Does Maud Gonne deserve a statue in Dublin? Some feminists believe so and want to see her recognized for her lifelong devotion to progressive causes.
It will be an uphill battle. To many, Maud Gonne is still just a famous beauty and WB Yeats's muse, the woman the Nobel laureate poet immortalized in the twentieth century's finest love poetry in English.
Mostly she is remembered, if at all, as the muse of the great poet WB Yeats.
Maud Gonne inspired countless other people besides Yeats–particularly women, prisoners and other outsiders, not to mention her own son and daughter. Beyond this, she was an artist and writer in her own right, actively participating in the Irish Literary Renaissance and an activist par excellence.
Celebrating Gonne's artistic contributions would expand Dublin's commitment to the legacy of those times beyond the great men, into those who helped forge the nation and were immensely powerful in effecting change.
It's time to recognize Gonne as the activist, revolutionary, and muse that she was, acknowledging her indelible mark on many facets of Irish culture, politics, and national identity.
- a radical activist and women's rights trailblazer who recognized the intertwined nature of national and gender-based oppressions.
- an accomplished artist, writer, speaker, and performer who played an active role in the Irish Literary Renaissance as patron as well as muse, contributing significantly to a movement that shaped the nation.
- a philanthropist who supported so many socialist, nationalist and feminist causes with her personal monies.
- a mother, who organized other mothers into a powerful symbolic protests against repression in the new Irish state
- a beacon of inspiration, not just to the great poet, W.B. Yeats but also to so many others, especially women, prisoners, and social outcasts.
Gonne's activism for Irish political prisoners and against injustice deeply influenced her son, Sean MacBride, shaping his commitment to peace and human rights. This influence laid the foundation for MacBride's role in founding Amnesty International, an organization focused on protecting human rights worldwide.
Honoring Gonne with a statue would recognize her indirect yet profound influence in the creation of this leading human rights organization and highlight the impact mothers can have on shaping their children's values and actions. In this way, the statue would also celebrate the broader power of maternal influence.
And more troubling aspects of her legacy can contribute to much-needed discussions of anti-semitism, zionism and the Israeli state.
Gonne's legacy, in all its aspects, is timeless.
More Than A Muse Campaign
So it's now official! (And a little crazy!) I'm putting together an application (and the campaign we expect will be necessary) to press for a commemorative statue of Maud Gonne statue on the streets of Dublin.
The campaign is called More Than A Muse… and its focus will be on highlighting Gonne's political and social activism and achievements.
Images have invaded my mind of Gonne in her middle and later years, no longer the great beauty that turned male heads but a powerful activist and symbol of freedom for Ireland and women everywhere. Organizing meals and treats for schoolchildren. Organizing symbolic processions of widows and mothers dressed in black. Up on a soapbox plinth with her fist in the air, roaring at the Irish Free State of how they were failing Ireland as badly as England ever had.
The Republican Ireland, free and equal, that her ex-husband and so many of her friends had suffered or died for in 1916.
I'm in the early stages, reaching out to feminist historians and Gonne's descendants to seek their support and permission. But I'm hopful that the time has come to honor this extraordinary woman as the multi-faceted pioneer she truly was—an activist, a revolutionary, a peacemaker, and an inspiration to so many.
And a challenge to our contemporary ideas of freedom, diversity, peace, and women's social roles.
The More than a Muse campaign will use the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter to raise money and awareness, supported by my novel A Life Before, about her coming of age and meeting the poet she inspired, WB Yeats.
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More Than A Muse Campaign: Maud Gonne's Legacy
Though most people know Gonne as the inspiration for some of W. B. Yeats's finest love poems, and though she was fond of her friend “poor Willie,” as she called him, she played a much greater part in his life than he did in hers.
And her unavailability, which suited his pose as a courtly poet. After he had proposed marriage many times, and complained to her about how unhappy her refusals made him. she wrote: “You make beautiful poetry out of what you call your unhappiness, and are happy in that.”
The truth of their relationship was more complex than either of them ever fully admitted, though Yeats came close in his great poem, “The Tower”.
… admit you turned aside
From a great labyrinth out of pride,
cowardice, some silly over-subtle thought
or anything called conscience once…
And that if memory recur, the sun's
Under eclipse and the day blotted out.
In 1898, when the end of her affair with Millevoye saw her ostracised in Paris, and unable to do her work, she needed a father for Iseult and she invited Yeats to finally make a proposal that was likely to get a yes. He fled for the hills and though he came back round again, he'd missed his moment.
She transferred her attentions to Major John MacBride, and married him in 1903, much to Yeats horror and distress.
Gonne knew the world would remember her through those poems and she valued WB's writings and friendship dearly… but the purpose of her own life was political. She was an activist from the start of her life, to the end.
Her uncompromising political opinions, and flamboyant style won her the soubriquet of “Maud Gonne Mad” from her enemies. And in Dublin, “Maudgonning” is still remembered by some as slang for being over-passionate about a political cause.
More Than A Muse
A Fearless Nationalist
Gonne's commitment to the Irish nationalist cause was deep and enduring. As well as supporting luminaries like Arthur Griffith and James Connolly emotionally and financially, she founded the Daughters of Ireland (Inghinidhe na hÉireann), dedicated to the promotion of Irish culture and the idea of a free Ireland. In the aftermath of the Irish War of Independence, Maud Gonne, along with other women activists, organized weekly demonstrations by “The Mothers” to protest against the ongoing repression of Irish nationalists within their own country.
Every Sunday, these women dressed in mourning attire would lead silent processions on O'Connell Street, Dublin's main thoroughfare, carrying pictures of the executed leaders of the Easter Rising.
This silent, yet deeply symbolic act of defiance became a potent symbol of Irish resistance. It was typical of Gonne's genius as an activist – understanding the power of visual imagery and public performance to stir emotions and galvanize public opinion. Her consistent presence and leadership in these weekly protests solidified her status as one of the most prominent and passionate advocates for Irish independence, often at great personal risk.
A Feminist Icon
Long before the global surge of feminism in the 20th century, Gonne was advocating for the rights of women in Ireland. She recognized the intersectionality of national and gender oppressions, and her work laid the foundation for later feminist movements in Ireland.
A Voice for the Voiceless
From her support of the landless in Mayo and Donegal during the Land Wars of the 1880s and 1890s, to her food programs for hungry children, to her support for prisoners, Gonne was not just a national activist, but always an advocate for those she called “The People, and most of all for those who were most downtrodden and marginalized.
A Lasting Legacy
Her impact wasn't restricted to her own lifetime. Gonne's work, ideals, and spirit influenced subsequent generations of Irish activists, writers, and artists. A statue would ensure that future generations remember and are inspired by her legacy.
Gonne's Anti-Semitism
A few of the people so far approached about honoring Maud Gonne have raised the issue of her anti-Semitism and pro-German support in World War II as a reason why this project should not proceed or succeed.
Gonne's anti-semitism is undeniably troubling. Her activism focused always on uplifting the downtrodden and voiceless, yet for her “Jew” was a shortcut word, that played into ageless stereotypes depicting the Jewish community as powerful, monied, and to be feared.
Is this awful? Absolutely.
Does it mean she doesn't deserve to be honored? Absolutely not.
I go deeply into her motivations and influences in my novels, showing how her particular brand of anti-Semitism grew out of fin-de-siecle Paris and French right-wing politics. As a young woman, Gonne was co-dependent with the love of life, Lucien Millevoye, a writer and supporter of the reactionary, anti-German, monarchist nationalism of
There is no attempt, either in my books, or in the application to have this comemorative statue erected, to claim that Maud Gonne was a perfect person. She was a complex, flawed, and mult-faceted individual… like us all.
If you had to be perfect to be honored for your achievements, we'd have to topple every statue in Dublin into the Liffey.
It is true that Gonne's prejudice against the Jewish community, most vehemently expressed during the infamous Dreyfus affair, but held throughout her long life, is shocking to a modern reader.
Kim Bendheim, author of the recent Gonne biography The Fascination of What's Difficult, who describes herself as a WASPy Jew, has said, “I suspect that Gonne’s anti-Semitism… was as much a product of her upper-class British background as it was a political philosophy.”
I believe it was more a product of Millevoye ‘s influence and Boulangist right-wing circles that embraced anti-Semitic and anti-Masonic conspiracy theories. She ardently opposed Dreyfus in the anti-Jewish drama that polarized France in 1904. These views have always seemed incompatible with her socialist leanings, that saw her actively involved with the Amnesty Association of Great Britain, always on the side of those she called “the people”, speaking throughout Ireland, England, France, the Netherlands, and Belgium about their struggles.
It all adds another layer of complexity to this woman Yeats called a “labyrinth.”
I believe Maud Gonne deserves public honor from Dublin for her social and political achievements and that her statue is particularly timely now. She embodies the sort of objections those in power use to keep out those who are different–female, queer, colored, disabled or outsidered in some other way.
As a young woman she was dismissed by unsympathetic nationalists as a rich English spy, or a self-serving drama queen. After she died she was dubbed a liar by scholars unsympathetic to the social conditions which meant she had to hide her single-mother status. Today, she is too anti-Semitic.
Though I find her views troubling, in my opinion and I hope in yours, the holding of them does not cancel out her many social and political achievements. The More Than A Muse campaign will highlight those many achievements, while touching lightly on the many ways in which she has been unduly vilified.
She has always been seen as “too” something to be fully accepted and acknowledged. Too bloodthirsty, too divorced, too radical, too English, too feminist, too self-promoting, too extreme, too pathetic. And now too anti-Semitic.
More than anything, Gonne was an independent, happy to hold conflicting positions. She collaborated with the right-wing Millevoye, the moderate Yeats, and the socialist James Connolly but all to further one cause–that of Irish freedom. She judged everything, and everyone, by their support for and adherence to that cause, including the Irish Free State that emerged from the War of Independence.
In her autobiography, Gonne neatly summarized her philosophy: “I never willingly discouraged either a Dynamiter or a constitutionalist, a realist or a lyrical writer. My chief preoccupation was how their work could help forward the Irish Separatist movement.”
This thought-provoking, vexing, and always enthralling whirlwind of a woman exerted an influence and impact that that research continues to unveil but that ultimately can only be guessed at.
Almost No Street Statues of Women in Dublin
A statue of Maud Gonne would also begin to address a notable oversight in Irish public monuments, that needs addressing.
Dublin's landscape is dotted with statues and monuments, many of which celebrate men of history. By erecting a statue of Maud Gonne, Dublin would be acknowledging the equally significant role women played in shaping the country's history.
Dublin, a city rich in recorded history, has long honored its notable figures through various forms of commemoration, including statues and busts, but, as Simon Tierney recently noted, in his excellent article in The Irish Examiner, in terms of the public realm, Dublin “belongs to men.”
The office building where I work is named after a man. The same building is surrounded by William, George and Stephen… streets all named after men. Bridges, parks, buildings, streets and statues in Dublin virtually all commemorate historical men. The city centre is a penis parade. – Simon Tierney
Tierney's research revealed that in Dublin city center:
- Not a single park bears the name of a woman.
- The two largest sports stadiums in the city are named in honor of men: Archbishop Thomas Croke and Henry Petty Fitzmaurice, the Third Marquess of Lansdowne.
- Dublin's three primary train stations all carry male names, commemorating Sean Houston, James Connolly, and Padraig Pearse.
- 23 out of 24 bridges that cross the Liffey are named for men.
- 27 of the 936 streets in the city centre are named after women– and of these, seventeen are saints' names and six of them are English queens.
And when it comes to statues or street monuments, only five (13%) historical women are honored.
Constance Markievicz, the artist, revolutionary and first female MP in Westminster, who has than once). Sister Catherine McCauley, who founded the Sisters of Mercy. Constance Lloyd Wilde, writer and wife of the infamous Oscar, who's depiction is very much about her husband ( see this link, and scroll to the end to read about the sculptor's intentions with this work). The assassinated journalist Veronica Guerin, an old colleague of mine at the Irish Independent. And Margaret Ball, the Catholic martyr honored for harbouring priests in a time of persecution, who is part of a dual statue with her husband.
Not exactly representative of women's contribution to the city, across centuries.
The 44 remaining statues of historical figures on Dublin's streets are all of men. A number of these have more than one representation, and can be found in both statue and bust format. James Joyce, for example, is on North Earl Street as a statue, and in St Stephen’s Green, and on the campus of University College Dublin in bust form.
Why A Campaign?
It would be marvellous if the application was just shooed through but from here, that feels unlikely. Ruairí Ó Cuív is public art manager for Dublin City Council, charged with developing and managing commissioning opportunities and applications.
Ó Cuív says his office receives an average of two or three requests a year. “The city centre is really choc-a-bloc [with sculptures] and it amazes people there are so few suitable sites,” he says.
Yet a recent commemoration of singer Luke Kelly Yet, a recent tribute to the singer Luke Kelly in Dublin led to the erection of not one but two statues in his honor, while his wife, the extraordinary Deirdre O’Connell who founded and managed the Focus Theatre, a significant small theatre that played a crucial role in Dublin’s cultural landscape in the dry years of the 60s, 70s and 80s, goes without public recognition.
It's really not okay.
It's time to better acknowledge the pivotal role women have played in Ireland's history. In a city over-adorned with monuments celebrating historical male figures, a statue of Maud Gonne is long overdue.
Other Images of Maud Gonne
There are already some tributes to Maud on public view in Dublin, most recently the beautiful bust of her at 80 years by Helen Hooker O'Malley, which was donated to Kilmainham Gaol by her daughter Hooker O'Malley's daughter, Étaín, last year.
She can already be found in a large collection of photographs in the National Library of Ireland and in pictures and busts in Dublin's art galleries and museums
Maud Gonne at The National Gallery of Ireland:
- Portrait in oils by Sarah Purser (c.1889)
- Pastel drawing by Purser (1898),
- Pencil and watercolour drawing by J. B. Yeats (1907)
- Chalk and charcoal drawing by Seán O'Sullivan (1929).
Maud Gonne at The Hugh Lane Gallery of Modern Art:
- Oil portrait by Sarah Purser.
- Plaster bust by Laurence Campbell in bronze that inspired Yeats great poem, A Bronze Head (“…who can tell/Which of her forms has shown her substance right? Or maybe substance can be composite…”)
Maud Gonne at Kilmainham Jail Museum
- Bust by Helen Hooker O'Malley
Do we really need a street statue too?
Yes, we do.
More than a Muse: A Street Tribute
The father of two girls Tierney says, “I want my girls to see that they live in a country which recognises and celebrates the achievements of women.”
Street monuments serve not only as memorials but also as sources of inspiration. For passers-by, especially women and girls, seeing a monument dedicated to a strong female figure like Maud Gonne can be empowering.
It symbolizes the possibility of making significant contributions to society, regardless of gender.
Having Gonne's portraits in galleries and museums, while valuable for historical and cultural preservation, doesn't provide the same public recognition and accessibility as a street monument. Statues on the street are seen by everyone, not just museum-goers, and they integrate historical figures into the daily lives of passers-by–Dubliners and visitors.
Museum portraits also fail to capture the essence of her activism, most of which was conducted in public spaces. She was known for her public speaking, participation in public protests and processions, and her direct, public engagement with the community.
From the marches against Queen Victoria's jubilees to “The Mothers” processions of her old age, Maud Gonne's activism saw her pace the streets in protest. Up on soap boxes and orange boxes, preaching and teaching, impassioned to the end.
A monument to her on the streets of Dublin would physically connect her legacy to the locations where she made most impact, linking her commemoration to the sites of her speeches, protests, and public engagements.
Maud Gonne's life was dedicated to the betterment of Ireland, to its culture, its independence, and its people. She was a beacon of hope, resilience, and unyielding spirit.
It's time she took up room in her rightful place in the heart of Dublin, a city she loved and fought for. A statue would not only honour her, but also serve as a daily reminder of the ideals she stood for – ideals we're still working to enact.
Let's keep that image of her, standing outside the GPO in O'Connell St, 70-years-old and still impassioned, her fist raised in fiery rhetoric against injustice.
Let's raise the money we need, get the application passed, run a prize to award the commission to an artist.
I have absolutely no idea how we'll get through all the logistics, but I know we will.
Come join us!
The “More than a Muse” campaign will use the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter to raise money and awareness. We are on the move! Sign up here to receive news and notifications.