Sinn Féin TDs Seán Crowe and Aengus Ó Snodaigh have called on the government and Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council to intervene to save, preserve, and possibly restore Countess Markievicz’s summer cottage in Ticknock, County Dublin.

The cottage, just off the Blackglen Road, was originally owned by Constance Markievicz and her husband Count Casimir Markievicz and it was used by them as a summer retreat. Countess Markievicz founded Fianna Éireann in 1909 and she also used the cottage for Fianna Éireann activities, such as camping and trekking in the Dublin Mountains.

Many of those who took part or died in the 1916 Rising in Dublin, including some of the executed leaders, stayed in the house on occasion as part of a Fianna slua.

Crowe and Ó Snodaigh recently visited the now overgrown and derelict granite cottage ruin in this picturesque part of the Dublin Mountains and they believe that the cottage should be saved and preserved it for future generations, considering the part it played in Ireland’s revolutionary past.

Sinn Féin’s spokesperson on Culture, Heritage and Gaeltacht, Deputy Aengus Ó Snodaigh, said:

“Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht and local TD, Josepha Madigan, should as part of her role as chair of the Decade of Centenaries Committee show leadership and intervene to ensure the cottage doesn’t deteriorate further. The Minister should work with Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council to save and preserve Markievicz Cottage, as part of local, national, and international history.

“It should be declared a national monument, and working with the owner of the site, it should be cleared, a plaque erected initially, and then a longer term plan of restoration for the granite cottage should be drawn up. We should honour the role the cottage, the Countess, her husband, and the members of Fianna Éireann played in Ireland’s fight for freedom.”

Dublin South West TD, Seán Crowe said:

“I grew up in Rathfarnham listening to stories about Fianna Éireann and its founder Countess Markievicz. She was a 1916 leader, the first woman elected to Westminster and the Dáil, and our first Minister for Labour, and I was aware of her cottage in Ticknock.

“The state has allowed this cottage, like the Moore Street site the last headquarters of the 1916 Rebellion, go into disrepair and ruin. In the past no protection was given to the Fianna Éireann headquarters on Camden Street and it was demolished.

“This cottage is very much part of our revolutionary history and Ireland’s freedom struggle. It is unacceptable and criminal that official neglect has allowed Markievicz’s cottage to disintegrate and collapse into ruins.

“We are calling on the Government and Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council in this Decade of Centenaries to do the right thing and to save and restore this national monument. Every effort should be made to preserved it for the local community and future generations. It is an important part of our history and our heritage”

ENDS