Play about Irish woman who tried to shoot Italian dictator coming to Cork  

A century after an Irish woman almost changed history with a single bullet, the Cork Arts Theatre is to host a one-woman play that takes audiences back to one of the last century’s most dramatic moments.

On Wednesday, April 7, 1926, the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini was walking through the crowded Piazza del Campidoglio in Rome, when a middle-aged woman stepped forward and fired a Modèle 1892 revolver in his face at point-blank range.

At the last second, Mussolini, distracted by a group of boy scouts singing Giovinezza, the fascist anthem, turned his head and the bullet grazed the tip of his nose.

His would-be assassin, Irish woman Violet Gibson, attempted to fire again, but the gun jammed.

The crowd almost lynched the woman, but the police intervened and arrested her. Mussolini dismissed his injuries as “a mere trifle” and, once his nose was bandaged, he carried on with his day.

The assassination attempt led to a wave of support for Mussolini and the passage of pro-fascist legislation that consolidated his grip on power.

Irish aristocrat

Violet Albina Gibson was a 49-year-old Irish aristocrat, the daughter of Edward Gibson, the Baron Ashbourne, the lord chancellor of Ireland. In her youth, Violet was a debutante in the court of Queen Victoria.

She suffered a breakdown in 1922, following the sudden death of her fiancé, and she was declared insane and hospitalised for two years.

After the failed assassination attempt, she was released without charge, at Mussolini’s request, and deported to England, where she spent the rest of her life in St Andrew’s psychiatric hospital in Northampton.

Despite repeated pleas, she was never released, and she died on May 2, 1956, at the age of 79. She was buried in Northampton.

Now, Cork actor and performer Alice Barry has written a one-woman play, Violet Gibson: The Woman Who Shot Mussolini, which explores the life of a woman who dared to challenge one of the most powerful figures of her age.

The play will run at the Cork Arts Theatre from Wednesday, July 22, to Saturday, July 25, with nightly performances at 8pm and lunchtime shows at 1pm on Thursday and Friday.

See https://corkartstheatre.com.