Page 37 - Garda Journal Summer 2019

FEATURE | Violet Gibson
St. Andrew’s Hospital in England
Italy went into the war on the side of the Triple Entente (Russia, Britain, France) since the treaty would ensure Italian control over territory along its border with Austria-Hungary. This territory would span from Trentino to Treiste and other areas. The Triple Entente saw this as vital to weakening the Central Powers since it would further split them by adding in a new battlefront. All Italy needed to do was make military progress into southern Austria-Hungary, but that did not happen. Italian forces only advanced ten miles and faced several crushing defeats. Though it was eventually on the side of victory, Italy did not reap many benefits from the war.
Italian leaders struggled to find a voice against the Big Three (Britain, France, United States) at the Paris Peace Conference and felt they had not been given what was promised in the Treaty of London. While their European requests for control were met, many of their colonial ambitions were left unanswered. As a result, resentment towards the Allied powers began to take hold amongst Italians. They were angry that they had paid so much, both in money and lost lives, yet received so little rewards. Such a volatile political climate was what Mussolini had been waiting for.
After being drafted into the Italian army in September 1915, Mussolini formed the Fascist Party in March 1919. The party brought numerous right-wing groups under a single, forceful entity with the goal of inciting nationalist sentiments and opposing social class discrimination. Mussolini was an open critic of the weakness of the Italian government and cited its performance at the Treaty of Versailles as an utter failure in regaining power and prestige for Italy.
Mussolini utilised the rising levels of public unrest and discontent after the War to organise the “Black Shirts.” This was a paramilitary unit that served to increase the influence of Fascism by terrorising any political opponents. By the time the Black Shirts marched on Rome, it was a clear sign that Italy was immersed in political chaos. These were the conditions Mussolini needed to come forward as the seemingly only person capable qualified to bring order back to the country. King Victor Emmanuel saw no other option but to give Mussolini the power to create a government. He was named prime minister in 1922 and used his new title to gradually dismantle every institution that made up the democratic government. In 1925, Mussolini named himself ‘Il Duce’ and officially became the dictator of Italy.
On the 7th of April 1926, Mussolini was passing through Rome’s Piazza del Campidoglio after opening the International Surgical Conference in the Capitol. The square was filled with a cheering crowd of his followers, and it also held Violet Gibson. She separated herself from the crowd and fired a gun practically point-blank in his face. Her first shot was off target and grazed his nose. On her second attempt, the gun misfired. Mussolini remained calm and was reported to have pressed a handkerchief against his nose as his staff tried placate his frenzied supporters. He sought no acts of retaliation towards his assailant. Nonetheless, Gibson was overtaken and beaten by a mob. The police stepped in and saved her from the crowd’s anger as they made an attempt to lynch her. After having his nose bandaged, the dictator went on with his parade.
When prompted for the reasoning behind her crimes, Gibson proclaimed an angel had been sent to guide her as set out to glorify God through shooting Mussolini. An interview with her sister, Constance Gibson, was published in the Irish Times on the 9th of April and related Gibson’s actions to the death of their brother. Constance recalled how “Violet, losing her playmate of her life, gave way to paroxysms of grief, which in the end unhinged her mind” and later said her sister “was always a girl of extremes.” The Italian government held her in custody until her family wrote to ask for forgiveness for her actions. Gibson was released after being diagnosed as a “chronic paranoiac.” She was brought back to St. Andrew’s Hospital in England where she died in 1956. No one came to her funeral.
Had Gibson succeeded, we may have been living in a very different world today.
Sources:
• www.irishtimes.com/culture/heritage/an-
irishwoman-s-attempt-to-assassinate-mussolini-
is-often-overlooked-in-history-1.3893346;
• www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/
mussolini_benito.shtml
• www.irishcentral.com/roots/history/irish-woman-
who-shot-mussolini
• www.biography.com/dictator/benito-mussolini
• www.history.co.uk/italy-in-wwi
• www.britannica.com/place/Ireland/The-rise-of-
Fenianism#ref22994
• www.irishhistorian.com/IrishHistoryTimeline.
html
GARDA JOURNAL 37