Countess and comrades outfox the Crown
IN May 1919, Countess Constance Markievicz, the Minister for Labour in the first Dail, arrived in North Cork to address a meeting but, all did not go to plan.
It was a soft Spring Sunday and after mass in Kiskeam word spread around the area that an important visitor was on the way. Panic swept the sleepy village and a platform was hastily erected in a field to accommodate the VIP who according to rumour had come down from Dail Eireann to address the people of North Cork on the Sinn Fein cause.
The important visitor who had come down from Dublin was the Countess Markievicz but, the reason for her appearance at Kiskeam lay in the fact that she had to run away from where she was originally scheduled to appear, which was at nearby Newmarket.
An open air feis hosted by the local Gaelic League branch was scheduled to take place in Newmarket, a few miles north east of Kiskeam. Bands, bards and politics was the order of the day for the feis and Countess Markievicz was invited to give a speech at the event.
She duly accepted the invite and accompanying her to Newmarket was Paudin O’Keefe, a Sinn Fein TD for North Cork who like the Countess was also a veteran of the 1916 Easter Rising.
The authorities immediately placed a ban on the feis because it violated the Defence of the Realm act which in Ireland prohibited things such as the carrying of a hurley or the public gathering of Gaels such as a feis.
The act was moulded in Ireland in a way to surpress potential political and cultural upheaval against the crown and when the authorities found out who was due to speak at the banned feis in Newmarket they immediately flooded the town with detectives and constables.
This part of County Cork was a hotbed of Republican activity during the revolutionary era and in Newmarket the main protagonist in the fight for freedom was Sean Moylan who was Captain of the IRA company there.
When the Countess arrived at Newmarket she booked into the Railway Hotel. The authorities haunted her every move in the North Cork town and it was considered too risky for her to make a ‘seditious speech’ in public there so an alternative was planned.
The Countess went to the Moylan household where she took off her own clothes and donned men’s attire before she climbed out a small window at the back of the house and made her way through fields until she met local man Corney Lenihan who was waiting for her in a pony and trap in a small dusty lane. He took the Countess away in the direction of Drominarigle.
Meanwhile as the authorities waited outside the Moylan house, inside a plan was hatched to confuse and ultimately embarrass them.
Madge McCarthy was a local lady who was in Moylan’s house to meet the Countess. As the authorities surrounded the house Madge agreed to put on the Countess’ clothes and serve as a decoy.
As she was of the same build and height and had similar facial features, Madge took on the role of Countess Markievicz while the real one escaped out a back window!
Ms McCarthy took on the role with great relish. As she emerged from the house she was linked arm in arm with Mamie Moylan, Sean’s sister, who guided her up the street to the Railway Hotel.
McCarthy waved at the crowd of locals who had gathered and even shouted “Up the Republic”. It was quite the spectacle!
When they reached the Railway Hotel the ‘Countess’ went upstairs to her room and lit the light, leaving it on all night while a number of guards were posted on the street outside.
At dawn the next morning, MacCarthy donned her own clothes once again and left the hotel as herself.
The authorities then went into the hotel where the manager was ordered to name the guests staying there.
The manager could tell them only one guest was booked in the previous night. When asked for a name he stated “ah twas only Miss MacCarthy from up the street.”
The authorities were left reeling with anger and later that night Madge MacCarthy’s windows were shot at by a number of masked men.
Undaunted, she calmly took to her piano in the drawing room and played Irish tunes in the face of state sponsored hooliganism!
Corney Lenihan brought the Countess to Drominarigle safely and from there she transferred to the pony and trap of Con Sullivan who brought her to Kiskeam.
A large crowd awaited her arrival and she took to the makeshift platform which was assembled in a field there by local men.
The meeting went off without a hitch, the telephone lines had been cut to make sure no enemy uniform would be called for!
A number of bands also took part on the day and to satisfy those who had arrived late, the Countess made a second speech.
Countess Markievicz managed to evade the authorities and continue to make ‘seditious speeches’ for a few weeks more until she was finally arrested and sentenced to four months in Cork city gaol.
Sean Moylan led the active service unit of the North Cork IRA during the years of the struggle for independence and later in life would serve in Fianna Fail governments as Minister for Lands and Minister for Education.
In 1957 just a few months into his tenure as Minister for Agriculture Moylan died suddenly.
Paudin O’Keefe would take the pro-Treaty side in the Irish Civil War and serve as governor of Mountjoy prison. From 1938 until 1947 O’Keefe served as assistant clerk of Seanad Eireann. He died in 1973.
Countess Markievicz would spend most of the War of Independence in and out of prison, a factor that no doubt contributed to her poor health.
In 1927 the Countess succumbed to complications from appendicitis and died aged 59 in a public ward at St Patrick’s hospital, 90 years ago this year on July 15 1927.