Grace O'Malley Pocket Watch

This pewter pocket watch depicts the Irish revolutionary Constance Markievicz. A feminist icon, Markievicz was also a committed republican and socialist. Having played a leading figure in the 1916 Rising, she was the only woman sentenced to death in the aftermath of the revolt. Although granted a reprieve she was sentenced to life in prison. In 1917 she was released under an amnesty and became the first woman elected to the House of Commons when she won a seat in the 1918 Election.

She served as Minister for Labour in the republican government during the War of Independence. At the end of the conflict she rejected the Treaty and supported the republican side in the subsequent Civil War. This lead to her being imprisoned briefly in 1923. A founding member of the Fianna Fail party in June 1927, she died a month later at the age of 59.

The watch is faced with a relief of Markievicz, her name along with the year she was born and the year she died. Made in Ireland, the pocket watch is crafted from pewter in Mullingar.