In the summer of 1906 Constance rented a summer house below the famous Inn, Lamb Doyle’s, near the village of Ballally,. It was a low double white washed cottage consisting of two rooms, rented at a shilling a year. This was her retreat where she could paint, roam about in solitude, live on milk, bread and eggs, and let her step-son Stanislas run wild amongst the rocks and icy streams. The poet Pauric Colum had lived in the cottage and it was here that Constance came upon a pile of old numbers of The Peasant and "Sinn Fein". The story goes that having read these papers… "The lightening struck at last…she read about the death of Robert Emmet, whose face was familiar from prints on cottage walls, but whose doomed insurrection, arrest and execution were not; she read about the other patriots and heroes of the submerged Ireland she barely knew. In a flash she decided to join up…" Shortly afterwards she encountered Arthur Griffith at AE’s house one Sunday night. In her own words she states… "I told him quite frankly that I had only just realised that there were men in Ireland whose principles did not allow them to take an oath of allegiance to the foreign King, whose powers they were pledged to overthrow." Arthur Griffith advised her to join the Gaelic League. About this time Constance had become discouraged in her professional painting ambitions. Despite this she never ceased to draw or sketch right up to the year of her death, as her later sketches of Eamon de Valera and Lady Gregory at meetings of the Abbey Theatre show. Sean O’Casey was later to accuse her, unjustly, of turning to politics because she tired of painting. By this time Casimir was developing a new interest in theatricals and the theatre was eventually to replace painting as his passion. Constance took part in the theatre, playing a small part in the revival of AE’s Deirdre in Christmas 1906. Constance began to immerse herself in Irish history. There is uncertainty as to the progression of events. Constance was invited to a meeting of Daughters of Eireann" in 1908 arranged to discuss a proposed magazine "Bean Na h’Eireann". The Daughters of Eireann had been founded by Maud Gonne on Easter Sunday 1900. It was thus to a meeting of the daughters on a rainy night in February ,1908 that the new recruit swept into the room in full evening dress with a short train, furs around her shoulders, diamonds in her hair - apparently straight from Dublin Castle. There was immediate suspicion as to whether or not Ten days later Her presence at a Sinn Fein assembly put always a shrewd and perceptive observer, states that she changed greatly after she entered Nationalist politics. She ceased to be restless and at random; she became the single minded and dedicated women of her real maturity. Bulmer Hobson He arranged for W. B. Yeats records a meeting with Constance in 1908 and having..."argued with that steam whistle for an hour". By 1908 her sister Eva had been living and working in Manchester for eleven years. With Esther Roper and a miss Reddish, she wase primarily concerned with organising women textile workers, and improving their conditions and wages. They also worked intensively for women’s suffrage. Eva had for a time been on the Manchester education committee and had become a Joint secretary of the Women’s Trade Union Council. In 1908 Constance journeyed to Manchester to assist in fighting for the rights of barmaids, and to object to the new Licensing Bill. The bye election was marked by suffragette demonstrations, and was fought by Winston Churchill and William Joynson-Hix. The Lancashire and Cheshire Women’s Textile Worker’s Representation Committee (of which Eva and Esther were secretaries) took a deputation of women to Winston Churchill to ask him to persuade the Government to withdraw the barmaid clause in the Bill. He refused. Eva and Esther therefore decided to bring their forces into play to oppose him both in the interest of barmaids and woman’s suffrage. Constance, besides canvassing and making speeches, is remembered best in this bye election because she drove a coach and four down a street in the middle of a large election crowd. When challenged by a man in the crowd with the words "can you cook a dinner?" she shouted back "Yes, can you drive a coach and four?" Churchill lost the bye election, after which Constance returned to her activities in Dublin. She travelled down to Lissadell for Christmas 1908, with Casimir. Her brother Josslyn had married Mary L’Estrange Malone the previous year. Quite how the family viewed her interest in politics at that time is unclear, but it cannot have found universal approval. Since the marriage of Sir Josslyn, his mother had moved to Ardeevin, accompanied by Maeve. Maeve never enjoyed a particularly close relationship with her mother as is clear from the correspondence. Her upbringing was undertaken by her grandmother and her uncle, her ‘dear Joss’. During this time Casimir painted the famous murals on the dining room pilasters in Lissadell: Kilgallon the renowned butler; Campbell the forester, and Woods the game-keeper: there is also a very large self portrait and representation of his brother in law Mordaunt. The servants were to have been joined by the cook, who in shyness refused to participate and thus has lost out to posterity. At the instigation of Bulmer Hobson Constance was chosen as the Drumcondra delegate to the 1909 annual Sinn Fein Convention, where she was elected to the Resident Executive Council by twenty-four votes. Mordaunt painted on a dining room pilaster in Lissadell in 1908. The strains in the marriage of Constance and Casimir were becoming increasingly apparent. Constance had distanced herself from "Castle" society, and Casimir was no longer commissioned to paint for the haute monde. Casimir began to lead a more independent life, interspersed with trips for long periods to Paris and Ukraine. Earlier in March of that year Constance had read a newspaper account of how the Viceroy had formed the number of Boys Brigades and Boy Scout Troops which had been reviewed at Clontarf and addressed by the Lord Lieutenant. Constance was incensed. She wrote in the Fianna Magazine… "Surely nothing sadder could be seen than the sons of men who had thrown in their lot with the Fenians, whose forebears had been out in ’48, suffered with Emmet, taken the word of command from Tone, cheered when Sarsfield or Owen Roe O’Neill led them to victory – nothing could be sadder than to see these boys saluting the flag that flew in triumph over every defeat their Nation has known and from that day it was planted in their Country and stood for murder, pillage, injustice and treachery…" Constance proposed to follow Bulmer Hobson’s example in Belfast and establish Na Fianna Eireann. "To weld the youth of Ireland together to work and fight for Ireland…an organisation that would be broad enough through love of Country to include all workers for Ireland in whatever camp they might be…All that will count in the end is their willingness to undertake a life of self-sacrifice and self-denial for their Country’s sake." Padraic Pearse suggested that these boys should be trained to work for an Ireland "not free merely, but Gaelic as well, not Gaelic merely but free as well." She sought to have a proposal endorsed by Griffith who was lukewarm. Constance fully intended her boys to be taught to fight for Ireland, whereas Griffith was completely opposed then to physical force. Constance asked for provision for a rebel boy scout organisation to be included in the Sinn Fein programme but was… "gently but firmly turned down". At every Sinn Fein meeting where she spoke over the next few months she sought support for her idea. Little was forthcoming. She and Helena Moloney had many discussions as to the means of making the dream a reality. Constance had the inspiration of finding a sympathetic school master and ultimately convinced a Mr O’Neill, a nationalist teacher at St. Andrews National School in Brunswick Street, who agreed to hand over eight pupils to Constance. Constance with members of Na Fianna.They later fought for Ireland inthe 1916 Rising.She was devastated when one recruit,Liam Mellowes,was killed in the Civil War. At first she saw the scheme in terms of small troops based on the Baden-Powell boys scouts. The first eight boys were invited to St. Mary’s. The troop was christened, "The Red Branch Knights". She endeavoured to teach the boys signalling, drill scouting and other lore (assisted by Helena Moloney, Dr MacCartin and Sean MacGarry), which bewildered the young Dubliners. Casimir referred to her boys as being the "sprouts", or on other occasions "The little devil-sprouts" whom he accused of drinking his whiskey. Her next inspiration was to have a camp. The first Fianna camp has been described by Constance in the Christmas edition of the Fianna magazine of 1914 as follows… "When we left the road for a rough boreen we felt we had almost arrived and started gaily up the rugged way. We lifted the wheels over big stones and pulled them through narrow ruts, helping and easing the gallant little pony in its struggles; sustained by the thought of the cool little stream and the soft green sward so far up the hill. We dawdled over a most delicious tea and dragging out poetry books and sketching things we lazily drowsed away the evening. Twilight rose us to the necessity of fixing up things for the night. We started to pitch our tents on a glassy slope, where the hills slide down to the stream. It took a long, long time. Tents are very hard to pitch if you don’t know how, especially at night. At last everything had found a place, the boys were comfortably settled and we turned in and drifted into dream land. We woke very early to find a bright pleasant morning with a cheerful sun shining through the flaps of the tent. Early as we were the boys were still earlier, and one was already improving his mind with Yeat’s poems. The others were mostly blackening their boots, and quite ready for breakfast. I didn’t wonder that they looked so fresh when at last I found my soap and towel- a brown dripping rag, wrapped around a sticky mess. It was the only towel in the camp. After breakfast the boys went to mass, we put things straight and settled ourselves snugly to read. Down came the storm, the thunder crashed above us, sharp blades of lightning cut through the rain beside us, menacing our fragile shelter. The boys came rushing up - we had not thought of digging a ditch round the tent which was pitched on the side of a hill. The rain poured right through the fragile wall over the ground sheet. Our snug nest was one soppy sponge. Luckily the rain stopped as suddenly as it began. The sun came out and did its best to dry our things. Constance was determined to progress further, and asked Bulmer Hobson to join her. At his request, the name of the organisation was changed from the "Red Branch Knights" to "Na Fianna Eireann". He became President; joint secretaries were Constance and Padraic O’Riain. Constance secured a hall in Lower Camden Street, and fixed a date for the first meeting. The Committee advertised for any boys "willing to work for the Independence of Ireland". The meeting was well attended. A hitch came when a boy suggested that there was no place for women in a "physical force association", and that Constance and Helena must leave. The Chairman (Bulmer Hobson) intervened and the issue was quelled. Constance discovered that she could avoid the prohibition on firearms use through a clause which allowed a house-holder to use them "inside his own compound". She proceeded to openly train the boys with firearms on the land surrounding her cottage. She purchased rifles with which to drill. She designed a badge, a white six pence sized circle enclosing a green circle and a yellow sun crossed by a sword. A new recruit, Liam Mellowes, was assigned to range the country on his bicycle in a recruitment drive for the Fianna to further progress the Organisation. Constance rented a house at Belcamp Park at Raheny in July 1910. Casimir returned in the autumn (from his travels in Ukraine) to be confronted with Fianna boys foraging locally for milk and hens. He set about undermining the scheme, enlisting help from AE. By the end of October the experiment was over but not without significant financial loss and recrimination. In July 1911 Constance moved into furnished rooms at 15 lower Mount Street, where she lived until 1912, when she took up residence at Surrey House. It was in or about this time that Constance had come under the influence of Jim Larkin, the Labour Leader and of whom Constance wrote… "here was a man who had the brains and the courage to demonstrate by his actions that International Socialism does not stand for the merging of our identity with that of England…but stands for free Nations or National units who on a basis of absolute equality, associate together for the purpose of obtaining and holding for the people nationally and for the nations internationally, a noble civilisation that should be based on national governments by the people and for the people…" On a "scorching" Sunday in October 1910 Constance bicycled into Dublin to add her voice to the crowds welcoming Larkin on his return from prison, where he had served three months for breaking with the English Transport Workers Union, and collecting fees and dues from Cork Dockers for the aid of Dublin Carters, who were affiliated with the Irish Transport Workers Union in Dublin. On arrival she was recognised in the crowd by a friend of hers, a Mr McGowan who invited her onto the lorry where the speakers stood. "Sitting there listening to Larkin I realised that I was in the presence of something that I had never come across before, some great primeval force rather than a man. A tornado, a storm-driven wave, the rush into life of spring, and the blasting breath of autumn, all seemed to emanate from the power that spoke. It seemed as if his personality caught up, assimilated, and threw back to that vast crowd that surrounded him every emotion that swayed them, every pain and joy that they had ever felt made articulate and sanctified. Only the great elemental force that is in all crowds had passed into his nature for ever. Taller than most men, every line of him was in harmony with his personality. Not so much working man as primeval man…a Titan who might have been moulded by Michelangelo or Rodin..." In the summer of 1911 the newly crowned King George V and his wife made a State Visit to Ireland. Various Nationalists Organisations determined to ensure an anti-Royal protest of black flags, and a committee was formed representing all the Nationalist groups. It was through this Committee that Constance first met with Padraic Pearse and Thomas MacDonagh. A handbill was drafted using a small old fashioned printing press owned by the Fianna, calling on the citizens of Dublin to rally in protest against their Corporation, who had proposed a ceremony of welcome, "paying homage to and humbling themselves before a foreign King". The Corporation ceremony was abandoned. Constance produced flag which the Nationalists had captured from the lawns of Leinster House. She had cut the flag in two as it was too large to handle. She endeavoured to light it with matches not realise that bunting does not burn easily. Match after match sputtered out while the flag remained halved but otherwise intact. The police intervened. They simply wanted the flag but the crowd thought they were after Constance. The police seized one end of the flag and began to pull it from her, although it was tied to her waist. The crowd in opposition seized hold of Constance and she fell back into their midst. The charred but intact fragments were cut up and distributed to the crowd at the next meeting at Smithfield. Despite the protests, the King expressed his appreciation in a telegram of thanks to Lord Aberdeen from the Royal Yacht at Holyhead, saying the "Hearty cheers of Irish people" were still ringing in their ears. Constance’s perception was different. "So the King passed – passed through Dublin, through the blood-red laneways that had been built in his honour. Red streamers floated from pole to pole, and red paper flowers danced in the wind, red flags, red draperies, red carpets everywhere. But he passed too, through sad grey slums, where the sorrowful eyes of a dispossessed people huddled together in misery, looked out and wondered; looked at all the splendour and force and saw nothing but red, red through a grey mist…" During the course of the protest Helena Moloney had been arrested. She was released on 6th August 1911. A meeting of welcome was organised at Beresford Place. The Socialist Party of Ireland provided a lorry and Constance was one of the speakers. "We sat in the lorry and faced the quiet, orderly crowds. The dark forms of the police hovered ominously around. Miss Moloney was speaking when the police took exception to something that she said and charged the platform. I stood up from where I was sitting at that table, scribbling notes and a police man, standing in front of the lorry made a grab at my ankles. I shuffled back, another seized me from behind; I suppose that he had climbed up on the lorry from the other side. He picked me up and literally threw me into the arms of a policeman standing on the ground in front, who luckily caught me, so I was not hurt. I was never so taken by surprise in my life, the whole attack was so sudden and unexpected. I only remember one great little Fianna boy, who followed me the whole kicking wildly at the legs of my captures and shouting "Ah, you devils, ah, you brutes"." Constance was found guilty of throwing dust and pebbles at the police, but no sentence was passed. There were other concerns. The storm was gathering. Industrial unrest was becoming commonplace. The storm was gathering. 1913 Lockout On 26th August 1913 at 10 am Jim Larkin called out every motor man employed by the Dublin electric tramway company (owned by William Martin Murphy, who also owned the Irish Independent). The motor men simply stepped from their trams, wherever they found themselves, pinned up the badge of their Union – The Red Hand, and then either stood by to watch results or trooped off for further orders. Murphy retaliated by locking out 120 men and boys in his parcel depot: he claimed that he knew these were Larkinites, only waiting for the word to strole. Murphy had the motor men charged with holding up traffic, and dismissed the men on track and pavement work and sent his clerical staff and all his odd workers to man the cars. Larkin retaliated by calling out the fitters and boiler men at Ringsend. Murphy had the powerhouse guarded by police. The strikers howled at them and attacked some cars with stones. That night in Beresford Place Larkin addressed a huge mob that swayed with excitement as they listened and cheered him onto wilder and yet wilder threats: "Carson is arming in the North", he cried. "If he can arm why shouldn’t the Dublin workers arm? Arm yourselves and I’ll arm. You have to face hired assassins. Wherever one of your men is shot- then shoot two of them." Larkin was arrested on 29th August but surprisingly released the same day and was back that night addressing an audience doubled in size. At this meeting he sought to inflame the situation, shouting: "Starve us? Starve us out? If they lock out the Transport Union we will pay no rent. If they lock the Transport Union, then, in Kruger’s words we’ll stagger humanity. Starve us would they? ... Any man who starves when there is food in a shop window is a damn fool". He promised to hold a meeting on the following Sunday in Sackville (now O’Connell) Street. He lifted a sheet bearing the printed words of the Royal Proclamation to which he held a lighted match, declaring: "People make Kings and people unmake them…I care as much for the King as a I do for the magistrate who signed this paper…We have a perfect right to meet in O’Connell Street. We are going to meet in O’Connell Street." Jim Larkin retired surreptitiously to the Markievicz’s home at Surrey House, where he borrowed Casimir’s Saville Row frock- coat and top hat and with the aid of an actor was disguised as a bearded parson. He was driven to the Imperial Hotel (now Clery’s) in O’Connell Street, and led to a room which had been booked in advance. He went to the balcony and began to address a waiting crowd. The police, on maximum alert, arrested him and he was soon back in jail. Employers acted on a pledge to employ no member of the hated union, and firm by firm shut down its works until by mid September 1913 some 15,000 men were idle. For the employees already living close to or below the breadline the effect was starvation. AE in an open letter wrote lashing the employers and politicians… "You determined deliberately in cold anger, to starve out one third of the population of this city, to break the manhood of the men by the sight of the suffering of their wives and the hunger of their children. We read in the dark ages of the rack and the thumb screw. But these iniquities were hidden and concealed from the knowledge of men in dungeons and torture chambers…it remained for the 20th Century and the capital city of Ireland to see an oligarchy of four hundred masters deciding openly upon starving one hundred thousand people and refusing to consider any solution that fixed by their pride. You, Masters asked men to do that which Masters of labour in any other city in these islands had not dared to do. You insolently demanded of these men, who are members of a Trade Union that they should resign from that Union; and from those who were not members, you insisted on a vow that they would never join it. Your insolence and ignorance of the rights conceded to the workers universally in the modern world were incredible and as great as your inhumanity. If you had between you, collectively, a portion of a human soul as large as a three penny bit, you would have sat night and day with the representatives of the Labour, trying this or that solution of the trouble, mindful of the women and children, who at least were innocent of wrong against you. But no! You reminded Labour you could always have three square meals a day while it went hungry. You went into conference again with the representatives of the State, because, dull as you are, you knew public opinion would not stand you holding out…Cry alive to Heaven for new souls…" FEEDING THE STARVING It was against this background that Constance Markievicz laid aside her involvement with the Fianna and proceeded to organise a food kitchen in the basement of Liberty Hall. She canvassed wherever she could, seeking out food and money and roping in her friends and associates to help, gathering, cooking and distributing food to what has been described as being an endless procession of tattered souls that stormed hungrily down to her kitchen. Her efforts continued through the winter of 1913 -1914. The English Trade Unions in solidarity with the starving workers sent food ships up the Liffey, providing much needed relief. Constance continued her work with the poor of Dublin throughout the remainder of her life. In February 1915 Constance was presented with an illuminated address with pictures of both Lissadell and Liberty Hall. In the address the ITGWU recorded their wish to present Countess de Markievicz with "A memorial of the high esteem and affection" in which she was held as a result of her "unselfish and earnest labours on their behalf during the Great Dublin Lock Out 1913-1914". It continued: "At a time when all the forces of Capitalism had combined to crush the Workers, when the forces of the British Crown were exhibiting all their traditional brutality and hatred of the people, in ferocious batonings and murders; when the prisons were full of innocent men, women and girls, and all looked black before us, you came to our aid to organise relief, and for months worked amongst us, and served the cause of labour by such untiring toil, far-seeing vigilance and sympathetic insight as cheered and encouraged all who were privileged to witness it" During the course of the strike the I.T.G.W.U. had decided to form a workers’ army to defend strikers. James Connelly asked… "Why should we not drill and train our men as they are doing in Ulster?" The Ulster volunteers had been formed by Edward Carson in 1913 to "defend themselves" against home rule, and was fifty thousand strong. A decision was made to form the Irish Citizen Army. Captain James White acted as drill master and Chairman, and Larkin, Constance and the playwright Sean O’Casey served as committee members. Constance wrote a special battle hymn for this new army (now on display in Lissadell). Within a month the Irish National Volunteers were constituted. There were tensions between the Volunteers and the Citizen Army. This in turn created divisions between Larkin and O’Casey (who were hostile to the Volunteers) and James Connelly, Captain James White and Constance, who urged the advantages of co-operation. Casimir, no longer welcome within the salons of fashionable Dublin, chose to return to Ukraine in late August 1913. They were never again to live as man and wife, but remained in contact. Casimir returned for occasional visits towards the end of his wife’s life and indeed attended her death bed when she passed away in Sir Patrick’s Dun’s Hospital. At this time, Constance was falling under the influence of James Connolly, a man who was to play a critical role in subsequent events. Connolly was not only a socialist but an Irish Nationalist. He founded the Irish Socialist Party. He played a pivotal role in the subsequent Easter rising. JAMES CONNOLLY In writing of him AE said… "He was a sombre, concentrated man of great ability, all his faculties under complete control, ready for use, a fine speaker, very impressive by his mere mastery over his matter. I heard him speak at a meeting in the Albert Hall where there were many famous speakers and he was to my mind the most impressive of any. The surgeon who attended him when he was wounded and a prisoner was immensely impressed by Connelly’s strength of character. He liked him so much that he became a kind of guardian to Connelly’s son Roderick. The English General who received Connelly’s surrender told me he felt he was "A Man" and said, "I wanted to shake him by the hand" and he was so impressed that he told Lloyd George that these were the real people of Ireland and he ought to give them complete Dominion Government at once. I regretted his Nationalist obsession because by his death Ireland lost the only Labour leader it had with brains and high character. His mind too was capable of growing. I had hopes of making him a guild Socialist, rather than a State Socialist as I thought the Guild idea was more flexible and in accord with Irish possibilities and in his book on Labour he refers to these ideas of mine. But with his death there was really nobody to guide Labour, nor has there been since." Connolly played a significant influence in the development of Constance’s political ideology. In an article written for The Nation of March 1927 Constance wrote… "When he began to organise the Irish Citizen Army he brought me along, teaching me, as he got to know me, as a comrade, giving me any work that I could do, and quite ignoring the conventional attitude towards the work of women. " In March 1914 Constance was elected joint honorary Treasurer of the Army Council of the Irish Citizen Army. She made herself a uniform of dark green, high-collared to the chin, glinting with brass buttons, caught about her middle by a leather belt, knee high boots, with dark green britches and a wide hat pinned up on one side with a badge displaying a red hand, the insignia of the ITGWU. On the 26th June 1914 she participated in the annual pilgrimage to Wolfe Tone’s grave at Bodenstown, attended by the various Nationalist bodies, including the Volunteers, the Irish Citizen Army and the Fianna at whose head she marched proudly. One month later she played an important role in the successful landing of arms at Howth from the yacht of Erskine Childers. This led to the Bachelor’s walk incident where three citizens were killed and thirty-two injured by the British army. THE GREAT WAR The Great War began nine days later. The outbreak of war was to cause the division within the Irish volunteers. John Redmond, as the leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party had pledged the support of both the Irish Parliamentary Party and the Irish Volunteers for England. His justification: "This war is undertaken in defence of the highest principles of religion and morality and right, and it would be a disgrace forever to our Country…if young Ireland confined her efforts to remaining at home, defend our shore, for Ireland from unlikely invasion, and shrunk from the duty of providing on the field of battle that gallantry and courage which has distinguished our race all through its history." This pledge was not well received by the Nationalists in the Irish Volunteer Committee. On 25th September a Convention was summoned to "repudiate any undertaking given by the Redmondites, and affirm the principles of the Volunteers". The manifesto was signed by many who were subsequently to feature prominently in Irish history, not least Hobson, MacNeill, McDonough, Plunkett, Pearse and "the O’Rahilly". Tensions ran high. One hundred and sixty eight thousand volunteers chose to follow Redmond, in contrast to a mere twelve thousand for MacNeill. Constance Markievicz, as a member of the Committee of Cumann Na mBann (one of whose functions was to act as a military auxiliary to the Volunteers), was challenged by the then honorary secretary of the Citizen Army Council, Sean O’Casey (the renowned literary figure). At a meeting of the Council he moved a motion:- "Seeing that Madame Markievicz was, through Cumann Na mBann, attached to the Volunteers, and on intimate terms with many of the Volunteer Leaders, and as the Volunteer Association was, in its methods and aims, inimical to the first interest of Labour, it could not be expected that Madam could retain the confidence of the Council; and that she was now being asked to sever her connections with either the Volunteers or the Irish Citizen Army." The motion was defeated by one vote. O’Casey later claimed in Drums Under the Windows that Constance had voted for herself and thus carried the day. O’Casey resigned, thus ending his involvement with the Irish Citizen Army. Constance remained a thorn in the side of the authorities. In the autumn of 1914 she was asked to register as an alien because her husband was a Russian subject, but she refused, stating indignantly that she was an Irishwoman. Within weeks her home at Surrey House had been raided by the police, an event which was to be repeated many times over the following years. Shortly after the outbreak of the First World War the Supreme Council of the Republican Brotherhood,(which included Tom Clarke, James Connelly, Athur Griffith, Padraic Pearse and Sean McDermott) decided on armed insurrection against England. In October 1914 James Connolly launched the Irish Neutrality League, of which he was President. Committee members included Author Griffith, Francis Sheehy-Skefington, Constance and William O’Brien. In a lecture on the subject of neutrality delivered by Constance that month she said… "the burden and suffering that would fall on the common people as a result of the present wa, would be greater than in any other war…The present duty of every Irish man is to stay at home and fight, if at all, for the welfare of his own Country." With the departure of Jim Larkin to America in October 1914, James Connolly became both acting General Secretary of the Union and Editor of the Irish Worker. He had a banner stretched across the front of Liberty Hall defiantly claiming: "We serve neither King nor Kaiser, but Ireland". Within the Volunteers there were differences of opinion as to when an armed insurrection should be planned. Constance supported the objective but the more moderate prevailed for the time being. James Connolly had come to live with Constance for a time at Surrey House. He paid ten shillings a week for his lodgings, but there was the inevitable speculation as to whether there was more to the relationship than mere friendship. Constance’s home was open house for all involved in the Nationalist cause. Sean O’Faolain recorded the memories of Frank Kelly who was a regular attendee… "Crowds used to gather into it at night. We had tea in the kitchen; a long table with Madame cutting up slices of bread about an inch thick and handing them around…She had lovely furniture and splendid pictures. Then we used to go into the sitting room and someone would sit at the piano and there would be great singing and cheering and rough amusements. She had lifted her lovely drawing-room carpet but had left her pictures on the walls and on the bare boards there was stamping of feet." THE EASTER RISING The drilling and marching continued to the consternation of the authorities. Constance had now been commissioned as an officer in the Irish Citizen Army and was to the forefront of many of the manoeuvres. The climax was approaching. By early 1916 a decision had been made by the Supreme Council of the Irish Republican Brotherhood on a date for the Insurrection, which was to be Easter Sunday the 23rd of April 1916. The preparations intensified. Constance was served with a Prohibition Order under the Defence of the Realm Regulations, prohibiting her from entering County Kerry where she was due to speak. This provoked the following dialogue which is reported as having taken place between Constance and the detectives charged with serving the Prohibition Order:- "What will happen if I refuse to obey the Orders and go to Kerry? Would I be shot?" "Ah now, Madam, who’d want to shoot you? You wouldn’t want to shoot one of us. Now would you Madam?" "But I would! I am quite prepared to shoot and be shot at." "Ah now, Madame, you don’t mean that. None of us want to die yet. We all want to live a little longer." "If you want to live a little longer you’d better not be coming here. None of us are fond of you and you’d make grand big targets." The day before, Sir Roger Casement and the former Volunteer Instructor, Captain Monteith were intercepted at Banna strand where they had landed by submarine. Plans were afoot for the armed insurrection decided on in 1914. Professor Eoin MacNeill, head of the Volunteers, learnt to his shock that a Rising had been planned for the Easter Sunday. He tried to stop a rising which he felt was futile. He urged his views on leaders of the Irish Republican Brotherhood at a meeting at St Enda’s, but without success. Although he appeared to accept the situation, having met with the O’Rahilly he inserted an announcement in the Sunday Independent which read… "Owing to the very critical position, all orders given to Irish Volunteers for tomorrow are hereby rescinded and no parades, marches, or other movements of Irish Volunteers will take place. Each individual Volunteer will obey this order strictly in every particular." The announcement provoked a consternation which rapidly turned to utter confusion. Constance, writing in 1923 of a conversation she had with Connolly at the time records: "What has happened? "MacNeill has cut the ground from under our feet," said Connolly. I began to lament and question them, he cut me short with "it will be all right, we are going on, it will only mean a little delay." When he said this he must have known that MacNeill’s action had taken from us the little chance we had of winning, or even of holding out for long enough to create that public opinion that might have saved his life and the lives of the other leaders." The Rising was delayed by twenty four hours. On Easter Monday morning the rebels gathered at Liberty Hall, where they were addressed by James Connolly in his capacity as Commandant-General of the Irish Republican Army: he urged them to fight as one, whether they came from the Citizens Army or Volunteer Force. Constance was assigned as a staff Lieutenant. She proceeded by car from Liberty Hall to Stephen’s Green to arrange the deposit of medical supplies. On her way she saw James Connolly shoot a police-man who had endeavoured to bar his entry to City Hall. The 1916 Easter Rising had begun. Constance drove up to St Stephen’s Green, arriving near the University of Dublin between 1 and 2pm. Members of the University Club claimed that Constance fired on a figure in a khaki uniform in the window of the Club. This figure was Dr de Burgh Daly, then a medical officer in the Royal Army Medical Corps. He recalled that he had been standing in the window talking to a Mr Best (who later became Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland) who exclaimed "Look out! There is a woman on the Green pointing a gun at us." A bullet cracked between the two men, through a window which was slightly raised, striking neither. Evidence was given at Constance’s trial by a page boy attached to the University Club of this event. It has been rumoured that it was here that Constance in fact shot a policeman in cold blood. No such charge was ever brought against her, and her brother Josslyn attempted without success to track the rumour to its source. When in prison she denied the rumour (Lissadell Papers, PRONI). Interestingly, de Burgh Daly’s wife confirms the incident involving her husband and the death of a policeman, but puts the policeman at the Harcourt Street end of St Stephen’s Green, and not by the Club where rumour placed the policeman. The rebels occupied St Stephens Green until their position became untenable, when they retreated to the College of Surgeons. Constance walked up to the front door, rang the bell and when the door was not answered she drew her pistol and shot off the lock, after which she marched in. Here she was to remain until the general surrender at 2pm on Sunday 30th April 1916. News of the surrender brought great excitement and anger, but ultimately Constance proceeded to the side door of the College of Surgeons, where she was met by Captain de Courcy Wheeler of the King’s Royal Rifle Corps. Constance handed over her pistol and Sam Brown belt, having first "reverently kissed" the weapon. Captain de Courcy Wheeler offered to drive Constance by car to the castle. She refused, stating she preferred to march with her men, since she was second in command. They were marched first to Dublin castle and from there to Richmond barracks. Later that evening she was moved to Kilmainham jail, where she was isolated from her comrades. Her Court Martial was held on 4th May 1916 at Richmond barracks, where she faced the charges of taking part… "in an armed rebellion…waging war against his majesty the King…and causing disaffection among the civilian population of His Majesty." The verdict of the court martial was that Constance Markievicz was guilty as charged. She was sentenced to death, with a recommendation that it be commuted to penal servitude for life, "solely and only on account of her sex". When in prison, and still under sentence of death, Constance greeted visitors with the "happiness of a bride" saying "did you hear the news? I have been sentenced to death." Confirmation of the commutation of the death sentence was received on the 6th May 1916. One of her first visitors was her sister Eva, Constance’s first enquiry was the fate of James Connolly. Eva did not answer. It was immediately obvious to Constance, who had listened dawn after dawn to the shots which had killed her comrades, that her friend and mentor Connolly had been shot. She broke down, exclaiming "Why don’t they let me die with my friends?" Ann Marreco in dealing with this part of Constance’s life states… "The instant form of her grief is significant; it was the realisation of the kind of loneliness she would have to bear; her destiny was to be left walking the road, whilst those she loved best and admired most preceded her into a heaven in which she had begun fervently to believe. A phase of her existence was finished forever; everything in her temperament would have been drawn to share in the gallant ending at the peak of experience rather than a life spent in anti-climax." Of James Connolly, Constance was to write what is almost a love poem (see centre pages), calling him her ‘Hero-love’ and vowing revenge for his death. She mourned his loss bitterly. 
