Gonne, Maud (1865-1953)

Irish nationalist and actor, a founder-member of Sinn Fein. A celebrated society beauty, she became acquainted with the poet W B Yeats in the 1890s through her support for Irish nationalism. Gonne refused Yeats's offer of marriage, and in 1903 married Major John MacBride, who had fought against the British in the Boer War and was ultimately executed for his part in the Easter Rising in 1916. Their son Seán MacBride was foreign minister of the Irish Republic from 1948-51 and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.

Gonne's father was an Irish colonel and her mother was English. She made her acting debut in St Petersburg, Russia, and later rose to prominence on the stage in her native country, working at the new Abbey Theatre founded by Yeats. After taking up the republican cause, she established the nationalist women's organization, the ‘Daughters of Ireland’, and edited a nationalist newspaper, L'Irlande libre, in Paris.