The search is on for Irelands greatest woman.
Currently Mary Robinson heads the polls. She has been a remarkable champion of womens and poor peoples rights from a legal and political perspective over the years and is a worthy nomination.
Those of us looking for a role model for ourselves and our daughters however should look no further than Countess Markievicz. Born to huge wealth and privlege, Constance Gore Boothe lived the life well know to the landed gentry for the early years of her life.
After a pure chance incident in 1906 however she became a champion of the poor and a heroine of Irish nationalism.
If believing in a cause is a virtue then she gave her entire adult life to the people of Ireland and her efforts to alleviate suffering and poverty within the Irish People led her into direct military conflict with those she blamed for thoose sufferings, the British Government.
She never lacked courage and fought in the 1916 rising, the war of independence and the Civil war.
The fredoms we enjoy today we're delivered to us by Countess Markievicz and her comrades. So if they are looking for Ireland's greatest woman, they are looking in the wrong place.
