File:Maud Gonne (gone but now returned) (39627339834).jpg

{NOTE: This image was originally posted on Thursday 15 Feb 2018. While an error led to its deletion, we have attempted to restore as much of the origiinal text/comments/insights as possible}

Earlier this week we had Darrell Figgis of whom very little was known - but today we have a lady whose name remains in almost everyday use. Maud Gonne is one of those few women in history who is known for herself rather than for her husband. Having said that, while we know of her involvement with the early years of the last century and many of the characters in the Ireland at that time, we know little of her origins and her own family. Perhaps there will be some learning all round.

Based on the inputs on the inscription, the suggestion is that it reads:  To M[r?] Harvey[?] / A fellow nationalist  Maud Gonne / April 19th [18]96 / Paris If so, this photo dates from when Maud Gonne was living in Paris. Aged then in her late 20s, she became the editor of the French language nationalist paper, L'Irlande Libre by the late 1890s. She would later marry Major John MacBride, turning down the advances of WB Yeats (who, as any Irish schoolchild will tell you, didn't take the rejection especially well). The suggestion is that the Mr Harvey mentioned in the inscription was Edmund Harvey. He was a writer and activist who authored several pamphlets for the women's suffrage movement - including "The Position of Irishwomen in Local Administration" published the same year as this photo. We have mapped the image to Reutlinger's photographic studio at 21 Boulevard Montmartre in Paris....

Collection: Irish Political Figures Photographic Collection

NLI Ref: NPA POLF82