ABSTRACT
In 2014, Irish political party Fianna Fáil (translating from the Gaelic as Soldiers of Destiny) established the Markievicz Commission, which referenced the early twentieth-century Irish nationalist revolutionary, Constance Markievicz (née Gore-Booth, 1868–1927). It did so in response to Irish government regulations stipulating that all political parties risked losing a significant amount of taxpayers’ funding if they failed to field at least thirty per cent women candidates in the next general election. Over the previous three decades, the highest point in women’s candidacies across the country was only twenty per cent. In each of the general elections taking place during that time, women had made up less than 15 per cent of Fianna Fáil’s candidates. 1
