Countess Markievicz: The Only Woman Candidate Returned

In this newsreel, Countess Markievicz is elected as MP for the St Patrick’s Division of Dublin. She was the first woman to ever be elected into British Parliament, but she refused to take her seat and joined Sinn Fein TDs to form the first Dail Eireann.

Constance Georgine Markievicz, known as Countess Markievicz, was a Sinn Féin and Fianna Fail politician, a suffragette, socialist and revolutionary Nationalist.

As a founding member of Fianna Eireann and Cumann na mBan she was an active contributor to the 1916 Easter Rising, second-in-command at St Stephen’s Green. After surrendering she was arrested and sentenced to death. However, this was then changed to life imprisonment on account of her gender. In 1917, she was released.