COURAGE

Grace Gifford — The Revolutionary who Inspired an Irish Ballad

She married a condemned man seven hours before he faced the firing squad

I once had a friend with a strange hobby. He looked up the historical figures who died the year he was born. He’d study them- listen to their music, read their books and watch their TV shows or movies.

The practice grounded him in place and time, he said. It made him realize how much both factors defined his existence. It also shows how the past bleeds into the present.

Emmett Till died the year my friend was born. So did Einstein.

With Saint Patrick’s Day on the horizon, I decided to learn about Grace Gifford. The Irish artist and political cartoonist died in 1955, the year of my birth.

She’s mainly remembered through a ballad that tells the story of her marriage. There are also a couple of portraits by her art teacher, William Orpen.

At 16, Gifford attended art school in Dublin. Orpen considered her one of his most gifted students. She specialized in caricature. Luckily, she also left some artifacts.

“Grace”

Frank and Sean O’Meara wrote “Grace” in 1985, 30 years after Gifford’s death. Listen to these football fans to understand how the Irish feel about the ballad.

The song tells the story of Grace Gifford and Joseph Plunkett, a Catholic poet, editor, and world traveler. They planned to marry on Easter Sunday in 1916.

Gifford’s parents disapproved of Plunkett. They didn’t like his activism or his tuberculosis. Grace would not be dissuaded. She even converted to Catholicism from Protestantism.

The Easter Rising got in the way of the couple’s wedding plans. The armed rebellion took place in Dublin over five days in 1916. Plunkett helped lead despite his fragile health. He had just had surgery on his neck glands, and the doctors gave him six months to live.

After surrendering, Plunkett and the other leaders marched to the Kilmainham Gaol. The British authorities sentenced them to death by firing squad. Plunkett convinced his jailers to grant him a favor. They allowed him to marry Grace.

The bride bought a ring from a jeweler on Grafton Street and showed up with a Catholic priest. The only witnesses were British soldiers with bayonets fixed.

The couple had 15 minutes together before she had to leave. They couldn’t touch or speak to one another. Someone photographed her at the jail.

Plunkett was too weak from tuberculosis to stand for his execution, so he sat in a chair. The ballad imagines his final thoughts as the firing squad did what firing squads do.

The chorus goes,

Oh, Grace, just hold me in your arms and let this moment linger

They’ll take me out at dawn and I will die

With all my love, I place this wedding ring upon your finger

There won’t be time to share our love for we must say goodbye.

Gossips wondered if Grace was pregnant. Later, Joe’s sister Geraldine Plunkett Dillon settled the matter in her autobiography, “All in the Blood.” She told the story of Grace’s miscarriage.

After the Rising, Grace’s mother threw her out, and Geraldine gave her a place to live in Larkfield, a family-owned estate.

I went out to Larkfield to see Grace and was told she was upstairs in bed. When I went into her bedroom I saw a large, white chamberpot full of blood and fetus. She said nothing and I said nothing.

Rod Stewart called “Grace” the most tragic love song he ever sang. It inspired him to travel to Dublin and visit the Kilmainham Gaol, now a museum. He also laid flowers on Grace Gifford’s grave in a nearby cemetery.

Plunkett is buried in a mass grave with 13 other insurrectionists at the jail.

Stewart, the Dubliners, the Wolfe Tones, Barleycorn, Anthony Kearns, and others recorded “Grace.” I include Jim McCann’s version because critics consider it the best. It’s also the original.

Then what happened?

Grace’s political cartoons give clues about her life after the prison wedding.

After the Rising, Grace joined Sinn Fein, a political party active throughout the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. She threw herself into the cause. In 1921, she was briefly imprisoned at the Kilmainham Gaol for her political activities.

She drew the Madonna on the walls of her prison cell.

Grace never remarried.

Takeaways

Who died the year you were born? Maybe you could pick one or two and learn more about them. It could be a good idea for your next blog.

Connie Song might enjoy this exercise since she wrote about love songs. Maybe she’ll discover a new singer or songwriter in the process.

Chrissy Cordingley wrote an incredible short story about the coexistence of grief and joy. Maybe she’d find more examples by studying people who died in her birth year.