Constance Gore-Booth, or Countess Markievicz was born in Sligo in 1868. She joined many of the groups that were active in the early 1900s. She was an officer in the Irish Citizens Army in 1916 and fought in St Stephens Green.

She was the first woman to be elected to the British Parliament, although she refused to take her seat. She instead became Minister for labour in De Valeras provisional government.

Countess Markievicz was arrested in 1919 and charged with making a seditious speech or, in her own words, “advising girls not to walk out with the police and a few other remarks of that sort”. She was sentenced to 4 months in Cork City Gaol and she stated that it was the most comfortable jail she had ever been in! While she was in the Gaol she wrote letters declaring how good the people of Cork were during her imprisonment.

“The Cork people spoil me dreadfully. Such fruit and flowers all the time.”

July 28, 1919