On This Day in History: December 28

Constance Markievicz is the first woman elected to UK Parliament

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In 1900, as she spoke her wedding vows, Constance Markievicz notably omitted the part about obeying her husband. She wasn’t a big fan of obeying British law either, being a guerrilla fighter against the imperialists. In Dublin in 1916 she led an attack on British soldiers and was sentenced to die. Two years later she was elected Ireland’s first female Member of Parliament. From prison.

--On This Day in History Shit Went Down: December 28, 1918--

She was born Constance Gore-Booth in 1868, and her father was an Irish landowner who wasn’t a dick. During the famine of 1879-80 her father provided free food to his tenants, instilling in Constance a concern for the less fortunate. She was a painter who became radicalized toward Irish nationalism and women’s rights in 1907 when she engaged in that perilous and mind-altering practice of . . . reading books.

A countess in fancy clothes, she was not initially welcomed by the Irish working class fighting for self-rule, but she won them over through years of effort, urging outright rebellion. Skilled with firearms, she began a training camp to teach boys how to shoot so they could kill British soldiers.

After years of failed efforts at diplomacy, the 1916 Easter Rebellion took place in Dublin, with Irish attacking British and taking over much of the downtown. By this time, Constance was a leader in the movement and a sniper in the rebellion, shooting at Royalists from rooftops. The uprising failed, British forces overwhelmed the rebels and she and her compatriots were arrested. They were sentenced to die, but Constance’s sentence was commuted to life in prison on account of her gender. This pissed her off. She said, “Why didn’t they let me die with my friends?”

The mass executions turned public opinion against the British, and Constance and many others were soon released. She was only out of prison a year when she was sent back in 1918 for anti-conscription activities. During that time, on December 28, 1918, Constance was elected MP for Dublin St. Patrick’s, winning 66% of the vote, making her the first woman elected to the UK House of Commons. Even if she hadn’t been in prison, she would not have taken her seat, as the Sinn Féin party of which she was a member had a fuck-you abstentionist policy where winning politicians refused to take their seats. She was named Minister of Labor in 1919 but left government in 1922 because she was pissed about the new Anglo-Irish treaty.

She kept on fighting for Irish independence, serving more prison time and going on a hunger strike in the process, until her death in 1927 from appendicitis. Her final act was to give away the last of her wealth to those in need.

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