A MEMORIAL is to be unveiled today in Dublin for Violet Gibson, the Irish woman who shot Italian fascist leader Benito Mussolini in 1926.
The plaque is being erected at 12 Merrion Square in Dublin, her childhood home.
Gibson, who had a privileged upbringing on Merrion Square as daughter of a Lord Chancellor of Ireland, shot 'Il Duce' as he walked among a crowd in Rome in on 7 April 1926.
The Fascist leader reportedly moved his head at the last minute which meant the bullet grazed his nose.
The would-be assassin tried to shoot again but the revolver miss fired. Violet was almost killed by the crowd but was saved by police, while Mussolini survived with only minor injuries.
She died in 1956 and was buried in Kingsthorpe Cemetery in Northampton. Violet Gibson was the subject of a 2014 RTE radio documentary and a 2020 TV documentary.
The plaque was proposed by Independent Councillor Mannix Flynn, who described her as an anti-fascist revolutionary.
He said: "It is now time to bring Violet Gibson into the public eye and give her a rightful place in the history of Irish women and in the history of the Irish nation and its people."
Gibson was born in Dalkey, Dublin in 1876 into a wealthy Anglo-Irish family.
She converted to Catholicism and in her 20s travelled extensively. She is said to have had a strong commitment to social justice.
