Maud Gonne
Encyclopedia
Maud Gonne MacBride was an English
-born Irish
revolutionary, feminist
and actress, best remembered for her turbulent relationship with William Butler Yeats
. Of Anglo-Irish
stock and birth, she was won over to Irish nationalism
by the plight of evicted people in the Land War
s. She was also active in Home Rule
activities.
near Farnham
, Surrey
, as Edith Maud Gonne, the eldest daughter of Captain Thomas Gonne (1835–1886) of the 17th Lancers
, whose ancestors hailed from Caithness
in Scotland
, and his wife, Edith Frith Gonne, born Cook (1844–1871). After her mother died while Maud was still a child, her father sent her to a boarding school in France
to be educated.
and fell in love with a right wing politician, Lucien Millevoye
. They agreed to fight for Irish freedom and to regain Alsace-Lorraine
for France. She returned to Ireland and worked tirelessly for the release of Irish political prisoner
s from jail. In 1889, she first met William Butler Yeats
, who fell in love with her.
In 1890 she returned to France where she once again met Millevoye. In 1891, she briefly joined the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn
, a magical organization
with which Yeats had involved himself. Between 1893 and 1895, she and Millevoye had two children together named Georges and Iseult. Only the second, a girl named Iseult Gonne
, born 1894, survived. (At age 23, Iseult was proposed to by then-52-year-old William Butler Yeats, and she had a brief affair with Ezra Pound
. At age 26, Iseult married the Irish-Australian novelist, Francis Stuart
, who was then 18 years old.)
During the 1890s, Gonne travelled extensively throughout England
, Wales
, Scotland
and the United States
campaigning for the nationalist cause. In 1899 her relationship with Millevoye ended.
Gonne, in opposition to the attempts of the British to gain the loyalty of the young Irish during the early 1900s, was known to hold special receptions for children. She, along with other volunteers, fought to preserve the Irish culture during the period of Britain's colonization.
, she organized protests against Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee
. On Easter
1900, she founded Inghinidhe na hÉireann
("Daughters of Ireland"), a revolutionary women's society, to provide a home for Irish nationalist women who, like herself, were considered unwelcome in male-dominated nationalist societies. In April 1902, she took a leading role in Yeats's play Cathleen Ní Houlihan
. She portrayed Cathleen, the "old woman of Ireland", who mourns for her four provinces, lost to the English colonizers.
In the same year, she joined the Roman Catholic Church
. She refused many marriage proposals from Yeats because she viewed him as insufficiently nationalist and because of his unwillingness to convert to Catholicism.
in Paris
in 1903. The following year, their son, Seán MacBride
, was born. However, after the marriage ended, Gonne made allegations of domestic violence, including the molestation of her then 11-year-old daughter Iseult Gonne
, her husband returned to Ireland.
Gonne and her husband agreed on the need for an end to their marriage but could not agree on the future of their baby boy. She demanded sole custody and the right to educate and bring him up, threatening MacBride that if he did not agree to this she would take a case against him for divorce. MacBride stood firm and a divorce case began in Paris. The only charge against MacBride that was substantiated in court was that he was drunk on one occasion during the marriage. A divorce was not given and MacBride got visiting rights to see his son twice a week at his wife's home. He exercised these rights briefly but decided to return to Ireland and never saw his baby boy again. Gonne raised the boy in Paris until her husband was executed in 1916. Then she felt that she could safely return to live permanently in Ireland. John Waters
has described this episode as an example of 'parent alienation syndrome'.
John MacBride was a veteran who had led the Irish Transvaal Brigade against the British in the Second Boer War
. MacBride was executed in May, 1916 along with James Connolly
and other leaders of the Easter Rising
. Yeats proposed to her once again in 1916, and she once again turned him down. She remained in Paris until 1917.
In 1918 she was arrested in Dublin and imprisoned in England for six months. During the War of Independence she worked with the Irish White Cross for the relief of victims of violence. In 1921 she opposed the Treaty
and advocated the Republican
side. She settled in Dublin in 1922.
(from No second Troy, 1916)
Many of Yeats's poems are inspired by her, or mention her, such as "This, This Rude Knocking." He wrote the plays The Countess Cathleen
and Cathleen Ní Houlihan
for her. His poem Aedh wishes for the Cloths of Heaven
ends with a reference to her:
Few poets have celebrated a woman's beauty to the extent Yeats did in his lyric verse about Gonne. From his second book to Last Poems, she became the Rose
, Helen of Troy (in No second Troy), the Ledaean Body
(Leda and the Swan and Among School Children), Cathleen Ní Houlihan
, Pallas Athene and Deirdre
.
Her son, Seán MacBride
, was active in politics in Ireland and in the United Nations
. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
in 1974.
She died in Clonskeagh
, aged 86 and is buried in Glasnevin Cemetery
, Dublin.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
-born Irish
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
revolutionary, feminist
Feminism
Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...
and actress, best remembered for her turbulent relationship with William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats was an Irish poet and playwright, and one of the foremost figures of 20th century literature. A pillar of both the Irish and British literary establishments, in his later years he served as an Irish Senator for two terms...
. Of Anglo-Irish
Anglo-Irish
Anglo-Irish was a term used primarily in the 19th and early 20th centuries to identify a privileged social class in Ireland, whose members were the descendants and successors of the Protestant Ascendancy, mostly belonging to the Church of Ireland, which was the established church of Ireland until...
stock and birth, she was won over to Irish nationalism
Irish nationalism
Irish nationalism manifests itself in political and social movements and in sentiment inspired by a love for Irish culture, language and history, and as a sense of pride in Ireland and in the Irish people...
by the plight of evicted people in the Land War
Land War
The Land War in Irish history was a period of agrarian agitation in rural Ireland in the 1870s, 1880s and 1890s. The agitation was led by the Irish National Land League and was dedicated to bettering the position of tenant farmers and ultimately to a redistribution of land to tenants from...
s. She was also active in Home Rule
Home rule
Home rule is the power of a constituent part of a state to exercise such of the state's powers of governance within its own administrative area that have been devolved to it by the central government....
activities.
Early life
She was born at TonghamTongham
Tongham is a small Surrey village located close to the north-east Hampshire and Surrey border. The village lies in a triangle between the A31 and the A331. Neighbouring villages include Ash and Badshot Lea....
near Farnham
Farnham
Farnham is a town in Surrey, England, within the Borough of Waverley. The town is situated some 42 miles southwest of London in the extreme west of Surrey, adjacent to the border with Hampshire...
, Surrey
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
, as Edith Maud Gonne, the eldest daughter of Captain Thomas Gonne (1835–1886) of the 17th Lancers
17th Lancers
The 17th Lancers was a cavalry regiment of the British Army, notable for its participation in the Charge of the Light Brigade in the Crimean War...
, whose ancestors hailed from Caithness
Caithness
Caithness is a registration county, lieutenancy area and historic local government area of Scotland. The name was used also for the earldom of Caithness and the Caithness constituency of the Parliament of the United Kingdom . Boundaries are not identical in all contexts, but the Caithness area is...
in Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, and his wife, Edith Frith Gonne, born Cook (1844–1871). After her mother died while Maud was still a child, her father sent her to a boarding school in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
to be educated.
Political activity
In 1882 her father, an army officer, was posted to Dublin. She accompanied him and remained with him until his death. She returned to France after a bout of tuberculosisTuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
and fell in love with a right wing politician, Lucien Millevoye
Lucien Millevoye
Lucien Millevoye was a French journalist and right-wing politician, now best known for his relationship with the Irish revolutionary and muse of W.B. Yeats, Maud Gonne....
. They agreed to fight for Irish freedom and to regain Alsace-Lorraine
Alsace-Lorraine
The Imperial Territory of Alsace-Lorraine was a territory created by the German Empire in 1871 after it annexed most of Alsace and the Moselle region of Lorraine following its victory in the Franco-Prussian War. The Alsatian part lay in the Rhine Valley on the west bank of the Rhine River and east...
for France. She returned to Ireland and worked tirelessly for the release of Irish political prisoner
Political prisoner
According to the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, a political prisoner is ‘someone who is in prison because they have opposed or criticized the government of their own country’....
s from jail. In 1889, she first met William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats was an Irish poet and playwright, and one of the foremost figures of 20th century literature. A pillar of both the Irish and British literary establishments, in his later years he served as an Irish Senator for two terms...
, who fell in love with her.
In 1890 she returned to France where she once again met Millevoye. In 1891, she briefly joined the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn
Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn
The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn was a magical order active in Great Britain during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, which practiced theurgy and spiritual development...
, a magical organization
Magical organization
A magical organization is an organization created for the practice of magic or to further the knowledge of magic among its members. "Magic" in this case refers to occult, metaphysical and paranormal activities, not to the performance of stage magic...
with which Yeats had involved himself. Between 1893 and 1895, she and Millevoye had two children together named Georges and Iseult. Only the second, a girl named Iseult Gonne
Iseult Gonne
Iseult Gonne , was the daughter of Maud Gonne and Lucien Millevoye, and the wife of the novelist Francis Stuart....
, born 1894, survived. (At age 23, Iseult was proposed to by then-52-year-old William Butler Yeats, and she had a brief affair with Ezra Pound
Ezra Pound
Ezra Weston Loomis Pound was an American expatriate poet and critic and a major figure in the early modernist movement in poetry...
. At age 26, Iseult married the Irish-Australian novelist, Francis Stuart
Francis Stuart
Henry Francis Montgomery Stuart was an Irish writer. His novels have been described as having a thrusting modernist iconoclasm. Awarded the highest artistic accolade in Ireland before his death in 2000, his unwillingness to take a clear moral stance with regard to his years spent in Nazi...
, who was then 18 years old.)
During the 1890s, Gonne travelled extensively throughout England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
campaigning for the nationalist cause. In 1899 her relationship with Millevoye ended.
Gonne, in opposition to the attempts of the British to gain the loyalty of the young Irish during the early 1900s, was known to hold special receptions for children. She, along with other volunteers, fought to preserve the Irish culture during the period of Britain's colonization.
Acting
In 1897, along with Yeats and Arthur GriffithArthur Griffith
Arthur Griffith was the founder and third leader of Sinn Féin. He served as President of Dáil Éireann from January to August 1922, and was head of the Irish delegation at the negotiations in London that produced the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921.-Early life:...
, she organized protests against Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee
Diamond Jubilee
A Diamond Jubilee is a celebration held to mark a 60th anniversary in the case of a person or a 75th anniversary in the case of an event.- Thailand :...
. On Easter
Easter
Easter is the central feast in the Christian liturgical year. According to the Canonical gospels, Jesus rose from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion. His resurrection is celebrated on Easter Day or Easter Sunday...
1900, she founded Inghinidhe na hÉireann
Inghinidhe na hÉireann
Inghinidhe na hÉireann , abbreviated InaÉ, was a revolutionary women’s society founded by Maud Gonne on Easter Sunday 1900.Gonne was elected President of the association; Vice-Presidents were Alice Furlong, Jenny Wyse Power, Annie Egan and Anna Johnston...
("Daughters of Ireland"), a revolutionary women's society, to provide a home for Irish nationalist women who, like herself, were considered unwelcome in male-dominated nationalist societies. In April 1902, she took a leading role in Yeats's play Cathleen Ní Houlihan
Cathleen Ní Houlihan
Cathleen Ní Houlihan is a one-act play written by Irish playwright William Butler Yeats in collaboration with Lady Gregory in 1902 and first performed on 2 April of that year. The play is startlingly nationalistic, encouraging in its last pages that young men sacrifice their lives for the heroine...
. She portrayed Cathleen, the "old woman of Ireland", who mourns for her four provinces, lost to the English colonizers.
In the same year, she joined the Roman Catholic Church
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
. She refused many marriage proposals from Yeats because she viewed him as insufficiently nationalist and because of his unwillingness to convert to Catholicism.
Marriage
After having turned down at least four marriage proposals from Yeats between 1891 and 1901, Maud married Major John MacBrideJohn MacBride
Major John MacBride was an Irish republican executed for participation in the 1916 Easter Rising.-Early life:...
in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
in 1903. The following year, their son, Seán MacBride
Seán MacBride
Seán MacBride was an Irish government minister and prominent international politician as well as a Chief of Staff of the IRA....
, was born. However, after the marriage ended, Gonne made allegations of domestic violence, including the molestation of her then 11-year-old daughter Iseult Gonne
Iseult Gonne
Iseult Gonne , was the daughter of Maud Gonne and Lucien Millevoye, and the wife of the novelist Francis Stuart....
, her husband returned to Ireland.
Gonne and her husband agreed on the need for an end to their marriage but could not agree on the future of their baby boy. She demanded sole custody and the right to educate and bring him up, threatening MacBride that if he did not agree to this she would take a case against him for divorce. MacBride stood firm and a divorce case began in Paris. The only charge against MacBride that was substantiated in court was that he was drunk on one occasion during the marriage. A divorce was not given and MacBride got visiting rights to see his son twice a week at his wife's home. He exercised these rights briefly but decided to return to Ireland and never saw his baby boy again. Gonne raised the boy in Paris until her husband was executed in 1916. Then she felt that she could safely return to live permanently in Ireland. John Waters
John Waters
-Entertainment:*John Waters , American film director, active 1926–29 and 1947*John Waters , American film director, writer, visual artist, actor and cult figure...
has described this episode as an example of 'parent alienation syndrome'.
John MacBride was a veteran who had led the Irish Transvaal Brigade against the British in the Second Boer War
Second Boer War
The Second Boer War was fought from 11 October 1899 until 31 May 1902 between the British Empire and the Afrikaans-speaking Dutch settlers of two independent Boer republics, the South African Republic and the Orange Free State...
. MacBride was executed in May, 1916 along with James Connolly
James Connolly
James Connolly was an Irish republican and socialist leader. He was born in the Cowgate area of Edinburgh, Scotland, to Irish immigrant parents and spoke with a Scottish accent throughout his life. He left school for working life at the age of 11, but became one of the leading Marxist theorists of...
and other leaders of the Easter Rising
Easter Rising
The Easter Rising was an insurrection staged in Ireland during Easter Week, 1916. The Rising was mounted by Irish republicans with the aims of ending British rule in Ireland and establishing the Irish Republic at a time when the British Empire was heavily engaged in the First World War...
. Yeats proposed to her once again in 1916, and she once again turned him down. She remained in Paris until 1917.
In 1918 she was arrested in Dublin and imprisoned in England for six months. During the War of Independence she worked with the Irish White Cross for the relief of victims of violence. In 1921 she opposed the Treaty
Anglo-Irish Treaty
The Anglo-Irish Treaty , officially called the Articles of Agreement for a Treaty Between Great Britain and Ireland, was a treaty between the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and representatives of the secessionist Irish Republic that concluded the Irish War of...
and advocated the Republican
Irish Republicanism
Irish republicanism is an ideology based on the belief that all of Ireland should be an independent republic.In 1801, under the Act of Union, the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland merged to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland...
side. She settled in Dublin in 1922.
Yeats's muse
Why should I blame her that she filled my days/ With misery, or that she would of late
Have taught to ignorant men most violent ways/ Or hurled the little streets upon the great.
(from No second Troy, 1916)
Many of Yeats's poems are inspired by her, or mention her, such as "This, This Rude Knocking." He wrote the plays The Countess Cathleen
The countess cathleen
The Countess Cathleen is a verse drama by William Butler Yeats in blank verse . It was dedicated to Maud Gonne, Yeats' lifelong love.-Editions and revisions:...
and Cathleen Ní Houlihan
Cathleen Ní Houlihan
Cathleen Ní Houlihan is a one-act play written by Irish playwright William Butler Yeats in collaboration with Lady Gregory in 1902 and first performed on 2 April of that year. The play is startlingly nationalistic, encouraging in its last pages that young men sacrifice their lives for the heroine...
for her. His poem Aedh wishes for the Cloths of Heaven
Aedh wishes for the Cloths of Heaven
"Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven" is a poem by William Butler Yeats. It was published in 1899 in his third volume of poetry, The Wind Among the Reeds.-Commentary:...
ends with a reference to her:
I have spread my dreams under your feet; Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
Few poets have celebrated a woman's beauty to the extent Yeats did in his lyric verse about Gonne. From his second book to Last Poems, she became the Rose
Roman de la Rose
The Roman de la rose, , is a medieval French poem styled as an allegorical dream vision. It is a notable instance of courtly literature. The work's stated purpose is to both entertain and to teach others about the Art of Love. At various times in the poem, the "Rose" of the title is seen as the...
, Helen of Troy (in No second Troy), the Ledaean Body
Leda and the Swan
Leda and the Swan is a motif from Greek mythology in which Zeus came to Leda in the form of a swan. According to later Greek mythology, Leda bore Helen and Polydeuces, children of Zeus, while at the same time bearing Castor and Clytemnestra, children of her husband Tyndareus, the King of Sparta. In...
(Leda and the Swan and Among School Children), Cathleen Ní Houlihan
Cathleen Ní Houlihan
Cathleen Ní Houlihan is a one-act play written by Irish playwright William Butler Yeats in collaboration with Lady Gregory in 1902 and first performed on 2 April of that year. The play is startlingly nationalistic, encouraging in its last pages that young men sacrifice their lives for the heroine...
, Pallas Athene and Deirdre
Deirdre
Deirdre or Derdriu is the foremost tragic heroine in Irish mythology and probably its best-known figure in modern times. She is often called "Deirdre of the Sorrows." Her story is part of the Ulster Cycle, the best-known stories of pre-Christian Ireland.-Legendary Biography:Deirdre was the...
.
Autobiography
Maud Gonne MacBride published her autobiography in 1938, titled A Servant of the Queen, a reference to a both a vision she had of the Irish queen of old, Cathleen (or Caitlin) Ní Houlihan and an ironic title considering Gonne's Irish Nationalism and rejection of the British Queen.Her son, Seán MacBride
Seán MacBride
Seán MacBride was an Irish government minister and prominent international politician as well as a Chief of Staff of the IRA....
, was active in politics in Ireland and in the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.-Background:According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize shall be awarded to the person who...
in 1974.
She died in Clonskeagh
Clonskeagh
Clonskeagh or Clonskea , is a southern suburb of Dublin, Ireland. The district straddles the River Dodder.-Location and access:Whilst located fully within the traditional County Dublin, Clonskeagh lies partially within the administrative area of Dublin City Council but mostly in that of Dun...
, aged 86 and is buried in Glasnevin Cemetery
Glasnevin Cemetery
Glasnevin Cemetery , officially known as Prospect Cemetery, is the largest non-denominational cemetery in Ireland with an estimated 1.5 million burials...
, Dublin.