The Gore-Booth Family

Lissadell House, Co. Sligo

Lissadell House in Colour

The house was built in the 1830's for Sir Robert Gore-Booth MP by London architect Frances Goodwin. Due to the death of his agent, Sir Robert left the house and estate in the capable hands of his second son, Sir Henry Gore-Booth, in 1876.

Sir Henry had five children; Constance (born 1868), Josslyn (1869), Eva (1870), Mabel (1874) and Mordaunt (1876). The two eldest girls, Constance and Eva, enjoyed their youthful years. As well as gaining an interest in both poetry and art they acquired the etiquette of landed gentry life: parties and hunts gave them a valuable insight into how their class, 'The County Set' should act and behave. W.B. Yeats, during one of his visits to the Gore-Booth home, described them as 'two girls in silk kimonos, both beautiful, one a gazelle'.

Constance and Eva as teenagers

© Sligo County Library, Gore-Booth Collection No. 224

Constance and Eva as teenagers
© Sligo County Library, Gore-Booth Collection No. 224

Constance and Eva as teenagers

© Sligo County Library, Gore-Booth Collection No. 224

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Photographic portrait of Constance and Eva

© Sligo County Library, Gore-Booth Collection, No.231

Photographic portrait of Constance and Eva
© Sligo County Library, Gore-Booth Collection, No.231

Photographic portrait of Constance and Eva

© Sligo County Library, Gore-Booth Collection, No.231

Enlarge image

As the girls progressed through their teens, their involvement in the Arts began to increase. Constance was drawn to painting whereas Eva's interest in writing began to flourish. Constance enrolled in the Slade College of Art, London in 1893, and by 1898 had moved to Paris working in the Rudolphe Julian Art school. It was here she met and married the artist Count Casimir Dunin-Markievicz from Poland. They returned to Ireland and settled in Rathmines, Dublin in 1903.

Eva moved to Manchester in 1897 and was soon exposed to the Womens Suffrage movement. Women made up the majority of the workforce in the cotton trade at that time but were not earning an equal wage to men. Both women were to find the 'missing link' in their lives fighting injustice through Politics, however at this stage Constance had yet to discover the political course that would consume her life entirely. She had spent the first few years of the 20th century mixing with Dublin's elite along with her husband. Both continued to paint, with Count Casimir enjoying some success, and began to mix with the literary group that surrounded the Abbey Theatre. By 1908 Casimir had become deeply interested in the theatre; Constance had yet to find what it was in life that she could commit fully to. It was at this pivotal time that she met Arthur Griffith.

Constance was quickly introduced to Irish politics and the fight against injustice, subsequently joining the nationalist organisation 'Daughters Of Erin'. By 1916, Constance was a member of the Citizen Army and fought in the Rising of the same year. She was condemned to death for her activities in the failed rebellion. This sentence was almost immediately commuted to life imprisonment; a ruling which she vehemently rejected, as it was only commuted because she was a woman.

Returning to Ireland a year later, Constance once again continued her hands-on approach, getting involved in the Conscription issue which raged in Ireland. This lead to her second stay in prison where she created history becoming the first woman ever elected to the House of Commons. The Countess inevitability became embroiled in the Irish Civil War that followed the Treaty, taking the republican anti-treaty side under Eamonn de Valera. However she had added more political firsts to her C.V., having become a member of Irelands first Dáil and also Ireland's first Minister for Labour. Once the civil war had finished and the political turmoil began to slowly subside in the mid 1920's, Constance once again resumed her role of fighting for workers rights and looking after the poor.