Gore-Booth, Eva Selina

(1870-1926)

   One of three daughters (and two sons) of Sir Henry Gore-Booth, fifth baronet, Anglo-Irish landlord and Arctic explorer. Josslyn introduced cooperatives to Sligo and became the first landlord in Ireland to sell his land to his tenants after the 1903 Land Act. Gore-Booth's sister Constance (later Countess) Markievicz became the "rebel countess" of the 1916 Irish rebellion. Recovering in Italy from suspected tuberculosis, in 1896 Eva met Esther Roper, an organizer for the North of England Society for Women's Suffrage. They fell in love and lived together in Manchester, where they edited the Women's Labour News. Eva devoted her life to social reform-trade unionism, suffrage, and adult education for women. She was at one time mentor of Christabel Pankhurst, but Eva proved not militant enough, and the friendship ended. Her health broke down after World War I and she and Esther retired to Hampstead. After her death, Esther collected many of her poems for publication and wrote a biographical introduction to them. Some of her poems: "A Heretic's Pilgrimage," "Crucifixion," "Harvest," "The Little Waves of Breffny," "The Sad Years," "The Travelers," "The Vision of Niamh."

   Sources: Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. Poems Between Women Four Centuries of Love, Romantic Friendship, and Desire. Emma Donoghue, ed. Columbia University Press, 1997. The Home Book of Modern Verse. Burton Egbert Stevenson, ed. Henry Holt, 1953. The National Portrait Gallery (www.npg.org.uk). The World's Great Religious Poetry. Caroline Miles Hill, ed. Macmillan, 1954. Treasury of Irish Religious Verse. Patrick Murray, ed. Crossroad, 1986.