Terrible Beauty

Norman, Diana. Terrible Beauty - A Life of Constance Markievicz. London / Sydney / Auckland / Toronto, Hodder & Stoughton, 1987. 16.5 cm x 24 cm. 320 pages. Original hardcover with dustjacket in protective mylar. Excellent condition with only very minor signs of external wear. Clean inside with solid binding. Constance, Countess Markiewicz (February 4, 1868 - July 15, 1927) was an Irish Sinn Fein and Fianna Fail politician, revolutionary nationalist and suffragette. During the Easter Rising of 1917, she was an officer in the Irish Citizens Army. In 1918, she was the first woman elected to the British House of Commons, though she did not take her seat and along with the other Sinn Fein MPs formed the first Dail Eireann. The first woman to take her seat would be Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor in 1919. Markiewicz, however, was the first woman in Europe to hold a cabinet position as Minister of Labour of the Irish Republic, 1919-1922, although she was in jail during most of this time.[1] Ireland did not appoint another women to a cabinet post until 1979.She was imprisoned by the British authorities in 1911, in 1916, in 1918, and twice during Ireland independence struggle. She was not elected in 1922, but was returned as MP at the 1923 and 1927 elections. When she retired from the Irish Republican Army in 1923, she did so as a Colonel. On the one hand, she proved that a woman could fight alongside men with distinction. On the other hand, her feminine compassion earned her a reputation as the friend of the workers, of the poor, and the forgotten. Her life shows that as women take their rightful place as leaders alongside men, society is enriched and strengthened. (New World Encyclopedia).