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‘This is a case in which Irish national considerations must be taken into account’:1 the breakdown of the MacBride–Gonne marriage, 1904–8

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 February 2015

Caoimhe Nic Dháibhéid
Caoimhe Nic Dháibhéid*
Affiliation:
Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge
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Extract

In her vivid account of the Irish theatre movement, Máire Colum described the first evening of Lady Gregory's Gaol Gate at the Abbey Theatre on 20 October 1906. The performance was delayed until Yeats arrived; he was accompanied by a tall woman dressed in black. As soon as they appeared, there was a violent reaction in a section of the audience:

Type
Research Article
Information
Irish Historical Studies , Volume 37 , Issue 146 , November 2010 , pp. 241 - 264
Copyright
Copyright © Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd 2010

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Footnotes

1

R. O’Brien to Maud Gonne MacBride, 1 Jan. 1905 (N.L.I., Fred Allan papers, MS 29814).

References

2 Colum, M., Life and the dream (2nd ed., Dublin, 1966), p. 124Google Scholar.

3 Quoted in The collected letters of W. B. Yeats, vol. iv: 1905–1907, ed. Kelly, J. & Schuhard, R. (Oxford, 2005), p. 515 n.1Google Scholar.

4 Ward, M., Maud Gonne: Ireland’s Joan of Arc (London, 1990)Google Scholar; Jordan, A., Major John MacBride: MacDonagh and MacBride and Connolly and Pearse (Westport, 1991)Google Scholar.

5 Keane, E., Seán MacBride: a life (Dublin, 2007), p. 18Google Scholar.

6 Gonne MacBride, M., A servant of the queen: reminiscences (3rd ed., London, 1974), p. 319Google Scholar.

7 Jordan, , Major John MacBride, pp 4–5Google Scholar; John MacBride notebook, 1905 (N.L.I., Fred Allan papers, MS 29817).

8 O Broin, L., Revolutionary underground: the story of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, 1858–1925 (Dublin, 1976), pp 36–40Google Scholar.

9 Ibid., pp 59–63; McGee, O., The IRB: the Irish Republican Brotherhood from the Land League to Sinn Féin (Dublin, 2005), pp 241–3Google Scholar.

10 John MacBride notebook.

11 McCracken, D.P., MacBride’s brigade: Irish commandos in the Anglo-Boer War (Dublin, 1999), pp 29–30Google Scholar.

12 For a detailed account of the Irish brigade in the Boer War, see ibid.

13 John MacBride notebook.

14 Ibid.

15 Broin, Ó, Revolutionary underground, p. 110Google Scholar.

16 John MacBride notebook.

17 See Balliett, C.A., ‘The lives – and lies – of Maud Gonne’ in Éire–Ireland, 14 (autumn 1979), pp 17–44Google Scholar for an in-depth examination of Maud Gonne’s presentation of her family background.

18 MacBride, Gonne, A servant of the queen, p. 32Google Scholar.

19 Gonne MacBride, M. to MacManus, M.J., 22 Jan. 1950 (Boston College, Burns Library, M. J. MacManus papers, MS 86–36, box 1, folder 15)Google Scholar; MacBride, Gonne, A servant of the queen, pp 41–2Google Scholar.

20 Ward, , Maud Gonne, pp 11–12Google Scholar.

21 Jeffares, A.N., ‘Iseult Gonne’ in Yeats Annual 16 (London, 2005), pp 197–200Google Scholar. Georges Sylvère died of meningitis in 1891, to the intense and lasting grief of his mother.

22 Ward, , Maud Gonne, pp 22–4Google Scholar.

23 Yeats, W.B., Memoirs, ed. Donoghue, D. (2nd ed., London, 1974), p. 40Google Scholar.

24 See Bobotis, A., ‘Rival maternities: Maud Gonne, Queen Victoria and the reign of the political mother’ in Victorian Studies (autumn 2006), pp 63–83Google Scholar; Pašeta, S., ‘Nationalist responses to two royal visits to Ireland, 1900 and 1903’ in I.H.S., xxxi (1999), pp 488–504Google Scholar, and Condon, J., ‘The patriotic children’s treat: Irish nationalism and children’s culture at the twilight of Empire’ in Irish Studies Review, 8, no. 2 (2000), pp 167–78Google Scholar.

25 Steele, K., Women, press and politics during the Irish Revival (New York, 2007), p. 78 ffGoogle Scholar.

26 MacBride, Gonne, A servant of the queen, p. 291Google Scholar; Pašeta, , ‘Nationalist responses to two royal visits to Ireland’, pp 493–4Google Scholar.

27 Ward, , Maud Gonne, pp 63–8Google Scholar.

28 McCracken, D.P., Forgotten protest: Ireland and the Anglo-Boer War (Belfast, 1989; 2003 ed.), p. 39 ffGoogle Scholar.

29 Ibid., p. 92.

30 See Ward, , Maud Gonne, p. 69Google Scholar on Maud’s Electra-like preference for soldierly men; and Foster, Roy, W. B. Yeats: a life, vol. 1: the apprentice mage, 1865–1914 (Oxford, 1998), p. 284Google Scholar on John MacBride’s incarnation of ‘the authentic and uncompromising Irish nation alism to which … [Maud Gonne] had dedicated her life’.

31 Cardozo, N., Maud Gonne: lucky eyes and a high heart (London, 1979), pp 205–6Google Scholar; see also Ward, , Maud Gonne, pp 69–70Google Scholar, and Jordan, , Major John MacBride, pp 54–5Google Scholar.

32 MacBride, Gonne, A servant of the queen, p. 342Google Scholar; Foster, , The apprentice mage, p. 284Google Scholar.

33 John MacBride notebook, 1905.

34 Gonne, M. to Gonne Pilcher, K., n.d. (1903?), quoted in Balliett, The lives – and lies – of Maud Gonne, pp 31–2Google Scholar.

35 MacBride, Gonne, A servant of the queen, p. 348Google Scholar; see also Jeffares, , ‘Iseult Gonne’, p. 207Google Scholar.

36 MacBride, Gonne, A servant of the queen, pp 48–9Google Scholar.

37 Foster, , The apprentice mage, p. 284Google Scholar.

38 Yeats, W.B. to Gonne, M., n.d. (Jan. 1903?) in Always your friend: the Gonne–Yeats letters, 1893–1938, ed. MacBride White, A. and Jeffares, A.N. (London, 1992), pp 164–5Google Scholar.

39 Foster, , The apprentice mage, p. 286Google Scholar.

40 United Irishman, 28 Feb. 1903Google Scholar, cited in Ward, , Maud Gonne, p. 78Google Scholar.

41 See Pašeta, ‘Nationalist responses to two royal visits to Ireland’.

42 Statement of facts on behalf of John MacBride (N.L.I., Fred Allan papers, MS 29819).

43 John MacBride notebook.

44 Ibid.

45 Always your friend, ed. White, MacBride & Jeffares, , p. 183Google Scholar.

46 Foster, , The apprentice mage, p. 330Google Scholar.

47 Eileen Wilson married Joseph MacBride in August 1904, and they lived together in Westport, County Mayo. An apparently happy union, their grandson is the poet Paul Durcan.

48 John MacBride notebook.

49 Ibid.

50 Jordan, A., ‘John MacBride’s good name’ in Irish Literary Supplement (autumn 1998), pp 15–17Google Scholar.

51 Jordan, A., Willie Yeats and the Gonne MacBrides (Westport, 1997), p. 149Google Scholar; idem, The Yeats–Gonne–MacBride triangle (Dublin, 2000), p. 101.

52 Foster, , The apprentice mage, p. 331Google Scholar.

53 Brown, T., The life of W. B. Yeats: a critical biography (Dublin, 1999), p. 164Google Scholar; Maddox, B., George’s ghosts: a new life of W. B. Yeats (London, 1999), pp 43–4Google Scholar.

54 Cardozo, N., Maud Gonne: lucky eyes and a high heart (London, 1979), p. 246Google Scholar; Ward, , Maud Gonne, p. 86Google Scholar.

55 Keane, , Seán MacBride, pp 14–16Google Scholar.

56 John MacBride notebook.

57 John MacBride to R. O’Brien, 29 Dec. 1904 (N.L.I., Fred Allan papers, MS 29812).

58 Reproduction of letter from Maud Gonne MacBride to R. O’Brien, 26 Dec. 1904 in John MacBride notebook.

59 Reproduction of letter from P. Witham to R. O’Brien, 28 Dec. 1904 in ibid.

60 John MacBride to R. O’Brien, 29 Dec. 1904 (N.L.I., Fred Allan papers, MS 29812); draft separation agreement between John MacBride and Maud Gonne MacBride, n.d. (ibid., MS 29813).

61 Maume, P., ‘O’Brien, Richard Barry (1847–1918)’ in Matthew, H.C.G. and Harrison, Brian (eds), Oxford dictionary of national biography (60 vols, Oxford, 2004), 41, 381–2Google Scholar; Barry O’Brien, R., The life of Charles Stewart Parnell, 1846–1891 (2 vols, London, 1898–1910)Google Scholar.

62 Reproduction of letter from Maud Gonne MacBride to R. O’Brien, 31 Dec. 1904 in John MacBride notebook.

63 The collected letters of W. B. Yeats, vol. iv: 1905–1907, ed. Kelly, & Schuhard, , pp 7–9Google Scholar.

64 R. O’Brien to Maud Gonne MacBride, 1 Jan. 1905 (N.L.I., Fred Allan papers, MS 29814).

65 Always your friend, ed. White, MacBride & Jeffares, , p. 184Google Scholar.

66 Foster, , The apprentice mage, p. 330Google Scholar.

67 Yeats, W.B. to Augusta Gregory, Lady, 9 Jan. 1905 in The collected letters of W. B. Yeats: vol. iv: 1905–1907, ed. Kelly, & Schuhard, , pp 7–9Google Scholar.

68 W. B. Yeats to Lady Augusta Gregory, 11 Jan. 1905 in ibid., 11.

69 W. B. Yeats to Lady Augusta Gregory, 14 Jan. 1905 in ibid., 19.

70 For more information on Quinn, see Reid, B.L., The man from New York: John Quinn and his friends (Oxford, 1968)Google Scholar.

71 Yeats, W.B. to Quinn, John, 14 Jan. 1905 in The collected letters of W. B. Yeats: vol. iv: 1905–1907, ed. Kelly, & Schuhard, , p. 17Google Scholar.

72 Daniel Cohalan, a U.S. Democrat and closely associated with the Tammany Hall political machine, was a judge of the New York Supreme Court and prominent member of the Irish-American community.

73 Quinn, J. to Yeats, W.B., 31 Mar. 1905 in The letters of John Quinn to W. B. Yeats, ed. Himber, A. (Ann Arbour, Michigan, 1983), p. 71Google Scholar.

74 J. Quinn to W. B. Yeats, 6 May 1905 in ibid., p. 73.

75 Quinn, J. to Gonne, M., 24 May 1906 in Too long a sacrifce: the letters of Maud Gonne and John Quinn, ed. Londraville, J. and Londraville, R. (London, 1999), pp 34–6Google Scholar; Always your friend, ed. White, MacBride & Jeffares, , p. 484Google Scholar.

76 Quoted in Foster, , The apprentice mage, p. 333Google Scholar.

77 For more detail on Annie Horniman, see Frazer, A., Behind the scenes: Yeats, Horniman and the struggle for the Abbey Theatre (London, 1990)Google Scholar.

78 Gonne, Maud to Yeats, W.B., n.d. (Mar. 1905?) in Always your friend, ed. White, MacBride & Jeffares, , p. 197Google Scholar.

79 Horniman, A. to Gregory, A., 11 Apr. 1905 (New York Public Library, Augusta Gregory papers, W., Henry and A. Berg, Albert collection of English and American literature)Google Scholar.

80 A. Horniman to A. Gregory, 10 Apr. 1905 (ibid.).

81 Yeats, W.B. to Quinn, J., 30 Mar. 1905 in The collected letters of W. B. Yeats, vol. iv: 1905–1907, ed. Kelly, & Schuhard, , p. 63Google Scholar.

82 Quoted in Bourke, M., John O’Leary: a study in Irish separatism (Tralee, 1975), p. 207Google Scholar.

83 McGee, , The IRB, pp 282–3Google Scholar.

84 Foster, , The apprentice mage, p. 333Google Scholar.

85 Reproduction of letter from Maud Gonne MacBride to John O’Leary, 9 Jan. 1905 in John MacBride notebook.

86 Reproduction of letter from John O’Leary to Maud Gonne MacBride, 14 Jan. 1905 in ibid.

87 Reproduction of letter from Maud Gonne MacBride to John O’Leary, 15 Jan. 1905 in ibid.

88 Yeats, W.B. to Gregory, A., 21–24 Feb. 1905 in The collected letters of W. B. Yeats, vol. iv: 1905–1907, ed. Kelly, & Schuhard, , p. 43Google Scholar.

89 W. B. Yeats to A. Gregory, 27 Feb. 1905 in ibid., 47.

90 O’Connor, U., Celtic twilight: a portrait of the Irish literary renaissance (London, 1984), p. 41Google Scholar; see also Humphreys, M., The life and times of Edward Martyn: an aristocratic bohemian (Dublin, 2007)Google Scholar.

91 Gonne, M. to Yeats, W.B., 25 Feb. 1905 in Always your friend, ed. White, MacBride & Jeffares, , p. 192Google Scholar.

92 O’Connor, , Celtic twilight, p. 42Google Scholar.

93 Gonne, M. to Yeats, W.B., 30 Sept. 1905 in Always your friend, ed. White, MacBride & Jeffares, , p. 210Google Scholar.

94 Joyce, J. to Joyce, S., 15 Mar. 1905 in Selected letters of James Joyce, ed. Ellman, R. (London, 1975), p. 97Google Scholar.

95 Quinn, A., ‘Cathleen ni Houlihan writes back: Maud Gonne and Irish national theatre’ in Bradley, A. and Valiulis, M. (eds), Gender and sexuality in modern Ireland (Amherst, 1997), p. 57Google Scholar.

96 Maume, P., D. P. Moran (Dundalk, 1995)Google Scholar.

97 Irish Independent, 27 Feb. 1905.

98 Ibid., 15 May, 27 July 1905; see below for more details of this libel case.

99 Irish Times, 27 July, 20 Nov. 1905, 22 Feb. 1906; Freeman’s Journal, 21 Apr. 1906.

100 Petition of Maud Gonne MacBride to the president of the civil tribunal, Paris, 3 Feb. 1905 (N.L.I., Fred Allan papers, MS 29,816).

101 Stoljar, S., ‘A history of the French law of divorce – II’ in International Journal of Law and the Family, 4 (1990), pp 2–3CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

102 Savage, G.L., ‘Divorce and the law in England and France prior to the First World War’ in Journal of Social History, 21, no. 3 (spring 1988), p. 507Google Scholar; see also Eekelaar, M., ‘Crisis in divorce law: England and France’ in International and Comparative Law Quarterly, 15, no. 3 (July 1966), pp 875–96Google Scholar for a further discussion of the comparisons between French and English divorce law.

103 Stoljar, , ‘A history of the French law of divorce – II’, p. 9Google Scholar.

104 See Fitzpatrick, D., ‘Divorce and separation in modern Irish history’ in Past & Present, 114, no. 1 (1987), pp 172–85CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

105 Fernand Labori was a well-known Dreyfusard who had represented the captain at his trial in Rennes in September 1899. His representation of MacBride can perhaps be seen as part of the continuing battle between the right and left in France at the turn of the century; both Maud Gonne and her former lover, Lucien Millevoye, were well-known Boulangists, and as such lined up among the anti-Dreyfusards. See Cahm, E., The Dreyfus affair in French society and culture (London, 1966; 1994 ed.), p. 77Google Scholar ff; Levering Lewis, D., Prisoners of honour: the Dreyfus affair (New York, 1973; 1994 ed.), p. 289Google Scholar ff.

106 Irish Independent, 27 July 1905.

107 Affidavit of Jenny Wyse Power, 18 Nov. 1905 (N.L.I., Fred Allan papers, MS 29,826).

108 Kelly, M.J., The Fenian ideal and Irish nationalism, 1882–1916 (Woodbridge, 2006), p. 141Google Scholar; statement of P.T. Daly, 18 Nov. 1905 (N.L.I., Fred Allan Papers, MS 29,826).

109 John MacBride’s observations on the petitioner’s witnesses, undated [c . 1905] (N.L.I., Fred Allan papers, MS 29,820).

110 Ibid.

111 Gonne, Maud to Yeats, W.B., n.d. (Aug. 1906?) in Gonne–Yeats letters, ed. White, MacBride & Jeffares, , p. 232Google Scholar.

112 Stuart, F., Black list section H (London, 1971; 1982 ed.), p. 33Google Scholar.

113 John MacBride notebook.

114 Stoljar, , ‘A history of the French law of divorce – II’, p. 12Google Scholar.

115 Jordan, , The Yeats–Gonne–MacBride triangle, p. 92Google ScholarPubMed.

116 Irish Independent, 27 July 1905.

117 Ó Broin, , Revolutionary underground, p. 119Google Scholar.

118 Gonne, M. to Yeats, W.B., 24 Oct. 1905 in Always your friend, ed. White, MacBride & Jeffares, , p. 212Google Scholar.

119 Reproduction of letter from Maud Gonne to John O’Leary, n.d. in ibid., p. 213.

120 United Irishman, 18 Nov. 1905.

121 McCullough papers, Bureau of Military History, quoted in Ó Broin, , Revolutionary underground, p. 120Google Scholar. Ó Broin states that a compromise was reached, and both MacBride and Maud Gonne elected as vice-presidents; however, it appears fairly clear from the Gonne–Yeats correspondence around this time that Maud was indeed excluded: see Always your friend, ed. White, MacBride & Jeffares, , p. 213Google Scholar.

122 Quoted in Gonne, M. to Yeats, W.B., n.d. (Nov. 1905?) in Always your friend, ed. White, MacBride & Jeffares, , p. 213Google Scholar.

123 McCartan, P. to McGarrity, J., n.d. (N.Y.P.L., William Maloney Collection, Irish historical papers, box 7, folder 78)Google Scholar.

124 Gonne, M. to Yeats, W.B., n.d. (Nov. 1905?) in Always your friend, ed. White, MacBride & Jeffares, , pp 216–17Google Scholar.

125 M. Gonne to W. B. Yeats, n.d. (Nov. 1905?) in ibid., p. 213.

126 Irish Independent, 18 Dec. 1906.

127 Gonne, M. to Yeats, W.B., 8 Aug. 1906 in Always your friend, ed. White, MacBride & Jeffares, , pp 232–3Google Scholar.

128 Gonne, M. to Quinn, J., 25 Mar. 1908 in The letters of John Quinn & Maud Gonne, ed. Londraville, & Londraville, , p. 37Google Scholar.

129 Seán MacBride speaking in ‘Seán MacBride remembers’, RTÉ television documen tary, originally broadcast 1989.

130 Russell, G. to Gregory, A., n.d., quoted in The collected letters of W. B. Yeats: vol. iv, 1905–1907, ed. Kelly, & Schuhard, , p. 97Google Scholar.

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132 Steele, , Women, press & politics, p. 205Google Scholar.

133 Maud Gonne MacBride witness statement, second instalment, pp 13;3 (N.A.I., Bureau of Military History, WS 318); see also Ward, M., Hanna Sheehy Skeffington: a life (Cork, 1997), p. 63Google Scholar, and Reid, C.W., ‘The political and cultural life of Stephen Gwynn, with particular reference to the period 1905–1926’ (Ph.D. thesis, Queen’s University, Belfast, 2008), p. 119Google Scholar. Gonne evidently drafted the bill that fnally extended free school meals to Irish children. See Hone, J., W. B. Yeats, 1865–1939 (London, 1942), p. 151Google Scholar.

134 McDiarmid, L., The Irish art of controversy (Dublin, 2005), pp 123–67Google Scholar.

135 See also O’Callaghan, M. and Nic Dháibhéid, C., ‘Maud Gonne MacBride’ in McGuire, J. and Quinn, J. (eds), Dictionary of Irish biography from the earliest times to the year 2002 (9 vols, Cambridge, 2002), v, 733–9Google Scholar.

136 This has also been commented upon by Karen Steele, in her introduction to Maud Gonne’s Irish nationalist writings (Dublin, 2005)Google Scholar.

137 McGee, , The IRB, pp 320–1Google Scholar; Bourke, M., John O’Leary: a study in Irish separatism (Tralee, 1967), p. 233Google Scholar.

138 Gonne, M. to Yeats, W.B., 11 May 1916 in Gonne–Yeats letters, ed. White, MacBride & Jeffares, , p. 375Google Scholar.

139 Gonne, M. to Quinn, J., 11 May 1916 in The letters of John Quinn & Maud Gonne, ed. Londraville, & Londraville, , p. 169Google Scholar.

140 See Gonne–Yeats letters, ed. White, MacBride & Jeffares, , pp 167 ffGoogle Scholar; Keane, , Seán MacBride, p. 27lGoogle Scholar; Stoljar, , ‘A history of the French law of divorce –II’, p. 15Google Scholar.

141 Maud Gonne MacBride witness statement, frst instalment, p. 1 (N.A.I., B.M.H., WS 318).

142 Valiulis, M.G., ‘Introduction: gender, power and patriarchy’ in eadem, , Gender and power in Irish history (Dublin, 2009), p. 2Google Scholar.

143 Ward, , Unmanageable revolutionaries, pp 86–7Google Scholar.

144 Murphy, C., ‘Cherchez la femme: the elusive women in Irish history’ in Luddy, M. and Murphy, C. (eds), Women surviving: studies on Irish women in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (Dublin, 1990), p. 14Google Scholar; see also Ryan, L. and Ward, M. (eds), Irish women: soldiers, new women and wicked hags (Dublin, 2004)Google Scholar.