Black and white photo of Lady Gregory standing in a field, wearing all black

Section 8: Blessed Bridget O'Coole Introduction

black and white photograph of three young children in front of a mantle and fireplace

black and white pen and ink drawing of Lady Gregory standing on a globe with a book to her left

Lady Gregory sighing for new worlds to Kiltartanise

Grace Evelyn Gifford Plunkett (1888-1955)
"Lady Gregory sighing for new worlds to Kiltartanise"
ca. 1919

Pen and ink on paper

Grace Gifford Plunkett's first collection, To Hold as 'Twere, featured this caricature of Lady Gregory standing upon a volume entitled Gregorian Chants, gazing at a Koran as she "sigh [ s] for new worlds to Kiltartanise." Engaged to poet and journalist Joseph Plunkett, one of the main planners of the Easter Rising, Grace Gifford managed to gain entry to Kilmainham Jail a few hours before he was executed at dawn on May 4, 1916, and persuaded the military authorities to allow them to marry. She remained an active member of Sinn Fein for the rest of her life and continued her work as an illustrator and cartoonist. She never remarried. In 1929, Gregory wrote the introduction to Plunkett's Twelve Nights at the Abbey.

Holding Division: Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature

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