Synopses & Reviews
This is the first dedicated biography of the extraordinary Irish woman, Eva Gore-Booth. Gore-Booth rejected her aristocratic heritage, choosing to live and work among the poorest classes in industrial Manchester. Her work on behalf of barmaids, circus acrobats, flower sellers, and pit-brow lasses is traced in this book. During one impressive campaign, Gore-Booth orchestrated the defeat of Winston Churchill. Gore-Booth published volumes of poetry, philosophical prose, and plays, becoming a respected and prolific author of her time and part of W.B. Yeats' literary circle. The story of Gore-Booth's life is captivating. Her close bond with her sister, an iconic Irish nationalist, provides a new insight into Countess Markievicz's personal life. Gore-Booth's life story vividly traces her experiences of issues such as militant pacifism during the Great War, the case for the reprieve of Roger Casement's death sentence, sexual equality in the workplace, and the struggle for Irish independence.
Review
"Those who enjoyed Sonja Tiernan's account of Eva Gore-Booth's fight for the rights of barmaids are sure to enjoy her full-length account of her life, Eva Gore-Booth: An Image of Such Politics, which is the first biography of its subject. The younger sister of Constance Gore-Booth (a.k.a. Countess Markiewicz), Eva Gore-Booth was a committed social radical and reformer who turned her back on her aristocratic heritage and was immortalised along with her sister by Yeats (the poem in question was read out by no less than leonard Cohen at his 2010 gig at their ancestral home, Lissadell). Eva Gore-Booth lead a life that was surely as interesting as that of Constance, and this lively biography brings her out of her older sister's shadow." -History Ireland (July/August 2012), p. 57.
"I was pleased to find this biography of Eva Gore-Booth...This is the first time that Eva, who was in many ways more radical [than her sister] has been given her due...there is much here of interest to those keen on the politics of the labour movement and women's suffrage." -Jad Adams, The Oldie, February 2013
"A comprehensive and enthralling book that will provide an invaluable source for future investigations into the social and political history of early twentieth-century Ireland and Britain." -Olivier Coquelin, European Legacy: Toward New Paradigms (journal of the International Society for the Study of European Ideas), February 2013
"Tiernan's magisterial and definitive study, Eva Gore-Booth: An Image of Such Politics, provides an exceptionally fully realized recreation of the multiple worlds in which the writer moved and the interactions among them. The biography marshals its impressive body of research to create a nuanced portrayal of a charming, humorous, intelligent, talented, and fiercely conscientious Irish woman most of us did not know we could claim." -New Hibernia Review, Volume 17, Number 4
Synopsis
This book illuminates the fascinating life of Eva Gore-Booth. Often lost in the shadow of her more famous sister, Constance, Eva finally emerges as a key figure. Historian Sonja Tiernan has written an exciting and vibrant life of this extraordinary woman, at once an intrepid feminist, pacifist and advocate for social justice.'Professor Maria Luddy, University of Warwick
This is the first dedicated biography of the radical Irish writer and political activist, Eva Gore-Booth. A vast body of material from private collections and state archives has been used to uncover this remarkable life history.
Born into West of Ireland Anglo-Irish landed gentry, Gore-Booth dramatically rejected her aristocratic heritage, choosing to live and work amongst the poorest classes in industrial Manchester. Her pioneering work on behalf of barmaids, circus performers, flower sellers and pit-brow lasses is traced here with clarity and enthusiasm. The story of Gore-Booth's life is captivating and provides new insights into key political issues of early twentieth century Ireland and Britain. A prolific author who enjoyed a place within W.B. Yeats' literary circle, Gore-Booth also fostered a well-deserved reputation as a determined and successful political activist, at one stage defeating no less an adversary than Winston Churchill. This ground-breaking book reveals Gore-Booth's experiences of militant pacifism during the Great War, her campaign to reprieve Roger Casement's death sentence, her instrumental role in the fight for sexual equality in the English workplace and her unwavering struggle for Irish independence. Her close bond with her sister, Countess Markievicz, an iconic and sometimes divisive Irish nationalist, offers the reader a new dimension into Markievicz's personal life.
Comprehensive and engaging, this book establishes Eva Gore-Booth as a significant player in Irish and British politics and as a major figure in literary, women's and trade union history.
Synopsis
Academics, postgraduate and undergraduate students in Irish and British social and cultural history.
About the Author
Sonja Tiernan is a Lecturer in History at Liverpool Hope University and Secretary of the Women's History Association of Ireland.
Table of Contents
Introducing the Gore-Booth Family
1. Life in the Big House: Childhood and Lissadell
2. A Pair of Oddities: Meeting Esther Roper
3. The Birth of a Rebel: Social Reform in Manchester
4. Sadder and Wiser Women: Lancashire Trade Unions
5. Women Who Kick, Shriek, Bite and Spit: Suffragists and Suffragettes
6. Defending Barmaids: Legislative Proposals and Winston Churchill
7. World War One: From Trade Unionism to Peace Movements
8. Conscientious Objectors and Revolution: World War and an Irish Rebellion
9. Roger Casement and the Aftermath of the Easter Rising
10. Prison Reform and Military Conscription in Ireland
11. Radical Sexual Politics and Post-War Religion
12. Final Years
Afterword
Bibliography of Archival Sources
Major Publications by Eva Gore-Booth
Notes
Index