The Court-martial of Countess Markievicz

The controversy surrounding the court-martial of Constance Markievicz following the 1916 Rising. Did she plead that she was only a woman, or was she defiant and unrepetant before the military tribunal? General John Maxwell considered her "bloodguilty and dangerous" but the British government balked at the idea of executing a woman.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• 1916
• easter
• rising
• pearse
• connolly
• markievicz
• feminism
• irish
• republican
• citizen
• army
• ira
• socialism
• women
• cumann
• na
• mban

[TheResoluteTyrant]

It's funny how even though she is so famous, you guys still can't get our name right. :) it's a W, not a V

[cobrolchain2]

@TheResoluteTyrant It's spelt with a v, but I think it's supposed to be pronounced as a w.

[helenaZZZZirlandaise]

Distortion of the truth has always been a signature feature of Britain's modus operandi, from Parnell to Countess Markievitcz and every event before, since and in between.

The truth comes secondary to loyalty in the English psyche.

How strange had they NOT fabricated a false version of events in the face of being stared down by a mere woman.

[josparkes1]

@rory198 Anyone prepared to make a stand for Ireland then was a hero, so do not take away this woman's status as one of them - not that you could !

[duncaolog]

"Wylie's wilful and scurrilous distortion of her response may reflect a personal sense of irritation at her self-assurance and boldness, which he may have considered an insult to the court. More likely, his fictitious account sprang, above all, from a feeling that the Countess had by her actions betrayed both her religion and her class (she had been presented at court to Queen Victoria in her jubilee year, 1887).

[Siulach]

@SE962582C, Constance was Anglican until 1917, and her daughter was also baptised into her religion as well. But divorce, while unacceptable to Roman Catholics, was still a pretty big stigma in western societies in general.

[SE962582C]

@halokaktus The Prussians/Germans and the Austrians even spell the patronymic suffix witz/vitz as "witch"! But do remember, the Countess was apparently "estranged" from her husband, the Count and the Real Markievicz/Markiewicz, which meant that she had left her husband, but because that they were probably "good" Catholics, they were not divorced, and did not also had their marriage "annulled".

[halokaktus]

@SE962582C Yeah, I know it, but it's not the rule ( often but not always) . Beside, Kazimierz was Polish for sure (many historical source said that he was also member of the Russian nobility, but it's complicated. I 've read Marta Petrusewicz book about Constanse and she wrote people said that just because his outfit) . Well my grandma was born in Kostopil (now it's Ukraine), and she's polish :)

[SE962582C]

@cobrolchain2 Three-quarters or more of Poland then belonged to the Tsarist Russian Empire, and the Russian way was to use the "v" instead of the "w", which is German.

[SE962582C]

@halokaktus Her husband was either from Warsaw, elsewhere in the Russian Congress Poland, not the Prussian/German or the Austrian parts, or the Polish-speaking parts of Lithuania, the Belarus or the Ukraine within the Tsarist Russian Empire, therefore it followed the Russian way of spelling, a "v" instead of a "w".