"The Gonnes came from County Mayo, but my great-great grandfather was disinherited and sought fortune abroad trading in Spanish wine," she wrote.

"My grandfather was head of a prosperous firm with houses in London and Oporto – he destined my father to take charge of the foreign business and had him educated abroad.

Unaware that she would inherit a fortune on her majority, she tried to become an actress, but became ill with the tuberculosis that stayed with her throughout her life; in the summer of 1887 she went to the French spa town of Royat in the Auvergne to recover.

[3] In France, Gonne met Lucien Millevoye (1850–1918), a married journalist with fervid right-wing politics, a supporter of the revanchist General Boulanger.

Gonne was attracted to the occultist and spiritualist worlds deeply important to Yeats, asking his friends about the reality of reincarnation.

[12][13] During the 1890s, Gonne travelled extensively throughout England, Wales, Scotland and the United States campaigning for the nationalist cause, forming an organisation called the "Irish League" (L'association irlandaise) in 1896.

They decided to "combat in every way English influence doing so much injury to the artistic taste and refinement of the Irish people.

In an early issue of Bean na hÉireann, the organisation's journal, the editorial proclaimed, "Our desire to have a voice in directing the affairs of Ireland is not based on the failure of men to do so properly, but is the inherent right of women as loyal citizens and intelligent human souls.

"[17] A second organisation, the National Council, was formed in 1903 by Gonne and others, including Arthur Griffith, on the occasion of the visit of King Edward VII to Dublin.

[22]In Paris in 1903, after having turned down at least four marriage proposals from Yeats between 1891 and 1901, Maud married Major John MacBride, who had led the Irish Transvaal Brigade against the British in the Second Boer War.

She demanded sole custody of their son, but MacBride refused, and a divorce case began in Paris on 28 February 1905.

[citation needed] After the marriage ended, Gonne made allegations of domestic violence and, according to W. B. Yeats, of sexual molestation of Iseult, her daughter from a previous relationship, then aged 11.

He had known her since she was four, and often referred to her as his darling child and took a paternal interest in her writings (many Dubliners wrongly suspected that Yeats was her father).

Gonne chaired several meetings of international groups to build sympathy for her causes among the American, British and French publics.

She wanted Cumann na mBan to be considered seriously: her idea was to get affiliation with the English Red Cross, and wrote to Geneva to gain an international profile for the new nationalist organisation.

Lord French's sister, Mrs Charlotte Despard was a famous suffragist, who was already a Sinn Feiner when she arrived in Dublin in 1920.

Cork was under a Martial Law Area (MLA) prohibited to Irishmen and women outside the zone but the Viceroy's sister had a pass.

The committee that set up White Cross in Ireland asked Gonne to join in January 1921 to distribute funds to victims administered by Cumann na mBan.

During the street battles she headed a delegation called The Women's Peace Committee which approached the Dáil leadership, and her old friend Arthur Griffith.

[38] Historians have related the extent of the damage done to her home at 75 St Stephen's Green, when soldiers from the National Army ransacked the place.

On 9 November 1922, the Sinn Féin Office was raided in Suffolk street; the Free State had swept the capital, rounding up opposition committing them to prison for internment.

The evidence comes from Margaret Buckley, who as Secretary of Sinn Féin acted as legal representative for the women but there was nothing prudish about their concerted opposition to civil rights abuses.

According to the diary account of her colleague Hannah Moynihan: Last night [10th April] at 11pm, we heard the commotion which usually accompanies the arrival of new prisoners... we pestered the wardress and she told us there were four – Maud Gonne MacBride, her daughter Mrs Iseult Stuart and two lesser lights...

Months later the women spread a rumour that Nell Ryan had died in custody in order to gain a propaganda victory.

On 1 June Gonne was standing in protest outside Kilmainham Jail with Dorothy Macardle, the writer and activist, and Iseult Stuart.

Formed in 1932 as the Financial Freedom Federation, they became the Irish Social Credit Party in late 1935 and Gonne MacBride was a prominent member of the group throughout the 1930s.

Major Douglas's contention that production has outstripped distribution with disastrous results of unemployment and starvation, tending to war and anarchy is incontrovertible, and is apparent to all in the desperate scramble for markets, the restriction of output and destruction in almost every country of consumable goods, while millions of people who need these goods are allowed to starve.

[47] Why should I blame her that she filled my days With misery, or that she would of late Have taught to ignorant men most violent ways Or hurled the little streets upon the great.

As Irish Foreign Minister (1948–1951) he was active the United Nations and helped secure ratification of the European Convention on Human Rights.