At last, Markievicz comes to Westminster

 The first woman elected to Parliament is to grace the palace of Westminster, a century after refusing to take up her seat. A portrait of Constance Markievicz, the Londonborn Irish nationalist, has been given to the House of Commons by Seán Ó Fearghaíl, the speaker of its Dublin counterpart, the Dáil Éireann.

The reproduction of a 1901 painting by Boleslaw von Szankowski will form part of Parliament’s Voice and Vote exhibition, 100 years after a limited franchise was first given to women and they were allowed to stand for election. Countess Markievicz was elected as a Sinn Fein MP in 1918 but was in jail at the time and never took her seat. She played a role in the 1916 Easter Rising that sowed the seeds of Irish independence but avoided being executed because she was female. She later became minister of labour in the first Dáil.

The original portrait is owned by Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane, and the copy will be in the exhibition until Oct 9, after which it will hang permanently in Portcullis House.