Whatever the state of Charlie Haughey's finances, a Sligo group fundraising to erect a monument to Constance Markievicz is delighted that he was able to find £100 in spare cash to support its campaign.
The monument in bronze on a stone plinth has already been designed by Dublin sculptor John Coll and will cost £70,000. The chairman of the Markievicz millennium committee, Joe McGowan, said past and present parliamentarians were targeted in its fundraising efforts. "We were very pleasantly surprised with the contribution from Charles Haughey. Because she was a parliamentarian, we sent letters to all the TDs and senators but a lot of them didn't reply," he said.
Among others who contributed are Ben Briscoe TD, who represents the constituency where Constance Markievicz was elected, and her grandnephew, Sir David GoreBooth in London.
The committee expects to receive funding from both Sligo Corporation and County Council and also from the Millennium Committee. Two sites have been shortlisted for the monument, which it is hoped will be erected by August. A request from the committee to have it placed in front of the Town Hall, currently undergoing extensive refurbishment, was turned down because it was deemed to be architecturally incompatible with the facade of the building.
While Sligo has a Markievicz Road and a Markievicz House, Mr McGowan said it was felt this "remarkable personality and figure of national significance" deserved a permanent memorial. "John Coll's sculpture is inspirational. Nobody could look at it and not have some measure of the kind of woman she was," he said.
Born into the Protestant aristocratic Gore-Booth family, Constance Markievicz spoke at Home Rule rallies, co-founded the Sligo Suffrage Society, was involved in the 1913 Lock-Out, was the only female officer to fight in the 1916 Rising and after her release from prison became the first woman cabinet minister in the world.
She was sentenced to death for her role in the Rising but because she was a woman this was commuted to life imprisonment. In 1917, the Freedom of Sligo was conferred on her. She dedicated much of the latter part of her life to helping Dublin's poor.