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The Woman who Shot Mussolini

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Date

Friday 22nd April 2022, 20:00

Description

VIOLET GIBSON

An tÉireannach Mná a Lámhach Mussolini

(The Irishwoman Who Shot Mussolini)

Directed by Barrie Dowdall

With

Olwen Fouéré


 

VIOLET GIBSON 

A Documentary about the Irish Woman Who Shot Mussolini 

 

Based on the Radio Documentary by Siobhán Lynam

Inspired by “The Woman Who Shot Mussolini” by Frances Stonor Saunders 

 

In 1926, 49-year-old aristocrat Violet Gibson, formerly a debutante at the Court of Queen Victoria, pushed her way through an adoring crowd in Rome and shot Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini at point blank range. She came the closest to success of the four assassination attempts on Mussolini, yet, she was written off as a lone "mad Irishwoman", committed to a lunatic asylum, and effectively written out of history.

 

Following 18 months of imprisonment and interrogation in Italy, and investigations into an international conspiracy, a deal was brokered by Mussolini and the British Foreign Office to have her declared insane and locked up in a British lunatic asylum for the rest of her life.

 

For 30 years, she battled for her release, writing letters to the authorities, politicians, friends, to Churchill after Italy declared war on Britain, to Princess Elizabeth. Her letters were never posted. In 1956, she died alone in the asylum, no friends or family attended her funeral.

 

Passed off as a “mad Irishwoman”, a “demented spinster”, a “crazy Irish mystic” this revelatory documentary brings the fascinating story to light, of the bold, free-thinking  daughter of the Lord Chancellor of Ireland, who rejected the trappings of her Anglo-Irish upbringing, and committed herself to social justice, anti-war activism, and opposition to fascism.      

 

95 years after the assassination attempt, Dublin City Council’s decision to erect a commemorative plaque honouring Violet Gibson has generated worldwide interest in this truly captivating story of Violet Gibson -  The Irish Woman Who Shot Mussolini.

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