Constance Markievicz

Uncommon card · No. 100533

Constance Georgine Markievicz (Polish: Markiewicz [marˈkʲɛvitʂ]; née Gore-Booth; 4 February 1868 – 15 July 1927), also known as Countess Markievicz and Madame Markievicz, was an Irish republican politician, suffragist, socialist and labour activist who was the first woman elected to the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Born into the Anglo-Irish ruling-class, Markievicz abandoned her social position in favour of Irish independence and social reform. A founding member of Fianna Éireann, Cumann na mBan and the Irish Citizen Army, she took part in the Easter Rising in 1916, when Irish republicans attempted to end British rule and establish an Irish Republic. She was sentenced to death but her sentence was commuted to life imprisonment on the grounds of her sex. On 28 December 1918, at the 1918 general election (while in Holloway Prison), she became the first woman elected as a Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom; in accordance with the abstentionist policy...

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