A Dream of Liberty

Constance Markievicz (1868–1927) was one of the main leaders of the Irish revolution 1916–1923 which gave Ireland the political geography of the Irish Free State (now the Irish Republic) and the region of Northern Ireland. She was born among the privileged Anglo-Irish but dedicated her life to ending British government in Ireland. Many people from her class were at this same time interested in cherishing the Irish language and culture but only few combinedarmed rebellion against British government with these nationalistic cultural goal. And even fewer fought to improve the status of workers and women, in the way that Markievicz did. Her role in the Easter Rising of 1916 was an exceptional one for a woman because she had been appointed an officer. In the British general election of 1918 she was the first woman to be elected to the House Of Commons and in the first Dail Eireann (the Irish Parliament) she held a cabinet post as Minister for Labour. In this research Sari Oikarinen analyses the political career of this remarkable woman from her earliest awakening to nationalism to her espousal of republicanism and socialism withn the context of Irish intellectual and political history. In Markievicz's view, the freedom of an individual could only be achieved through the gaining of national freedom and only national freedom could offer the possibilty of living a "true Irish life": the life of a useful, independent citizen.

Nyckelord: political history, Ireland, politicians, women, socialism, nationalism, Constance Markievicz