{"id":385869,"date":"2026-04-07T06:08:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T06:08:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/385869\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T06:08:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T06:08:13","slug":"100-years-on-the-remarkable-story-of-the-irish-woman-who-plotted-to-kill-mussolini","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/385869\/","title":{"rendered":"100 years on… the remarkable story of the Irish woman who plotted to kill Mussolini"},"content":{"rendered":"

On April 7, 1926, Violet Gibson rose at 6am, prayed in the chapel at Santa Brigida convent, Rome, had breakfast, and went out \u201ca little agitated\u201d at 8.30am.<\/p>\n

Asked if she\u2019d be back for lunch, she half-smiled and answered: \u201cYes\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"AA plaque marking the place when Violet Gibson lived at No 12, Merion Square, Dublin. Picture: Plaques Of Dublin<\/p>\n

In her right pocket she clutched a revolver, wrapped in black cloth; in her left, concealed inside a black glove, she carried a stone to smash the windscreen of the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini\u2019s car.<\/p>\n

Early life<\/p>\n

\n HISTORY HUB\n <\/p>\n

If you are interested in this article then no doubt you will enjoy exploring the various history collections and content in our history hub. Check it out HERE<\/a> and happy reading <\/p>\n

Born 150 years ago, in Dalkey, on August 31, 1876, Violet Albina Gibson, the seventh of eight children, grew up at 12, Merrion Square, Dublin, in a magnificent four-storey Georgian house boasting a dining room that could seat 40. Governesses taught her French, needlework, singing, and social graces. Violet was expected to marry well.<\/p>\n

When she was nine, her father, Protestant lawyer Edward Gibson, became Lord Ashbourne, Lord Chancellor of Ireland, and \u2018Vizie\u2019 acquired the title \u2018Honourable\u2019.<\/p>\n

\n Moving to London while a teenager, she led a glittering social life of receptions and balls. At 18, she was presented to Queen Victoria at Buckingham Palace.\n <\/p>\n

Violet had been a sickly child, she survived scarlet fever at five, peritonitis at 14, and pleurisy at 16. She was \u201cfizzing with infection\u201d, writes her biographer, Frances Stonor Saunders.<\/p>\n

Her younger sister, Constance, also noted her \u201chysteria\u201d. She became captivated by Christian Science, which declared illness an illusion, controllable through prayer.<\/p>\n

When this didn\u2019t work, Violet switched to Theosophy, which aimed to build a universal socialist brotherhood.<\/p>\n

On July 28, 1902, The Times\u00a0announced her conversion to Catholicism. Lord Ashbourne was horrified, considering it a perversion.<\/p>\n

Resuming her glamorous lifestyle, Violet splashed out on clothes and parties: \u201cI was very naughty,\u201d she acknowledged. But the sudden death of her young artist fianc\u00e9 destroyed her spirits, and she retreated to Buckfast Abbey, Devon.<\/p>\n

A disturbed young woman<\/p>\n

Immediately before the Great War, Violet was diagnosed with Paget\u2019s disease, and surgeons removed her left breast. In autumn 1914, appendicitis forced her to return from Paris where she was working as a peace activist. While convalescing in the home of Jesuit priest John O\u2019Fallon Pope, she became obsessed with self-mortification \u2014 the voluntary infliction of physical pain, discomfort, or deprivation upon oneself \u2014 and went as far as stating that \u201cmortification means putting to death\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"VioletViolet Gibson pictured about 1910, when she was in her mid-30s.<\/p>\n

The death of Violet\u2019s favourite brother Victor in 1922 unhinged her: she burst into the Carmelite Friars monastery in Kensington, London, and wandered across streets in her nightclothes. When her housekeeper\u2019s daughter rescued her from the path of cars and buses, she drew a knife and cut the young woman\u2019s hands.<\/p>\n

\n The Gibsons sent Violet to Holloway Sanatorium in Virginia Water, Surrey, where she remained for six months until she was discharged into her mother\u2019s care in Belgravia.\n <\/p>\n

A visiting friend recalls her repeatedly asking if it was ever permissible to kill.<\/p>\n

As a keen socialist, Violet was incensed when the Conservatives swept away Ramsay MacDonald\u2019s Labour government in November, 1924. Determined to make a \u201csacrifice\u201d, she set off for Rome, taking a companion, Mary McGrath from Meath, and a small revolver. She said she wanted to rescue Italy from Mussolini, who she felt had betrayed socialism. Friends claimed she planned to assassinate Pope Pius XI for not condemning Fascist violence.<\/p>\n

Living in convents, Violet spent her days visiting Rome\u2019s most wretched districts and distributing coins.<\/p>\n

On the evening of February 27, 1925, Violet read her bible, then held a pistol to her chest, but the bullet lodged in her shoulder.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to die for the glory of God\u201d, she told Mary. In March, 1926, their daily convent life of prayer, tea and jigsaws was shaken by news of Lady Ashbourne\u2019s death. Violet began walking around with staring eyes, blanking acquaintances. Mary was dispatched back to Ireland.<\/p>\n

The attack<\/p>\n

Wednesday, April 7, 1926, 9.30am: Brilliant sunshine floods Piazza del Campidoglio in Rome.<\/p>\n

Surrounded by chanting Fascists, a tiny, emaciated figure in spectacles raises a revolver, eight inches away from Mussolini, \u201cclose enough to breathe each other\u2019s breath\u201d, according to the author Frances Stonor Saunders.<\/p>\n

\n Violet Gibson pulls the trigger. But at that very moment, the Duce leans his head back to savour the crowd\u2019s devotion, and the shot merely grazes his nose. A second attempt. The revolver jams. Mussolini staggers back, clamping a hand to his nose; blood pours between his fingers. \u201cIt\u2019s nothing,\u201d he says, going inside.\n <\/p>\n

The mob jumps on Violet, kicks her, pulls her hair, tramples on her spectacles. A woman bashes her around the head with a handbag. A policeman knocks the pistol from her hand. Another punches her in the face. Violet falls and is dragged away.<\/p>\n

\"ItalianItalian dictator Benito Mussolini sporting a plaster over his nose, after he was shot by Violet Gibson in 1926.<\/p>\n

Imprisonment<\/p>\n

Mussolini reappeared, wearing a large sticking plaster on his nose, calling for calm. Violet was taken handcuffed to the Mantellate Prison, photographed, fingerprinted, strip-searched, and isolated. Nun-jailers confiscated her garter-belt and hair clips.<\/p>\n

Back in Ireland, Free State leader William Cosgrave congratulated Mussolini on his \u201cprovidential\u201d escape from the \u201codious attempt\u201d on his life; King George V expressed \u201chorror\u201d at the \u201cdastardly attack\u201d. Violet\u2019s sister Constance Gibson sent \u201csincere congratulations on Signor Mussolini\u2019s escape\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Duce left for Libya: \u201cI\u2019m going, even with a plaster on my nose\u2026 Let us leave the old Irish woman in the silence of her cell,\u201d he declared defiantly.<\/p>\n

\n Police showed Violet the revolver. \u201cI don\u2019t remember anything\u2026 Are you sure it was me?\u201d, she retorted. Later, she admitted shooting Mussolini \u201cto glorify God\u201d.\n <\/p>\n

The Cork Examiner, on April 9, confirmed her \u201creligious mania\u201d and \u201cexcessive mysticism\u201d. Mary McGrath returned to Italy and testified that Violet was \u201cmad\u201d.<\/p>\n

After she attacked a fellow inmate with a hammer, Violet was assigned to Sant\u2019Onofrio Lunatic Asylum, where tests found her \u201ctaciturn\u201d and \u201csuspicious\u201d. Doctors recommended a \u2018madhouse\u2019, but police had discovered anti-Fascist newspaper cuttings at the convent, and Fascist prosecutors demanded a criminal trial. In Bologna, the name \u2018Gibson\u2019 appeared on a placard alongside the dummy of a hanged man.<\/p>\n

Aftermath<\/p>\n

Anxious to avoid a public trial, Mussolini allowed Constance to escort her sister back to London in May, 1927.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will be returning to Italy as soon as possible to shoot Mussolini,\u201d Violet announced. The Gibsons sent her directly to Harley Street, where one doctor diagnosed \u201cdelusional insanity with paranoia\u201d, and another declared her \u201chysterical and suspicious\u201d.<\/p>\n

That same night, she was taken to St Andrew\u2019s Hospital for Mental Diseases in Northampton, washed, drugged, and locked up. She spent the next 30 years there, paid for by her family, writing scores of letters to those in power \u2014 including Princess Elizabeth and Winston Churchill \u2014 appealing for her release. None were posted. On one occasion she tried to commit suicide.<\/p>\n

\n Twice a year, Violet\u2019s nephew Edward visited, staying for 15 minutes. Should his notorious aunt die, he requested the hospital \u201clet the matter go unnoticed\u201d.\n <\/p>\n

Her death on May 2, 1956, aged 79, duly went unremarked. Nobody attended her funeral.<\/p>\n

\"VioletViolet Gibson’s grave in Kingsthorpe Cemetery in Northampton, England. Nobody attended her funeral in 1956.<\/p>\n

She had asked to be buried in the Catholic part of St Andrew\u2019s Cemetery in Northampton, but was interred at the non-denominational Kingsthorpe Cemetery a couple of miles away. Violet had earmarked \u00a3100 for a headstone but received a bland cross and no epitaph.<\/p>\n

A woman forgotten<\/p>\n

Violet Gibson has been \u201cdropped down the oubliette of history\u201d, maintains Stonor Saunders, author of The Woman Who Shot Mussolini. It suited the British authorities and her own family to treat her as “mad” rather than acknowledge her as a committed anti-fascist.<\/p>\n

On October 20, 2022, a plaque was unveiled at Violet\u2019s childhood home in Merrion Square. Dublin councillor Mannix Flynn, who spearheaded the campaign to get her recognised, claims she finally has \u201ca rightful place in the history of the Irish nation\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On April 7, 1926, Violet Gibson rose at 6am, prayed in the chapel at Santa Brigida convent, Rome,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":385870,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5658,27468,2284,61,60,35376,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-385869","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-irish-examiner-instagram","9":"tag-irish-examiner-lifestyle-instagram","10":"tag-history","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-longreads","14":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=385869"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385869\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/385870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=385869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=385869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=385869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}