Grace Gifford

Grace Gifford (4 March1888–13 December1955) was an Irish artist and cartoonist who was active in the Republican movement. She is mainly remembered as the subject of a popular song, which tells the story of how she married Joseph Plunkett in 1916 only a few hours before he was executed.

Background

The second youngest in a family of 12 children, she was born to Frederick and Isabella Gifford in the fashionable suburb of Rathmines in Dublin. Frederick was Roman Catholic and his wife was Protestant, so the boys were brought up as Catholics and the girls as Protestants, as was then the custom.

Education

Grace probably attended a private school at first, then became a student of Alexandra School, which at that time was in the centre of Dublin. At the age of 16 she went to the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art, where she studied under the Irish artist William Orpen. Orpen regarded Grace as one of his most talented pupils. He often sketched Grace and eventually painted her as one of his subjects for a series on 'Young Ireland'. At around this time, Grace's talent for caricature was discovered and developed.

In 1907 she attended a full-time course in Fine Art at the Slade School of Art, London.

Career

She returned to Dublin in 1908 and, with great difficulty, tried to earn a living as a caricaturist. She considered emigrating but gave up the idea. Despite earning so little money, she enjoyed a lively social life; she was well dressed and mixed with the likes of Mrs Dryhurst (a journalist who worked in London) and Æ (George William Russell).

During the same year, Mrs Dryhurst brought Grace to the opening of the new bilingual St Enda's School in Ranelagh, Dublin. It was here that she met Joseph Plunkett for the first time and came into direct contact with the future leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising, including Tomás MacDonagh, whom Grace’s sister Muriel married.

Engagement and Marriage

Grace’s growing interest in the Roman Catholic religion led to the deepening of her acquaintance with Joseph Plunkett. She began to question him about his faith – a subject on which she could not have found a better teacher. He proposed to her in 1915; Grace accepted and decided to take instruction in the Catholic religion. She was formally received into the Catholic Church in April, 1916. Having no knowledge of the plans for the Easter Rising, she planned to marry Joseph on Easter Sunday of that year in University Chapel on St Stephen's Green, in a double wedding with his sister and her fiancé.

After the Rising, the leaders were condemned to death by firing squad. When Grace knew that Joseph was due to be shot on 4 May, she bought a wedding ring in a jeweller’s shop in Dublin city centre. She and Joseph were married on the night of 3 May in the chapel of Kilmainham Jail, only a few hours before he was executed.

There is a rumour that she was pregnant at the time she got married, but later had a miscarriage. However this rumour appears to originate from her sister-in-law Geraldine, who disliked her, was denied by Seoirse Plunkett, and is widely regarded as unsubstantiated.

inn Féin

Grace decided to devote herself through her art to the promotion of Sinn Féin policies and resumed her commercial work to earn a living. She was elected to the Sinn Féin executive in 1917.

Grace's sister Muriel, widow of executed 1916 leader Thomas MacDonagh, died of heart failure while swimming in 1917, and Grace and their sister Nellie Gifford shared the care of Muriel's two children, Donagh MacDonagh and Barbara, until 1919. She remained in close contact with both until she died.

The Civil War and afterwards

Throughout the Civil War, vast numbers of republicans were arrested and incarcerated in jails over the country without trial or charge. Grace was arrested with many others in February 1923 and detained in Kilmainham Jail for about three months. She painted pictures on the walls of her cell, including one of the Madonna and Child. She was released in May, 1923.When the Civil War ended, Grace, who felt a deep hostility to the Irish Free State, had no home of her own and very little money. Bitterness against republicans was so strong that she could expect no material help from the government. Her talent as an artist was her only real asset; her cartoons were published in various newspapers and magazines. She moved from one rented apartment to another and ate in the city-centre restaurants. She befriended many people and had many admirers, but had no wish to remarry.

Her material circumstances improved in 1932 when she received a Civil List pension from Éamon de Valera’s Fianna Fáil government.

As Joseph Plunkett’s will was invalid and Grace had received nothing of what she was entitled to receive, Grace began legal proceedings against his father Count Plunkett and his wife in 1934. They were settled before being heard in full by the court. She was paid £700, plus legal costs.

At around this time she joined the Old Dublin Society, where she met the noted Irish harpsichord maker Cathal Gannon. When Cathal married, Grace gave him and his wife Margaret a present of two single beds and a picture.

From the 1940s onwards, Grace’s health declined. In 1950 she was brought to St Vincent’s Hospital, then in the city centre. She convalesced in a nursing home, which she did not like.

She died suddenly, and alone, on 13 December, 1955 in an apartment in South Richmond Street. Her body was removed to St Kevin’s Church, Harrington Street and she was buried with full military honours.

She is the subject of "Grace", a song written in the 1980s which became very popular in Ireland and elsewhere.

She is one of the people seen buying a bond in John MacDonagh's newsreel of Michael Collins signing the first issue of Republican Bonds outside St Enda's in Rathfarnham in 1919. The film is archived and available for viewing at the Irish Film Institute.

Publications

*1919: "To Hold as Twere": a collection of Grace’s cartoons of political figures.
*1929: "Twelve Nights at the Abbey Theatre": a collection of cartoons depicting actors of the Abbey Theatre, Dublin.
*1930: "Doctors Recommend It: An Abbey Tonic in Twelve Doses": another collection of cartoons.

References

*O’Neill, Maire "Grace Gifford Plunkett and Irish Freedom - Tragic Bride of 1916" (Irish Academic Press, Dublin & Portland, OR, 2000). Maire O'Neill has kindly allowed Wikipedia to use material from this publication.
*Plunkett Dillon, Geraldine (edited by Honor O Brolchain): "All in the Blood" (A. & A. Farmar)
*Gannon, Charles "Cathal Gannon - The Life and Times of a Dublin Craftsman" (Lilliput Press). [http://homepage.eircom.net/~cathalgannon]

External links

* [http://www.triskelle.eu/lyrics/grace.php?index=080.010.040.010 article] which includes words of the song
* [http://graceplunkett.20m.com/ article] which includes some of her drawings