrested him. When Larkin was being escorted to 287 00:17:19,520 --> 00:17:22,639 Speaker 1: a police car, Constance went to tell him goodbye and 288 00:17:22,720 --> 00:17:25,399 Speaker 1: good luck, and a police officer struck her in the 289 00:17:25,440 --> 00:17:29,600 Speaker 1: face with the baton. This sparked a melee between police 290 00:17:29,680 --> 00:17:32,280 Speaker 1: and workers in which two men were killed with police 291 00:17:32,280 --> 00:17:36,000 Speaker 1: batons and more than four hundred people, including both workers 292 00:17:36,040 --> 00:17:39,720 Speaker 1: and police, were injured. This incident became one of several 293 00:17:39,760 --> 00:17:44,920 Speaker 1: days in history known as Bloody Sunday. Anytime somebody sends 294 00:17:44,960 --> 00:17:46,960 Speaker 1: us a message asking if we will do a podcast 295 00:17:46,960 --> 00:17:49,720 Speaker 1: on Bloody Sunday, I have to ask which one? There 296 00:17:49,760 --> 00:17:51,560 Speaker 1: are so many that there are in fact two in 297 00:17:51,600 --> 00:17:56,640 Speaker 1: this episode. The Doublin Lockout is often cited as one 298 00:17:56,680 --> 00:18:00,000 Speaker 1: of the precursors to the nineteen sixteen Easter Rising, which 299 00:18:00,000 --> 00:18:08,920 Speaker 1: we're going to touch on after a sponsor break. Constance 300 00:18:09,000 --> 00:18:12,159 Speaker 1: Markovitch continued her work with the Soup Kitchen during the 301 00:18:12,160 --> 00:18:16,040 Speaker 1: remainder of the Dublin Lockout, which ended unsuccessfully, at least 302 00:18:16,119 --> 00:18:19,040 Speaker 1: from the workers point of view in nineteen fourteen. Basically 303 00:18:19,080 --> 00:18:22,120 Speaker 1: at that point everyone was returning for work having gotten 304 00:18:22,359 --> 00:18:25,520 Speaker 1: none of the improvements that they were trying to campaign for. 305 00:18:26,560 --> 00:18:30,240 Speaker 1: By then, her marriage to Casimir Markovitch was basically over. 306 00:18:30,720 --> 00:18:34,000 Speaker 1: Their split was amicable, though, and he left Ireland in 307 00:18:34,080 --> 00:18:37,200 Speaker 1: nineteen thirteen to take a position as a war correspondent. 308 00:18:38,280 --> 00:18:42,399 Speaker 1: Tensions in Ireland were continuing to escalate. The Government of 309 00:18:42,440 --> 00:18:46,720 Speaker 1: Ireland Act was given Royal assent on September eighteenth, nineteen fourteen, 310 00:18:46,880 --> 00:18:49,840 Speaker 1: which was intended to give Ireland home rule within the 311 00:18:49,920 --> 00:18:53,680 Speaker 1: United Kingdom, but on the same day the Suspensary Act 312 00:18:53,720 --> 00:18:57,440 Speaker 1: of nineteen fourteen delayed the Government of Ireland Act from 313 00:18:57,440 --> 00:19:00,080 Speaker 1: being put into effect because of World War One, and 314 00:19:00,760 --> 00:19:04,520 Speaker 1: no one in Ireland was happy with this situation. Unionists 315 00:19:04,560 --> 00:19:07,520 Speaker 1: who wanted to remain part of Great Britain objected to 316 00:19:07,560 --> 00:19:10,440 Speaker 1: the Government of Ireland Act in general, as did the 317 00:19:10,520 --> 00:19:14,399 Speaker 1: Radical Republicans who wanted Ireland to be independent, and the 318 00:19:14,480 --> 00:19:17,200 Speaker 1: Moderate faction, who were happy for Ireland to be part 319 00:19:17,200 --> 00:19:19,480 Speaker 1: of the UK as long as they had home rule, 320 00:19:19,880 --> 00:19:22,960 Speaker 1: were angry that the Government of Ireland Act had been delayed. 321 00:19:24,280 --> 00:19:28,240 Speaker 1: This conflict, which I mean this had been building for years, 322 00:19:28,280 --> 00:19:31,600 Speaker 1: eventually led to the nineteen sixteen Easter Rising, which was 323 00:19:31,640 --> 00:19:36,200 Speaker 1: an armed uprising against British rule in Ireland. Our previous 324 00:19:36,280 --> 00:19:40,800 Speaker 1: episode has more detail on the rising itself. Constance Markovitch 325 00:19:41,040 --> 00:19:44,639 Speaker 1: joined the Irish Citizen Army and acted as a liaison 326 00:19:44,800 --> 00:19:48,040 Speaker 1: officer during the Easter Rising. She also acted as a 327 00:19:48,080 --> 00:19:51,560 Speaker 1: sniper and when she was finally arrested, she famously kissed 328 00:19:51,560 --> 00:19:55,800 Speaker 1: her pistol before surrendering it. Markovitch was one of many 329 00:19:55,840 --> 00:19:58,199 Speaker 1: women who took part in the Easter Rising, but she 330 00:19:58,359 --> 00:20:01,200 Speaker 1: was the only one who was court mark shold. Afterward, 331 00:20:01,400 --> 00:20:03,480 Speaker 1: she was kept in a cell by herself, and while 332 00:20:03,520 --> 00:20:06,560 Speaker 1: she was awaiting sentence, she and all the other prisoners 333 00:20:07,000 --> 00:20:09,680 Speaker 1: could hear the executions of those who had been sentenced 334 00:20:09,720 --> 00:20:13,000 Speaker 1: to death being carried out every morning. In the end, 335 00:20:13,119 --> 00:20:15,600 Speaker 1: she was found guilty and sentenced to death, but her 336 00:20:15,640 --> 00:20:19,040 Speaker 1: sentence was commuted to life in prison with hard labor 337 00:20:19,080 --> 00:20:22,120 Speaker 1: on account of her gender. When she was given the news, 338 00:20:22,240 --> 00:20:27,000 Speaker 1: she said she'd wish they'd had the decency to shoot her. Eventually, 339 00:20:27,119 --> 00:20:29,960 Speaker 1: she was moved to Mountjoy Jail, where she could no 340 00:20:30,000 --> 00:20:34,040 Speaker 1: longer hear her compatriots being executed every morning, and where 341 00:20:34,040 --> 00:20:37,520 Speaker 1: her family could visit her. When her sister brought her 342 00:20:37,560 --> 00:20:39,919 Speaker 1: the news that James Connolly, who was one of the 343 00:20:39,960 --> 00:20:42,640 Speaker 1: most prominent figures in the rising, somebody she had been 344 00:20:42,640 --> 00:20:46,520 Speaker 1: working with for a long time, had been executed, Constance asked, 345 00:20:46,760 --> 00:20:50,480 Speaker 1: why didn't they let me die with my friends. Authorities 346 00:20:50,520 --> 00:20:53,399 Speaker 1: were worried that Constance would develop a following if she 347 00:20:53,480 --> 00:20:56,320 Speaker 1: was kept in a prison in Ireland, so she was 348 00:20:56,359 --> 00:20:58,760 Speaker 1: transferred to a prison in England, where she was placed 349 00:20:58,760 --> 00:21:02,120 Speaker 1: in the General Prison pop Relation. She and the other 350 00:21:02,160 --> 00:21:06,000 Speaker 1: incarcerated women were housed in squalor, only allowed to write 351 00:21:06,040 --> 00:21:08,639 Speaker 1: one letter a month, and fed barely enough to keep 352 00:21:08,720 --> 00:21:14,440 Speaker 1: them alive. While in prison, she converted to Catholicism. Most 353 00:21:14,440 --> 00:21:17,520 Speaker 1: of the surviving participants in the Easter Rising were released 354 00:21:17,520 --> 00:21:20,879 Speaker 1: from prison in the spring of nineteen seventeen. Constance was 355 00:21:20,960 --> 00:21:24,199 Speaker 1: released on June eighteenth of that year. She returned to 356 00:21:24,359 --> 00:21:27,920 Speaker 1: Dublin to a hero's welcome and was formally received into 357 00:21:27,960 --> 00:21:31,160 Speaker 1: the Catholic Church a week later, though she was being 358 00:21:31,160 --> 00:21:34,720 Speaker 1: treated as a celebrity. Markovic picked right up where she 359 00:21:34,760 --> 00:21:38,440 Speaker 1: had left off. She continued to be involved in numerous organizations, 360 00:21:38,480 --> 00:21:42,320 Speaker 1: including being president of kumin Aman, chief scout of the Fiena, 361 00:21:42,680 --> 00:21:45,760 Speaker 1: a major of the Irish Citizen Army, on and on. 362 00:21:46,920 --> 00:21:50,199 Speaker 1: She was also elected to the Shenfean Executive Council and 363 00:21:50,320 --> 00:21:53,880 Speaker 1: soon she and other members were back in prison, partly 364 00:21:53,920 --> 00:21:57,280 Speaker 1: because of anti conscription activities. Again this was during World 365 00:21:57,320 --> 00:22:00,520 Speaker 1: War One, and partly because the British government just didn't 366 00:22:00,520 --> 00:22:03,080 Speaker 1: think it was possible to both fight World War One 367 00:22:03,240 --> 00:22:06,800 Speaker 1: and fight Irish nationalists at the same time, so they 368 00:22:06,840 --> 00:22:10,320 Speaker 1: imprisoned all the movements leaders. This time, though she was 369 00:22:10,359 --> 00:22:12,960 Speaker 1: treated as a political prisoner rather than being in the 370 00:22:13,000 --> 00:22:17,159 Speaker 1: general prison population. A general election was called in the 371 00:22:17,240 --> 00:22:20,400 Speaker 1: United Kingdom immediately after the end of World War One. 372 00:22:21,040 --> 00:22:25,200 Speaker 1: It was held on December fourteenth, nineteen eighteen. Shin Fayn 373 00:22:25,440 --> 00:22:28,760 Speaker 1: ran Constance Markovic as its candidate for the St Patrick 374 00:22:28,840 --> 00:22:32,720 Speaker 1: division of Dublin. She won by a wide margin, defeating 375 00:22:32,760 --> 00:22:35,840 Speaker 1: an incumbent of twenty six years and becoming the first 376 00:22:35,840 --> 00:22:39,040 Speaker 1: woman to be elected as a member of Parliament. She 377 00:22:39,240 --> 00:22:42,800 Speaker 1: was at the time in prison. In spite of half 378 00:22:42,880 --> 00:22:46,480 Speaker 1: of its candidates being incarcerated at the time, seventy three 379 00:22:46,560 --> 00:22:50,000 Speaker 1: members of shin Fain were elected in nineteen eighteen. They 380 00:22:50,080 --> 00:22:54,200 Speaker 1: defeated candidates from the Irish Parliamentary Party in almost all 381 00:22:54,240 --> 00:22:58,080 Speaker 1: of Ireland. This was a huge upset. Those who were free, 382 00:22:58,880 --> 00:23:01,800 Speaker 1: which was a portion of them were not in prison 383 00:23:01,840 --> 00:23:05,160 Speaker 1: at the time, didn't take their their seats in Westminster, 384 00:23:05,320 --> 00:23:09,359 Speaker 1: though in Parliament convened. Instead, they formed the First Doyle, 385 00:23:09,560 --> 00:23:13,560 Speaker 1: which was basically a parliament for the Irish Republic. Amon 386 00:23:13,640 --> 00:23:16,360 Speaker 1: de Valera, who had been a leader in the Easter Rising, 387 00:23:16,520 --> 00:23:19,720 Speaker 1: had been spared execution because he was an American citizen, 388 00:23:20,080 --> 00:23:23,640 Speaker 1: meaning that he wasn't guilty of treason. He was elected 389 00:23:23,680 --> 00:23:26,159 Speaker 1: president of the Doyle and he made Markovic, who is 390 00:23:26,160 --> 00:23:30,000 Speaker 1: still in prison, his Minister of Labor. She was finally 391 00:23:30,040 --> 00:23:33,560 Speaker 1: released from prison in March of nineteen nineteen. She and 392 00:23:34,520 --> 00:23:37,080 Speaker 1: the other She and the other members of the movement 393 00:23:37,119 --> 00:23:40,359 Speaker 1: who were imprisoned were basically released out of the fear 394 00:23:40,400 --> 00:23:44,280 Speaker 1: of the ongoing flu pandemic. Officials were worried that if 395 00:23:44,320 --> 00:23:47,479 Speaker 1: they contracted influenza and died in prison, they would all 396 00:23:47,520 --> 00:23:51,760 Speaker 1: become martyrs. By this point, guerrilla warfare had been underway 397 00:23:51,800 --> 00:23:54,920 Speaker 1: for months and what became known as the Irish War 398 00:23:54,960 --> 00:23:58,960 Speaker 1: of Independence or the Anglo Irish War. As Minister of 399 00:23:59,040 --> 00:24:03,399 Speaker 1: Labor cons since kept strict security procedures, instituted a labor 400 00:24:03,440 --> 00:24:07,159 Speaker 1: court to resolve disputes, and basically tried to mediate between 401 00:24:07,200 --> 00:24:10,640 Speaker 1: Shinfane and the Labor Party. Her Department of Labor worked 402 00:24:10,640 --> 00:24:12,560 Speaker 1: out of a building that claimed to be an apartment 403 00:24:12,640 --> 00:24:17,080 Speaker 1: leasing office and also contained several pianos, so people working 404 00:24:17,080 --> 00:24:20,080 Speaker 1: there could pretend to be giving piano lessons if there 405 00:24:20,160 --> 00:24:23,840 Speaker 1: was a police raid, does make it super clear what 406 00:24:23,920 --> 00:24:29,159 Speaker 1: was going on. Uh. Rather than joining the rest of 407 00:24:29,160 --> 00:24:32,880 Speaker 1: the members of Parliament and the regular British Parliament, they 408 00:24:32,880 --> 00:24:35,480 Speaker 1: had founded their own parliament, which they were having to 409 00:24:35,520 --> 00:24:38,639 Speaker 1: operate in secret because it wasn't actually legal for them 410 00:24:38,680 --> 00:24:41,480 Speaker 1: to be doing it, and at some points various members 411 00:24:41,520 --> 00:24:44,040 Speaker 1: of that parliament were doing so from prison. I find 412 00:24:44,080 --> 00:24:49,959 Speaker 1: this whole thing fascinating. So Conserence was arrested again in 413 00:24:50,000 --> 00:24:54,040 Speaker 1: October of nineteen nineteen. During all of this, by that point, 414 00:24:54,119 --> 00:24:56,960 Speaker 1: the Doyle and most of the organizations that she was 415 00:24:57,000 --> 00:25:00,399 Speaker 1: involved with had all been outlawed after her. At least, 416 00:25:00,400 --> 00:25:03,240 Speaker 1: she managed to run the Department of Labor while in 417 00:25:03,400 --> 00:25:07,080 Speaker 1: hiding for several months before being arrested once again in 418 00:25:07,119 --> 00:25:09,760 Speaker 1: September of nineteen twenty when the car that she was 419 00:25:09,880 --> 00:25:13,000 Speaker 1: riding in was pulled over by police. This time, while 420 00:25:13,000 --> 00:25:16,879 Speaker 1: in prison, she learned to speak Irish. This is that 421 00:25:17,000 --> 00:25:19,959 Speaker 1: moment I've had several but it's that moment when I 422 00:25:20,000 --> 00:25:23,520 Speaker 1: was looking over this earlier where I'm like, she was 423 00:25:24,080 --> 00:25:28,960 Speaker 1: born a rich, spoiled girl. Yes, we're gonna talk about 424 00:25:29,000 --> 00:25:31,240 Speaker 1: that a little bit more at the end. Yeah, it's 425 00:25:31,280 --> 00:25:33,840 Speaker 1: just it's one of those times where you particularly these 426 00:25:33,880 --> 00:25:36,720 Speaker 1: times in prison that clearly were very transformative for her. 427 00:25:37,320 --> 00:25:40,200 Speaker 1: I'm always like, this is so far removed from probably 428 00:25:40,200 --> 00:25:42,720 Speaker 1: what anyone who knew her as a child thought her 429 00:25:42,800 --> 00:25:46,800 Speaker 1: life path would be. Throughout all of this violence was 430 00:25:46,840 --> 00:25:50,280 Speaker 1: going on in Ireland, including another Bloody Sunday, this one 431 00:25:50,280 --> 00:25:54,520 Speaker 1: on November twenty one, which started with the assassination of 432 00:25:54,560 --> 00:25:58,320 Speaker 1: several British intelligence officers in Dublin and ended with the 433 00:25:58,400 --> 00:26:02,920 Speaker 1: Royal Irish Constabulary British Auxiliary Division police killing at least 434 00:26:02,920 --> 00:26:08,480 Speaker 1: thirteen spectators during a Gaelic football match. On December twenty nine, 435 00:26:09,200 --> 00:26:12,840 Speaker 1: Parliament passed the Government of Ireland Acts that attempted to 436 00:26:12,960 --> 00:26:17,320 Speaker 1: partition Ireland into Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland, with two 437 00:26:17,359 --> 00:26:21,240 Speaker 1: separate parliaments that each had two different home rule jurisdictions, 438 00:26:21,840 --> 00:26:24,920 Speaker 1: but because of this ongoing violence and the Irish War 439 00:26:24,920 --> 00:26:28,240 Speaker 1: of Independence, this never really went into effect in the 440 00:26:28,280 --> 00:26:32,480 Speaker 1: southern part of Ireland. Instead, just under a year later, 441 00:26:32,600 --> 00:26:36,520 Speaker 1: after lengthy negotiations, representatives of the British Government and of 442 00:26:36,560 --> 00:26:41,600 Speaker 1: the Irish Republic signed the Anglo Irish Treaty, which established 443 00:26:41,680 --> 00:26:45,680 Speaker 1: what had formally been designated as Southern Ireland as the 444 00:26:45,760 --> 00:26:51,320 Speaker 1: Irish Free State Constance. Markovic, Aimon de Valera and many 445 00:26:51,359 --> 00:26:55,240 Speaker 1: other Irish nationalists did not agree with this treaty. They 446 00:26:55,280 --> 00:26:59,200 Speaker 1: wanted Ireland to be its own self governing republic, but 447 00:26:59,280 --> 00:27:02,159 Speaker 1: the Anglo Irish Treaty set up an Irish free state 448 00:27:02,280 --> 00:27:06,040 Speaker 1: within the British Empire. Members of the Free States Parliament 449 00:27:06,040 --> 00:27:08,560 Speaker 1: were also required to take an oath of allegiance to 450 00:27:08,600 --> 00:27:13,440 Speaker 1: the Crown, which its most nationalist members, including Markovitch, refused 451 00:27:13,520 --> 00:27:17,520 Speaker 1: to do. There was a walkout of like this. The 452 00:27:17,800 --> 00:27:21,359 Speaker 1: treaty was ultimately passed on the Irish side by a 453 00:27:21,480 --> 00:27:24,760 Speaker 1: kind of narrow majority, and there was a mass walkout 454 00:27:24,840 --> 00:27:27,040 Speaker 1: of the people who didn't agree with it after it 455 00:27:27,080 --> 00:27:31,680 Speaker 1: had been signed. Markovitch left Ireland for a time after 456 00:27:31,720 --> 00:27:34,280 Speaker 1: the signing of the Anglo Irish Treaty. She traveled both 457 00:27:34,320 --> 00:27:37,040 Speaker 1: to Paris and then to the United States, and there 458 00:27:37,040 --> 00:27:41,119 Speaker 1: she went on a lecture tour to support total Irish independence. 459 00:27:41,600 --> 00:27:44,800 Speaker 1: When she got home, she found that Ireland once again 460 00:27:45,040 --> 00:27:48,520 Speaker 1: was being struck by violence, now in the Irish Civil War, 461 00:27:48,920 --> 00:27:53,159 Speaker 1: which was between Irish Republicans and Irish nationalists. These are 462 00:27:53,200 --> 00:27:55,679 Speaker 1: people that had previously been mostly on the same side, 463 00:27:56,400 --> 00:28:00,760 Speaker 1: now against one another. Markovitch, who was now fifty four, 464 00:28:00,960 --> 00:28:04,439 Speaker 1: joined the nationalist cause once again, taking up arms as 465 00:28:04,480 --> 00:28:09,199 Speaker 1: a sniper. In ninety three, she was arrested and imprisoned again. 466 00:28:10,119 --> 00:28:13,080 Speaker 1: Many of the Irish nationalists imprisoned at the time had 467 00:28:13,080 --> 00:28:16,199 Speaker 1: started a hunger strike, which Markovitch joined as soon as 468 00:28:16,240 --> 00:28:20,240 Speaker 1: she was incarcerated. She fasted for three days, at which 469 00:28:20,280 --> 00:28:22,560 Speaker 1: point the strike was called off because of the death 470 00:28:22,600 --> 00:28:25,600 Speaker 1: of one of the participants. She was released from her 471 00:28:25,640 --> 00:28:31,520 Speaker 1: final incarceration on Christmas Eve nine. Out of prison, Constance 472 00:28:31,560 --> 00:28:35,440 Speaker 1: Markovitch was really disappointed in what Ireland had become. She 473 00:28:35,680 --> 00:28:39,160 Speaker 1: had envisioned a free Ireland that would be a radical 474 00:28:39,320 --> 00:28:43,560 Speaker 1: workers democracy, and instead they add this Irish free state 475 00:28:43,640 --> 00:28:46,480 Speaker 1: that was still part of the British Empire, even to 476 00:28:46,520 --> 00:28:48,560 Speaker 1: the point of having to have an oath of allegiance 477 00:28:48,600 --> 00:28:50,320 Speaker 1: to the Crown if you were going to be a 478 00:28:50,360 --> 00:28:54,160 Speaker 1: member of its parliament. She was also disappointed that a 479 00:28:54,200 --> 00:28:57,200 Speaker 1: lot of the social hierarchies were in place now as 480 00:28:57,240 --> 00:29:01,040 Speaker 1: had been before. She started turning her attention to local 481 00:29:01,080 --> 00:29:04,640 Speaker 1: politics and service, including working with the Wrath Minds Urban 482 00:29:04,640 --> 00:29:07,960 Speaker 1: Council to build wash houses and public baths to serve 483 00:29:08,000 --> 00:29:11,200 Speaker 1: the four hundred thousand residents who did not have running 484 00:29:11,200 --> 00:29:14,680 Speaker 1: water in their homes. In ninety six, she joined Phiena Foil, 485 00:29:14,840 --> 00:29:18,200 Speaker 1: the newly established Irish Republican Party, which had split off 486 00:29:18,240 --> 00:29:21,680 Speaker 1: from shin Fain. She continued to be politically active for 487 00:29:21,680 --> 00:29:24,400 Speaker 1: the rest of her life. She died in Dublin on 488 00:29:24,480 --> 00:29:28,120 Speaker 1: July fifteenth, nine seven, not long after she had had 489 00:29:28,160 --> 00:29:32,560 Speaker 1: an appendectomy. Casimir and Stanislaus were both with her when 490 00:29:32,560 --> 00:29:35,320 Speaker 1: she died, although at that point she was estranged from 491 00:29:35,360 --> 00:29:38,800 Speaker 1: her daughter Mayeve. Her sister Ava died the year before, 492 00:29:38,960 --> 00:29:41,440 Speaker 1: having spent most of her life dedicated to social and 493 00:29:41,480 --> 00:29:45,520 Speaker 1: political issues, working with her lifelong partner Esther Roper, who 494 00:29:45,600 --> 00:29:49,400 Speaker 1: she had been with since eighteen ninety six. Constance's funeral 495 00:29:49,520 --> 00:29:52,440 Speaker 1: was attended by thousands of people, with a procession that 496 00:29:52,520 --> 00:29:58,200 Speaker 1: took hours to pass. After her death and really before. Frankly, 497 00:29:58,560 --> 00:30:01,360 Speaker 1: people had a lot of disparaiting comments to make about 498 00:30:01,880 --> 00:30:06,240 Speaker 1: Constance Markovitch. Playwright Sean O'Casey, who was in the Irish 499 00:30:06,280 --> 00:30:09,720 Speaker 1: Citizen Army with her, called her a quote Catherine Wheel 500 00:30:09,880 --> 00:30:15,360 Speaker 1: of irresponsibility. Judge William Evelyn Wiley, who was present at 501 00:30:15,360 --> 00:30:18,120 Speaker 1: her court martial, later on wrote of it, saying that 502 00:30:18,160 --> 00:30:21,000 Speaker 1: she had curled up completely and cried a lot and 503 00:30:21,040 --> 00:30:23,360 Speaker 1: said things like I'm only a woman and you cannot 504 00:30:23,360 --> 00:30:27,760 Speaker 1: shoot a woman, basically moaning the whole time. Official court 505 00:30:27,800 --> 00:30:30,840 Speaker 1: records say the opposite. They say that she actually stood 506 00:30:30,880 --> 00:30:34,280 Speaker 1: up to the court. In her account, she said in 507 00:30:34,400 --> 00:30:37,360 Speaker 1: court that she had fought for Ireland's independence during Easter 508 00:30:37,480 --> 00:30:39,800 Speaker 1: Week and was as ready to die for it now 509 00:30:39,920 --> 00:30:44,680 Speaker 1: as she had been then. Her correspondence during her incarcerations, 510 00:30:44,760 --> 00:30:48,280 Speaker 1: which were I mean this correspondence was consistently steadfast and 511 00:30:48,320 --> 00:30:52,200 Speaker 1: resolute and sometimes even optimistic, also suggests that like a 512 00:30:52,320 --> 00:30:55,200 Speaker 1: teary breakdown and a bunch of moaning in court would 513 00:30:55,200 --> 00:30:58,920 Speaker 1: have been completely out of character for her. Basically, in 514 00:30:58,960 --> 00:31:01,720 Speaker 1: the years after her she was criticized as being a 515 00:31:01,840 --> 00:31:04,120 Speaker 1: rich dilettante who was just doing all of this work 516 00:31:04,160 --> 00:31:08,720 Speaker 1: for attention. There are, of course, some very legitimate conversations 517 00:31:08,760 --> 00:31:11,200 Speaker 1: to be had about her work, like whether it is 518 00:31:11,280 --> 00:31:13,920 Speaker 1: right to arm young boys and indoctrinate them as a 519 00:31:13,960 --> 00:31:18,800 Speaker 1: separatist paramilitary unit, or whether her unyielding insistence on total 520 00:31:18,880 --> 00:31:23,160 Speaker 1: independence for Ireland was ultimately divisive. I was not what 521 00:31:23,240 --> 00:31:27,440 Speaker 1: a lot of the criticism was about, though it was about, uh, 522 00:31:27,520 --> 00:31:29,840 Speaker 1: but what she wore, that she had in my nice 523 00:31:29,920 --> 00:31:32,760 Speaker 1: uniform made for herself, that she had a portrait made 524 00:31:32,760 --> 00:31:35,320 Speaker 1: of herself with her gun. Like. People made a big 525 00:31:35,360 --> 00:31:37,640 Speaker 1: deal out of things that she was wearing and the 526 00:31:37,680 --> 00:31:39,720 Speaker 1: way that she talked, and the fact that she had 527 00:31:39,760 --> 00:31:44,800 Speaker 1: come from rich affluence. Uh. And the whole only doing 528 00:31:44,840 --> 00:31:47,880 Speaker 1: it for attention claim, I think is one that you 529 00:31:47,960 --> 00:31:52,240 Speaker 1: mainly hear about women and children. Uh, and also doesn't 530 00:31:52,240 --> 00:31:57,200 Speaker 1: really jive with having gone to prison repeatedly and been 531 00:31:57,200 --> 00:32:00,959 Speaker 1: on hunger strikes and done hard labor. Like none of 532 00:32:01,000 --> 00:32:04,040 Speaker 1: that really adds up to, oh, just doing it for attention, 533 00:32:04,240 --> 00:32:11,400 Speaker 1: which is gendered and dismissive comments make in the first place. Uh. 534 00:32:11,520 --> 00:32:16,120 Speaker 1: Some of the criticisms along those lines have softened in 535 00:32:16,240 --> 00:32:19,120 Speaker 1: the decades since her death, and a portrait of her 536 00:32:19,280 --> 00:32:21,520 Speaker 1: was presented to the Speaker of the House of Commons 537 00:32:21,520 --> 00:32:25,440 Speaker 1: on February. At least it was announced that was going 538 00:32:25,480 --> 00:32:28,440 Speaker 1: to happen. I did not find an article saying that, yes, 539 00:32:28,480 --> 00:32:32,280 Speaker 1: it actually did. Um. It was part The presentation of 540 00:32:32,320 --> 00:32:35,800 Speaker 1: that portrait was part of the year long celebration of 541 00:32:35,840 --> 00:32:39,480 Speaker 1: the Representation of the People Act of nineteen eighteen, which 542 00:32:39,640 --> 00:32:42,640 Speaker 1: became law on February sixth of that year and gave 543 00:32:43,120 --> 00:32:46,120 Speaker 1: um all men over twenty one and all women property 544 00:32:46,120 --> 00:32:49,160 Speaker 1: owners over the edge of thirty the right to vote. 545 00:32:49,280 --> 00:32:53,640 Speaker 1: So it was part of a suffrage celebration. Do you 546 00:32:53,680 --> 00:32:57,880 Speaker 1: have a listener mail for us? I knew I have 547 00:32:58,040 --> 00:33:01,000 Speaker 1: listener mail that came from a parcel because I had 548 00:33:01,360 --> 00:33:04,880 Speaker 1: the uh, the opportunity to be the one opening the 549 00:33:05,000 --> 00:33:09,600 Speaker 1: mail recently, which doesn't happen all that often. It's from Angela, 550 00:33:09,680 --> 00:33:11,640 Speaker 1: and it's a long letter, so I'm not going to 551 00:33:11,680 --> 00:33:14,280 Speaker 1: read all of it. But Angela starts by saying, first 552 00:33:14,280 --> 00:33:15,840 Speaker 1: of all, thank you so much for all the work 553 00:33:15,840 --> 00:33:17,760 Speaker 1: you do. I have so much fun listening to all 554 00:33:17,760 --> 00:33:19,760 Speaker 1: the gems of information that you share with us on 555 00:33:19,760 --> 00:33:22,320 Speaker 1: the podcast. I feel like a long time listener, even 556 00:33:22,360 --> 00:33:26,239 Speaker 1: though I've only been listening for about six months. And 557 00:33:26,280 --> 00:33:28,400 Speaker 1: then she goes on to talk about where she works 558 00:33:28,520 --> 00:33:33,040 Speaker 1: and why she sent us delicious grandola. Thank you for 559 00:33:33,160 --> 00:33:38,560 Speaker 1: the delicious grandola. Fortunately I was able to get the 560 00:33:38,560 --> 00:33:45,520 Speaker 1: granola through airport security. Uh, there was a granola bag search. 561 00:33:46,240 --> 00:33:48,800 Speaker 1: Angela goes on to say that she has been listening 562 00:33:48,840 --> 00:33:50,880 Speaker 1: to all of the podcasts in order, which is a 563 00:33:50,880 --> 00:33:53,640 Speaker 1: feat and I salute you. She's currently at the end 564 00:33:53,640 --> 00:33:56,840 Speaker 1: of and she sent a few thoughts about the prior 565 00:33:56,880 --> 00:34:00,640 Speaker 1: episodes on Cokia and on the Ghost Army, and then 566 00:34:00,680 --> 00:34:02,240 Speaker 1: went on to say, I would also like to take 567 00:34:02,240 --> 00:34:04,640 Speaker 1: a moment to thank you for the episodes on Frankie 568 00:34:04,680 --> 00:34:07,120 Speaker 1: Manning and the Lyndy Hoppers. I've been part of a 569 00:34:07,160 --> 00:34:09,640 Speaker 1: ballroom dance world for the last six or seven years, 570 00:34:09,640 --> 00:34:11,880 Speaker 1: so hearing about the history of dances in that sphere 571 00:34:11,960 --> 00:34:14,640 Speaker 1: was amazing. You would think that after spending that much 572 00:34:14,680 --> 00:34:17,800 Speaker 1: time enjoying East Coast swing with various other styles of dance, 573 00:34:17,800 --> 00:34:20,200 Speaker 1: that I would have at least learned about the origins 574 00:34:20,200 --> 00:34:23,279 Speaker 1: of swing being an African American culture, But no, I 575 00:34:23,280 --> 00:34:25,719 Speaker 1: feel ashamed to admit that until that point I had 576 00:34:25,719 --> 00:34:28,560 Speaker 1: always associated big band music and swing dance with Fred 577 00:34:28,560 --> 00:34:32,000 Speaker 1: Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Thank you for enlightening me to 578 00:34:32,120 --> 00:34:34,440 Speaker 1: something that I not only missed in history class, but 579 00:34:34,600 --> 00:34:39,200 Speaker 1: in dance class as well. She talks a bit more 580 00:34:39,440 --> 00:34:42,799 Speaker 1: and concludes, thank you again for all the hard work 581 00:34:42,800 --> 00:34:45,319 Speaker 1: you put introducing the podcast. You really make history come 582 00:34:45,320 --> 00:34:48,520 Speaker 1: alive in such an enjoyable way. The broad spectrum of 583 00:34:48,560 --> 00:34:50,880 Speaker 1: subjects you cover our mind blowing and I love it. 584 00:34:51,280 --> 00:34:53,600 Speaker 1: In fact, a couple of weeks ago, I found out 585 00:34:53,640 --> 00:34:57,280 Speaker 1: that my grandfather is a great grand student of Franz 586 00:34:57,360 --> 00:35:00,360 Speaker 1: List and the only reason I knew that was because 587 00:35:00,360 --> 00:35:03,160 Speaker 1: of your show. This letter ended up being longer than 588 00:35:03,200 --> 00:35:05,520 Speaker 1: I intended, but I just love you, ladies and everything 589 00:35:05,560 --> 00:35:08,959 Speaker 1: you do. Keep it up, cheers, Angela. Thank you so much, 590 00:35:09,680 --> 00:35:15,400 Speaker 1: Angela uh for this I um. I admire the fortitude 591 00:35:15,400 --> 00:35:17,319 Speaker 1: of people who were listening to the entire show all 592 00:35:17,320 --> 00:35:19,640 Speaker 1: the way through the archive, and I also loved it. 593 00:35:19,680 --> 00:35:22,480 Speaker 1: Sometimes it gives us a chance to revisit old episodes 594 00:35:22,600 --> 00:35:27,640 Speaker 1: in listener mail. And also thank you again for the granola. Uh. 595 00:35:27,840 --> 00:35:30,880 Speaker 1: I love granola. If you would like to write to 596 00:35:30,920 --> 00:35:33,440 Speaker 1: us about this or any other podcast where History podcasts 597 00:35:33,440 --> 00:35:35,880 Speaker 1: at how staff works dot com. Our social media is 598 00:35:35,920 --> 00:35:38,000 Speaker 1: also missed in history, and that is at Facebook and 599 00:35:38,040 --> 00:35:41,160 Speaker 1: Twitter and Pinterest and Instagram. You can come to our 600 00:35:41,200 --> 00:35:43,440 Speaker 1: website which is missed in history dot com and you 601 00:35:43,440 --> 00:35:45,960 Speaker 1: will find a searchable archive of every episode we have 602 00:35:46,040 --> 00:35:48,520 Speaker 1: ever done, and show notes for all the oppisodes that 603 00:35:48,640 --> 00:35:51,080 Speaker 1: Holly and I have ever done, and you can subscribe 604 00:35:51,080 --> 00:35:55,040 Speaker 1: to our show on Apple podcasts, Google Play, and wherever 605 00:35:55,080 --> 00:36:03,400 Speaker 1: else you listen to podcasts. For more on this and 606 00:36:03,440 --> 00:36:14,480 Speaker 1: thousands of other topics, visit how stuff Works dot com