1. Grace Evelyn Gifford Plunkett was an Irish artist and cartoonist who was active in the Republican movement, who married her fiance Joseph Plunkett in Kilmainham Gaol only a few hours before he was executed for his part in the 1916 Easter Rising.
27 Facts About Grace Gifford
1. 2.
Grace Gifford was the second youngest in a family of 12 children and grew up in the fashionable suburb of Rathmines in Dublin.
3.
At the age of 16, Grace Gifford went to the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art, where she studied under the Irish artist William Orpen.
4.
Grace Gifford often sketched her and eventually painted her as one of his subjects for a series on 'Young Ireland'.
5.
Grace Gifford returned to Dublin in 1908 and, with great difficulty, tried to earn a living as a caricaturist, publishing her cartoons in The Shanachie, Irish Life, Meadowstreet and The Irish Review, which was edited from 1913 by Joseph Plunkett.
6.
Grace Gifford was a friend of her brother-in-law, another of the future leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising, Thomas MacDonagh, who was married to Gifford's sister Muriel.
7.
Plunkett proposed to her in 1915; Grace Gifford accepted and took formal instruction in Catholic doctrine.
8.
Grace Gifford was received into the Catholic Church in April 1916.
9.
Grace Gifford bought a ring in a jeweller's shop in Dublin city centre and, with the help of a priest, persuaded the military authorities to allow them to marry.
10.
Grace Gifford Plunkett decided to devote herself through her art to the promotion of Sinn Fein policies and resumed her commercial work to earn a living.
11.
Grace Gifford was elected to the Sinn Fein executive in 1917.
12.
Grace Gifford shared the care of Muriel's two children, Donagh MacDonagh and Barbara with their eldest sister, Katherine, until 1919.
13.
Grace Gifford was a loving aunt to both throughout her life.
14.
Grace Gifford painted pictures on the walls of her cell, including one of the Blessed Virgin and the Christ Child.
15.
Grace Gifford illustrated W B Yeats' The Words upon the Window Pane in 1930.
16.
Grace Gifford moved from one rented apartment to another and ate in city centre restaurants.
17.
Grace Gifford befriended many people and had many admirers, but had no wish to remarry.
18.
Grace Gifford lived for many years in a flat in Nassau Street with a balcony overlooking the sports ground of Trinity College.
19.
Grace Gifford's in-laws refused to honour her husband's will, in which he left everything to his widow, or his last letter to her in which he requested her to ensure that she pursue this - a heavy burden to place on Grace Gifford, who was not a mercenary person.
20.
For years Grace Gifford received nothing, so she began legal proceedings against her mother- and father-in-law, Count George Noble Plunkett and his wife in 1934.
21.
When Cathal married, Grace Gifford gave him and his wife Margaret a present of two single beds and a picture.
22.
Grace Gifford convalesced in a nursing home, which she did not like, mainly because it restricted her freedom.
23.
Grace Gifford Plunkett died suddenly on 13 December 1955 in her apartment in South Richmond Street, Portobello.
24.
Grace Gifford's body was removed to St Kevin's Church, Harrington Street and among the attendees at her funeral was President Sean T O'Kelly.
25.
Grace Gifford was buried with full military honours close to the republican plot in Glasnevin Cemetery.
26.
Grace Gifford is the subject of "Grace", a song written in 1985 by Frank and Sean O'Meara, which became popular in Ireland and elsewhere and has been recorded by many musicians.
27.
Grace Gifford is one of the people seen buying a bond in John MacDonagh's newsreel of Michael Collins signing the first issue of Republican Bonds outside St Enda's, Rathfarnham in 1919.