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From: "conaught" <>
Subject: [MAYO] Easter Week Series #15
Date: Thu, 19 Apr 2001 17:30:01 -0700


Maude Gonne MacBride - (1865-1953)Irish Nationalist, I.R.A. leader and
actress. She was born of an Irish father and English mother, in Aldershot,
England. Her mother died in 1871 and she was educated in France and in 1882
moved to Dublin when her father was posted there. Her father died in 1886
leaving her independently wealthy. She developed tuberculosis and moved
back to France to recover where she met Lucien Millevoye, editor of "La
Patrie". They agreed to work for Irish and French nationalist causes. They
had two children. After a couple of years she returned to Ireland where she
aided people in County Donegal who were the victims of mass evictions. Her
work was so successful she had to go back to France to avoid arrest.

She co-founded Inghinidhe na hEireann (Daughters of Erin), a revolutionary
woman society. In 1918 she was arrested and deported with several other
Sinn Fein leaders( de Valera, County Plunkett, Cosgrave, Griffith, Countess
Markievizc and Kathleen Clarke) for her part in the anti conscription
campaign. They were imprisoned without charge.
In 1920 Dail Eireann in an attempt to set up some semblance of normalcy of
self-government set up a court system. Along with Kathleen (Mrs. Tom)
Clarke, Maude Gonne MacBride was one of the justices.

The year of 1920 saw the Black and Tan "war". Across Ireland peoples homes
and businesses were being systematically destroyed and people were forced to
live in barns.This was part of the campaign of the English government to
bring the Irish people to submission through by destroying their economy.
Maude Gonne MacBride suggested to Arthur Griffith that the women of Ireland
should form an organization to aid the families who had been left homeless
and jobless. de Valera was also organizing a similar organization in
America. These efforts were to become known as the White Cross.

During the Civil War she headed the prisoner release campaign. She
spearheaded protests, pickets and parades.

John O'Leary the Fenian and veteran of the 1848 Young Irelander Uprising,
introduced Maude Gonne to the poet William Butler Yeats. Yeats fell
passionately in love with Maude Gonne. Throughout the years Yeats would
continually propose marriage to Maude Gonne but she never returned his
love. She told him "No Willie the world would not thank me for marrying
you". Some of his best poetry was inspired by his unrequited love for her.
His well known play Cathleen ni Houlihan was written for her. Maude Gonne
played the part of Cathleen ni Houlihan at the Abbey Theater. She married
John MacBride in 1902 and this devastated Yeats. The marriage was not a
happy one. John MacBride was executed for his part in the 1916 Easter
Uprising.
Yeats even proposed marriage to Maude Gonne's daughter and was also refused.
In a very strange twist of fate in 1948 when the remains of William Butler
Yeats were finally returned to Ireland for burial at Drumcliffe, County
Sligo, Maude Gonne MacBride's son Sean MacBride as Minister of External
Affairs for Ireland escorted the coffin off the boat and lead the State
funeral procession.

Maude Gonne and John MacBride's son Sean MacBride received the Nobel Peace
Prize in 1974 and was a founder member of Amnesty International.

© 2001
Margaret Kristich

All rights reserved

References:

A Dictionary of Irish Biograghpy by Henry Boylan;Roberts Rinehart;
1998;Niwot, Colorado

The Irish Republic by Dorothy Macardle;Corgi Books 1968; London

Michael Collins, The Man Who Won the War by T. Ryle Dwyer;Mercier Press,
Cork; 1990

The Secret Army by J. Bowyer Bell; Sphere Books, London, 1972

Yeats The Man The Masks by Richard Ellmann,E.P.Dutton & Co., New York, 1948

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