EVA Gore-Booth: An Image of Such Politics

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This is the first biography of the extraordinary Irish woman, Eva Gore-Booth. Gore-Booth rejected her aristocratic heritage, choosing to live and work amongst 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's 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. -- .

Reviews

'Those who enjoyed Sonja Tiernans account of Eva Gore-Booths 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 sisters 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

Tiernan has produced a vivid picture of an independent spirit.
Deirdre Toomey, Yeats Annual No. 21: A Special Issue

Author Bio

Sonja Tiernan is a Research Fellow at University College Dublin