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John Coll's statue of Countess Markievicz is located in Rathcormack, Co. Sligo and was unveiled in 2003. Countess Markievicz was born Constance Gore-Booth in 1868. She was the daughter of local land owner Sir Henry Gore-Booth and spent her childhood living in Lissadell House Co. Sligo. She went to study art, first to London and then to Paris. While studying in Paris she met her future husband Count Casimir Markievicz, they had one daughter together.
She and her husband later moved to Dublin and during this time, Markievicz became involved in nationalist politics. In 1909, along with Bulmer Hobson she founded the nationalist Boy Scout organisation, Na Fianna Éireann. In 1913 during the Dublin lock out she was involved with the running of a soup kitchen operating out of Liberty Hall in Dublin and around the same time joined the Irish Citizen Army. She took part in the 1916 rising and was part of the Irish Citizen Army garrison that briefly occupied defensive positions at St Stephens green before taking up position in the Royal College of Surgeons.
For her part in the rising she was sentenced to death but this was later commuted to life in prison. However she was released from prison as part of the general amnesty in 1917. In 1918 she stood in the general election and became the first woman to be elected to British Parliament. She did not take her seat at Westminster instead becoming a member of the First Dáil Éireann. She opposed the Anglo Irish Treaty and after being elected as a Sein Fein TD in the 1923 election, refused to take her seat in the Dáil as was the party’s policy of abstentionism.
She was a founder member of Fianna Fáil party and was elected as a Fianna Fáil T.D. in the 1927 general election. Countess Markievicz died on the 15th of July 1927 at the age of 59. She is buried in Glasnevin cemetery in Dublin.
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