See, this Constance was a go-getter just like you! Mom ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jean R." <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Thursday, December 13, 2007 5:38 PM Subject: [IRELAND] The Rebel Countess -- "Remembering Con Markievicz" --Cecil DAY-LEWIS (b. Co. Laois) - GORE-BOOTH > REMEMBERING CON MARKIEVICZ > > Child running wild in woods of Lissadell: > Young lady from the Big House, seen > In a flowered dress, gathering wild flowers: Ascendancy queen > Of hunts, house-parties, practical jokes -- who could foretell > (Oh fiery shade, impetuous bone) > Where all was regular, self-sufficient, gay > Their lovely hoyden lost in a nation's heroine? > Laughterless now the sweet demesne, > And the gaunt house looks blank on Sligo Bay > A nest decayed, an eagle flown. > > The Paris studio, your playboy Count > Were not enough, nor Castle splendour > And fame of horsemanship. You were the tinder > Waiting a match, a runner tuned for the pistol's sound, > Impatient shade, long-suffering bone. > In a Balally cottage you found a store > Of Sinn Fein papers. You read -- maybe the old sheets can while > The time. The flash lights up a whole > Ireland which you have never known before, > A nest betrayed, its eagles gone. > > The road to Connolly and Stephen's Green > Showed clear. The great heart which defied > Irish prejudice, English snipers, died > A little not have shared a grave with the fourteen. > Oh fiery shade, intransigent bone! > And when the Treaty emptied the British jails, > A haggard woman returned and Dublin went wild to greet her. > But still it was not enough: an iota > Of compromise, she cried, and the Cause fails. > Nest disarrayed, eagles undone. > > Fanatic, bad actress, figure of fun -- > She was called each. Ever she dreamed, > Fought, suffered for a losing side, it seemed > (The side which always at last is seen to have won), > Oh fiery shade and unvexed bone. > Remember a heart impulsive, gay and tender, > Still to an ideal Ireland and its real poor alive. > When she died in a pauper bed, in love > All the poor of Dublin rose to lament her. > A nest is made, an eagle flown. > > -- C. Day-Lewis, Poet Laureate of England > > Note - Lovely Constance Gore-Booth (Countess Markievicz), the eldest > daughter of an Anglo-Irish baronet, had been privately educated at > Lissadell, the family home in Co. Sligo. She was presented at Court in > 1887 > and was thoroughly at home in the world of gala balls. Then in 1900 she > married a Polish Count, settled in Dublin in 1903 and began to move > towards > feminism, socialism and extreme nationalism, much to the distress of early > admirers such as Yeats. In the 1916 rising she fought with the Irish > Citizen > Army and initially was condemned to death. In the 1918 General Election > she > became the first woman MP but declined to take her seat, in accordance > with > Sinn Fein policy. Imprisoned again during the war of independence, "the > rebel countess" completed her long journey from her background by branding > the Anglo-Irish treaty of 1921 a betrayal of republican hopes. > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message -- I am using the free version of SPAMfighter for private users. It has removed 5117 spam emails to date. Paying users do not have this message in their emails. Get the free SPAMfighter here: http://www.spamfighter.com/len