Dear word explorer,
Last Friday, my husband Martin and I voted in our local and European elections. This is my idea of a start of a good date! From a young age I was gripped by the knowledge that many generations of women had sacrificed much in order to gift their descendents with the right to vote. For me, voting was a sign of adulthood, and as soon as I turned eighteen I enrolled on the register of voters.
At the time, many of my peers had apathetic views about voting, and when I was in university I often had passionate arguments with friends on the subject. As an English/History major I had plenty of time to study the struggle of ordinary people to establish and maintain a functioning democracy. I’ve never taken this for granted.
Women won the right to vote in Ireland in 1918. Long before us, the first self-governing country that offered women’s suffrage was New Zealand in 1893 — but women were not allowed to be elected to government; that wasn’t available until 1919. At least in Ireland, women were able to vote and stand for election in 1918. Thus, Countess de Markievicz1 was the first woman elected to the House of Commons at Westminster, since at the time Ireland was part of the United Kingdom.2 As a protest to British rule, Markievicz never took her seat at London, but joined the revolutionary first Dáil Éireann (Assembly of Ireland), and was the first female TD.3
It’s worth noting that Markievicz was sentenced to death after the 1916 Easter uprising, since she was a senior member of the officers of the rebellion, and it was only on condition or her gender that she wasn’t shot by firing squad, as was the fate of most of the other rebellion leaders. She was given a life sentence, and imprisoned in various gaols until she was given an amnesty in 1917. During the 1918 election she was back in prison for protesting war conscription in Ireland, so she wasn’t able to campaign for the position.
In Ireland, Markievicz is a very well known historical character, but she was only one of legions of women who agitated for freedom, both for their country and for equality. The Irish Republic did not serve these women well after its establishment, and it was a long battle during the subsequent decades to achieve equal treatment. Up until 1973 in Ireland women were forced to resign from the civil service once they got married. What changed in 1973? Ireland entered the EEC (now the EU).
So whenever I enter a polling booth, I think of the generations of people before me, who died fighting for equality for all people in a democratic society. How delighted they would be to see us enjoying such liberties! How surprised they would be to know that not everyone participates.
I cannot claim to be a complete Jazz aficionado, but I learned its joys back when I regularly haunted the aisles of Tower Records in Dublin (which was open late almost every night) and I bought piles and piles of CDs.
Many years later Martin asked me if I knew of ‘Thelonious Monk’s 25 Tips for Musicians’, and I was happy to learn more. I was aware of Monk (1917-1982), he was an iconic Jazz pianist with an unforgettable name, but I did not know he’d compiled a list of useful guidelines, that often apply to other creative practices.4
Perhaps his most jazztastic saying was: ‘You’ve got to dig it to dig it, you dig?’
It’s weirdly ineffable and yet you understand it in your bones, like a double bass vibration. You’ve got to relish it to love it (and this isn’t even right). Practice and craft underpins innovation, but there’s an inexplicable zing that lights us up when we follow our original offbeat tunes without noticing chiding critics. Not everyone else is going to dig your peculiar melody, and Monk knew that better than anyone.
He initially came into prominence during the bebop explosion in New York in the 1940s, along with stars like saxophonist Charlie Parker and trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie. But Monk’s style was unusual for the time, and he was unapologetic about it. “He can’t play. He has two left hands,” a record store owner complained when asked to sell Monk’s early albums (quoted in Leslie Gourse’s Straight, No Chaser: The Life and Genius of Thelonious Monk). But a cadre of loyal listeners got Monk, and loved his output. He kept doing his own thing.
Which leads to another of his aphorisms: ‘Whatever you think can’t be done, somebody will come along and do it. A genius is the one most like himself.’
In 1956 he and his band underwent gruelling recording sessions to capture his original compositions that would end up on his 1957 album, Brilliant Corners, which is considered a milestone in the evolution of Jazz.
It was Monk’s fifth album and he was 39 years old.
Monk was a complicated, brilliant musician who struggled with illness later in life, but who was always supported by his wife Nellie, his family, and the patronage and friendship from publishers and fans. Creators have an evolutionary path, and sometimes it’s lonely and meandering. Diversions and roadblocks are likely. If they are focused and self-assured enough to walk with their own stride and to their own tempo, they can arrive at rare destinations.
The noise of the world reverberates louder these days. But happily, there are headphones.
The final words belong to Monk:
‘A note can be small as a pin or as big as the world, it depends on your imagination.’
Constance Georgine Markievicz (née Gore-Booth) 1868 – 1927.
The fourth reform act of 1918 was also when universal male suffrage was granted in the UK, for men over the age of 21, with no restrictions (men in the armed forces could vote from the age of 19). Until this point, only 58% of the male population in the UK could vote. For women, they had to be aged over 30, and occupy land or premises with a value above £5, or whose husbands did. The Irish Free State, established in 1922, gave men and women equal voting rights at the age of 21. In the UK, women were given equal voting rights in 1928.
Teachta Dála - or Deputy to the Dáil. A member of Dáil Éireann.
Monk’s tips were written down by saxophonist Steve Lacy in 1960.
I love this! Writing down "you've got to dig it to dig it, you dig?" in my notes. Love Monk, love jazz although I am extremely far from being any kind of expert. But I'm often shocked when people say they don't like jazz and then reveal a very narrow breadth of familiarity. I always suggest that they give Coltrane's 'A Love Supreme' and Miles Davis's 'Kind of Blue' a listen if they'd like to give the genre another chance since they are both magical albums for me.
And thanks for the timely reminder about the privilege of voting. I was brought up to see it as one of my most important duties, but it's all too easy to get cynical and complacent.
I love this post, as usual 💕 I totally dig it. My mom brought me up believing women should always vote especially because we fought so hard for it, not only here in America, but around the world. Your essay brought me to thinking about that and the good things she made me think about-- I thank you for that. 🙌♥️ have a great rest of your week!