A fearless idealist and champion of Irish independence Maud Gonne was a beautiful woman, over six foot tall with masses of auburn hair and strange golden eyes. Through her speeches she inspired a downtrodden starving Mayo population to protest and win against their landlords and through her unflagging rallies and negotiation skills persuaded the British Prime Minister to free Irish political prisoners. Yet her achievements are mostly forgotten; learn why through our blog.
A fearless idealist and champion of Irish independence Maud Gonne was a beautiful woman, over six foot tall with masses of auburn hair and strange golden eyes. Through her speeches she inspired a downtrodden starving Mayo population to protest and win against their landlords and through her unflagging rallies and negotiation skills persuaded the British prime minister to free Irish political prisoners.
Maud could have been the doyen of high-class society; indeed, William Butler Yeats her long-time unrequited lover opined that she wasted her gifts of youth and beauty on the folly of revolution. Yeats wanted to marry her and for her to be his muse; to become his silent goddess.
Maud constantly refused Yeats throughout her long life. To Yeats she said “you make beautiful poetry of what you call your unhappiness, and you are happy in that. Marriage would be such a dull affair. Poets should never marry. The world should thank me for not marrying you”.
Gonne saw her beauty and poise as a weapon to use for Ireland, like everything she possessed. Gonne thought that the Irish people had a right to their land. When her father died, she was banished to the controlling care of her uncle in London. Uncle William informed her that her father had left her penniless and that he would quickly arrange a suitable marriage for her otherwise she would be destitute. Instead, Maud fought for her own independence and got her first job as an actress in the theatre. She collapsed from ill health while working bringing her aunt to care for her and exposing Uncle Williams lies – Maud was in fact independently wealthy.
Maud was now an independent, beautiful idealist who was driven by the cause of Irish freedom from British rule. She wished to join various clubs that supported Irish freedom; however, none would admit women, so she started to relentlessly travel from Dublin, to London, New York and Paris conveying to high society the desperate state of the Irish poor, its political prisoners and successfully raising large amounts of funds.
Gonne was an inspirational orator, during 1897 a second famine threatened in Mayo with potentially devastating consequences. Families were starving, the governor’s yet again evited people in large numbers for non-payment of rent as any spare money went on food. People had to work hard labour for 6 pence per day earning them today equivalent of about €35 per week for a family to live on (just one member per family was allowed to earn the 6 pence). The people of Mayo were starving and broken, and there was no sympathy or relief. Maud had gained the trust over the years of the people of Mayo through her witnessing of evictions, rehousing of families, and giving them a voice against their landlords that was listened to. She convinced them to attend a rally in Belmullet the day of the board of guardians visit telling them that they were cowards if they allowed their children to die. 10,000 plus people silently stood outside while the guardians along with two representatives of the Crown from Dublin Castle deliberated on what action to take to restore law and order. Maud swept in and strongly argued that people who are starving were desperate and had nothing to lose, presenting a list of minimum demands. It must have been an eery meeting, as the crowd waited outside, they began to stamp their feet without raising their voices, a reminder to the authorities of their numbers. Gonne was successful doubling the minimum wage and organising for seed potatoes to be ordered from Scotland to replace the devastated stock, which no one in authority had thought to do.
She announced victory to the waiting crowd declaring “you have won these small things by your numbers and your united strength. By strength and courage, you must win the freedom of Ireland”.
Maud was a great communicator with a passion and sincerity that won the hearts and wallets of influential Americans. So successful in her campaign in America on the plight of prisoners that the British Prime Minister Asquith sent for the Irish representative and asked him to reign in Maud Gonne. Redmond answered truthfully that neither he nor anyone else had authority over Gonne and he felt sure that the only way to silence her was to set the prisoners free. Shortly after her return from America the political prisoners were released.
After the dust had settled in 1923 and Ireland became a free state the women revolutionaries were dismissed as an inconvenience to the now catholic republic who did not allow women to vote and declared in the constitution that women’s place was in the home. Maud found herself to be not only the wrong sex but to be a deemed a “loose woman” and an undesirable role model in an Ireland that had become fervently catholic.
She spent the next decades advocating for the rights of prisoners. As a political prisoner herself she understood first-hand the deplorable conditions and worked until her 70s to improve their conditions much to the annoyance of the government.
Maud died at 86, remembered for her beauty and Yeats pretty poetry. There are no streets named after her or statues in her honour. Her idealism, actions and philanthropy are footnotes in history. Perhaps this generation will remember her for her actions and courage.
He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven
Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths,
Enwrougth with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths,
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
W.B. Yeats 1899
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Walk Around The Neighbourhood creates memorable experiences for you through digital audio walking tours of Dublin. The story of unique women and men such as Maud are told on the streets where they lived during eventful times in Irish history. The tour can be downloaded to purchase and played immediately from any country in the world.