MAUD Gonne is most often remembered as the muse and great unrequited love of WB Yeats.
However, her relevance to our history is far more important than that.
Born in England on December 21, 1866, Maud Gonne came from a wealthy Anglo-Irish family from Mayo. Maud’s mother died while she was very young and her father, a captain in the British Army, sent her to boarding school in France. Her father was posted in Dublin in 1882 and Maud joined him there.
Stories of the land wars and Fenianism awakened a great sense of national pride and Maud’s dedication to revolutionary politics began.
Maud’s father died in 1886, leaving her financially independent. From then on she would use the money from her own pocket to finance progressive and republican projects in Ireland.
Around this time, Maud contracted Tuberculosis and returned to France to recuperate. While in France Maud met and fell in love with Lucien Millevoye, a right wing nationalist politician and journalist.
Together they agreed to promote the cause of Irish Independence and the restoration of Alsace-Lorrain region to France.
The couple had two children together: George, born in 1891 who died in infancy; and Iseult, born in 1895.
Having recovered from TB, Maud returned to Ireland, where she threw herself back into revolutionary politics.
Settling in Donegal, Maud led a successful mass campaign against forced evictions and won widespread respect in revolutionary circles. Maud impressed the veteran revolutionary, John O’Leary, who recruited her to work on the campaign for the freedom of Fenian prisoners.
Threatened with arrest for her ongoing anti-eviction activities, Maud escaped to France, where she threw herself into the Fenian cause.
Maud lectured extensively across Europe and the United States, exposing the harsh treatment of republican prisoners in English Gaols, while at the same time actively fundraising in support of the revolutionary movement. Maud also found the time to establish a republican newspaper in Paris, L’Irlande Libre, which promoted the Irish struggle to an international audience
Returning to Ireland, Maud was annoyed that the role of women wasn’t taken seriously in nationalist circles and decided to organise the women of Ireland to play an active part in the republican cause.
In 1900, Gonne established Inghinidhe na hÃ?ireann, the Daughters of Ireland, as a radical women’s republican organisation.
Inghinidhe became a catalyst for the involvement of women in the revolutionary struggle.
One of their first successes came during the visit of Queen Victoria to Ireland.
Inghinindhe organised a mass children’s party in the Phoenix Park which they called the
‘Patriotic Treat’ as an alternative to the celebration of the Royal visit.
In 1903, Maud married the leading Irish nationalist Major John MacBride.
Although the marriage was short lived, the couple had a son, Sean MacBride. Maud spent many years after her marriage in Paris, but continued to support the movement at home.
In 1910, Maud and Inghinindhe were involved in a campaign to feed starving Dublin children.
Maud returned to Ireland after her husband had been executed for his part in the 1916 Rising and immediately began to campaign in support of republican prisoners and their families.
Maud was centrally involved in the anti-conscription campaign and spent six months in gaol for her activities.
Maud remained an active republican throughout the following years and took their side in the civil war.
Imprisoned for her stance, Maud embarked on a 20-day hunger strike, which secured her release.
After her release, Maud continued to advocate the republican cause and worked tirelessly on behalf of prisoners until her death, aged 87, in 1953.