by UNA MULLALLY
Violet Gibson was 50 years old when a shocking story about her became front-page news in Ireland in 1926. Gibson had appeared in The Irish Times many times before, mostly in the Court and Fashion notices, or in the Fashionable Intelligence column, the natural home for the daughter of Lord Ashbourne.
“Hon Violet Gibson was becomingly dressed in a grey canvas costume and a black hat,” a report from the Horse Show in Dublin detailed in August 1899. Another social column from a wedding in July 1904 also praised Gibson’s style, “The Hon Violet Gibson wore a most striking toilette of deep-rose crepe de chine, the skirt very gracefully accordioned, and the same colour adorned her black tulle hat.”
In May 1905, the Fashionable Intelligence column reported on a recent trip, “The Hon Violet Gibson has greatly benefited by her stay at Davos. She has now joined her father, Lord Ashbourne, in London.” Then a curious story from Rome, printed in the newspaper on March 2nd, 1925: “The Hon Violet Gibson (sister of Lord Ashbourne), who was staying in a pension in Rome, is lying in the hospital of San Giacomo, suffering from a serious wound. On Friday a shot was heard in her room, and when people entered she was found in bed wounded. She simply said that she wished for a confessor to be called. The doctors at the hospital found that the shot had passed through the ribs and penetrated deeply. Although they do not despair of saving her life, they consider that her condition is most grave.”
A note was added in square brackets to the story, “[Miss Gibson, who is 49, arrived in Rome last December for the Holy Year celebrations. She spent most of her time in private prayer and attendance at church Services.]”
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