Our campaign has just topped £7.5k and we're celebrating!

Thank you so much for your support of our campaign to see a monumental statue of Maud Gonne in Dublin, to inspire future generations. We are just over half way through with our campaign and it's already 255% funded. Over the last few days, we've seen coverage on Dublin Live, Q102, and the Irish Independent, and Whats Her Name Podcast.

• Our initial goal of £3000 was the minimum fund, the amount we needed to cover the costs of producing the rewards for the Kickstarter. We successfully met this target within 24 hours of launch!
• Our next goal was £7.5k. As of this morning, we are now at £7660 with 67 backers! This funding milestone will set us up with the banking and legal  structure plus a website, social media account, and formalise our communications and application strategy. Thank you so much! We have already chosen the best legal entity for our project and will soon be an actual social enterprise: Maud Gonne Statue Works CIC.
• Now we are trying to reach £10K

New Rewards Introduced

Two new rewards have been added to our rewards line-up.

1. At the request of a local book club here in Hastings, we added a plain paperback edition of A Life Before. You can now get this reward here.
2. Also if you'd like to come to the creative retreat at Rosnaree next April with me and Joanna Penn, we've added a self-selected accommodation option (just 10 places).

Unlocking the New Stretch Goal 

To thank you for hitting our £7.5k goal, we are producing a stretch-goal reward. Now that the campaign has reached £7.5k, everyone who has already purchased a reward will receive these two bonuses:

• An extract from an RTE recorded interview by Dr Eileen Dixon with Maud Gonne in 1947, at 80 years old recalling her youth. “I didn't want to go to balls or parties any more for I would have had to dance and eat with the evictors… I couldn't remain a spectator in such a one-sided battle.”
• A digital booklet with WB Yeats's poem “Easter 1916” and Maud Gonne's commentary on it.

But we're not stopping here.

If we hit £10k, we'll extend this booklet into a full ebook. In her published writings and correspondence with Yeats, Gonne expressed her opinions about his poetry, his treatment of her as a muse, and where she felt he was going wrong. These comments have not been compiled together anywhere… until now. 

To receive your copy of this very special ebook which contains some of the most beautiful love poetry ever written, with commentary by the muse who inspired the poems, cut and paste this text into a text message or email and send it to at least one friend who might be interested in our campaign: 

Dear friend, A group of readers and writers, artists and historians are campaigning to see a statue of Maud Gonne in Dublin. I thought you might like to know about it: OrnaRoss.com/MoreThanAMuse.  You'll need to sign up for the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter but that's quick and easy and there are full instructions. When you've supported, please copy and paste this email and send it on to another friend (or two, or 20!) who might also be interested. Thank you for whatever you can do.

This campaign is a significant project, which needs the support of various people and entities: Maud Gonne's descendants to give permission and support; grant givers and sponsors to raise finance; accountant and legal advisors; design consultants to assist with aesthetic and technical aspects; cultural organisations that support heritage projects; the city corporation and planning departments to work with on the application; local community groups and other stakeholders to ensure the statue has the desired educational impact; and a dedicated team to manage and oversee the project from concept to completion.

Please spread the word to help us move to the next stage, and enjoy your bonus rewards. We only have 10 days left!