In 22 May 1870, Eva Selena Laura Gore-Booth was born in Lissadell House, County Sligo. She was surrounded by her extended family and lived a life of opulence and privilege. The work of the Lissadell School was highly commended in the Pall Mall Gazette. Eva spent most of her time with her maternal grandmother, who instilled in her a love of poetry and an interest in religion. In addition to their education, the Gore-Booth children enjoyed outdoor activities typical of their class, including riding and hunting. Eva was particularly aware of the plight of others less fortunate than herself. During the 1860s spiritualism and the occult were becoming fashionable among the elite set in London who thrilled at attending seances and table rapping events. Eva's parents were particularly open to ideas of the spirit world and the occult.

Constance Markievicz was transferred to England on 8 August 1916, just days after Casement's execution. Eva Gore-Booth and Esther Roper were the first people granted a visit to see her at Aylesbury Prison. Gore-Booth arranged for a meeting with Captain Jack White, an ex-British army officer and a campaigner for Irish independence. By the end of 1916 hundreds of Irish people remained in prison in England, most without any sentence. The Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP) MPs, especially John Dillon and John Redmond, consistently called for a general release of prisoners and for martial law in Ireland to be suspended. In March 1917, Gore-Booth was offered some hope for the release of her sister from prison. A London newspaper, the Evening Standard, announced their surprise that Gore-Booth was present, even though she had little or no sympathy with Sinn Fein.

It was at the villa in Bordighera that Eva Gore-Booth met a young English woman named Esther Gertrude Roper. Literary historian and author Emma Donoghue is dismayed with Gifford Lewis' insistence that the pair, along with 'a long list of devoted partnerships among feminists of the time', were platonic friends. Within just five years of graduating from Owens College, Roper became a highly respected campaigner for women's suffrage. Irish author, Eilis Ni Dhuibhne, accepts this premise stating that Gore-Booth 'lived with Esther Roper, probably in a lesbian relationship'. The two women met in what Lewis, perhaps unwittingly portrays as a highly romantic situation. Gore-Booth was moved to immortalise their meeting with a poem entitled 'The Travellers', dedicated to 'E.G.R', Esther Gertrude Roper, and published in 1904. Roper was a remarkable character and was clearly the greatest influence on Gore-Booth's personal, literary and political life.

Life at Lissadell had changed dramatically since Eva Gore-Booth originally left Ireland. She published a poem, 'The Place of Peace', in New Ireland Review in 1899. This poem expresses a dark uncomfortable feeling about the crowded streets of Manchester. By the start of the twentieth century, Gore-Booth had completely rejected her advantaged heritage and was submerged into her new life in Manchester. The year 1901 marked a change in Gore-Booth's political campaigning tactics. The deputations came back to Lancashire sadder and wiser women. Gore-Booth resolved to secure a representative for women in the House of Commons. Gore-Booth and the radical suffragists offered to campaign for Shackleton amongst female trade unionists, if in return Shackleton guaranteed his support of women's suffrage. Gore-Booth's work at the WTUC was highly successful. She orchestrated the establishment of dozens of thriving unions for women workers.

After a long and arduous battle to gain equality, Eva Gore-Booth's perseverance was rewarded in 1904. Within days of Mrs. Emmeline Pankhurst's threat, Christabel Pankhurst and Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) member Annie Kenney arrived at a Liberal Party meeting in the Free Trade Hall in Manchester. Pankhurst was an executive committee member of the North of England Society for Women's Suffrage (NESWS). Before the end of 1905 they formed the National Industrial and Professional Women's Suffrage Society (NIPWSS). Gore-Booth immediately distanced herself from this new, militant wing of the feminist movement and from Pankhurst. On 19 May 1906, women from suffrage organisations all over Britain arrived in London to meet with Campbell-Bannerman. A report in an American newspaper clearly favoured Gore-Booth's delivery style.

In February 1915, the German government issued a declaration of more aggressive naval warfare. Eva Gore-Booth was disturbed by the huge loss of life and the possibility that war would spread across Europe to America. She attended the Pacifist Philosophy of Life Conference at Caxton Hall in London on 8 and 9 July 1915. In an attempt to spread the ideals of peace and pacifism, Gore-Booth published a small volume of poetry, The Perilous Light, in 1915. Gore-Booth's account, originally entitled 'At the military tribunal' was published simply as The Tribunal. The British public were horrified that Irish people would plan a rebellion at a time when thousands of British soldiers were being killed in the war against Germany and her allies. Many Irish people were against the rebellion, viewing it as a reckless act destined for failure.

In the weeks following the Easter Rising Eva Gore-Booth described Dublin as a 'city of mourning and death'. Hanna Sheehy Skeffington showed Gore-Booth a small package that she had recently received from Portobello barracks. The package included the final possessions of her murdered husband, his watch and collar and tie. Gore-Booth was motivated by the murder to publish a short play entitled The Death of Fionavar. The play consisted of the final three acts from The Triumph of Maeve: a Romance, a play that she had published eleven years earlier. On her return to London in May, Gore-Booth delivered one of the first Irish accounts of the Rising to a London society. Gore-Booth found it difficult to remain in London while Constance Markievicz was imprisoned in Dublin. Gore-Booth became a central figure in the campaign for the reprieve of Sir Roger Casement.

Eva Gore-Booth's obituary appeared in many prestigious newspapers in Ireland, England and America, reflecting the global significance of her political and literary work. In Ireland, she was recalled mainly for her literature. The Irish Times lamented that 'by her death Ireland loses a charming poet and essayist, whose work held no mean place in the Anglo-Irish literary movement of the new century'. The New York Times highlighted the fact that Gore-Booth was the 'sister of Countess Markievicz, Irish Republican'. While Eva's loss was felt in the literary world and among social reformers, her loss was felt most profoundly by those in her personal life. According to Gore-Booth's wishes, Roper received her entire estate and was appointed as literary executor. In that capacity, Esther Roper continued to publish Gore-Booth's literature. Poems of Eva Gore-Booth: Complete Edition, constitutes a wonderful memorial to Gore-Booth's life and literature.

After the publication of Poems, Eva Gore-Booth concentrated on social and economic reform in Manchester. Gore-Booth was inspired by Esther Roper's suffrage work. When she returned to Lissadell, she immediately set about organising a local campaign to secure votes for women at general elections. Gore-Booth called the first official meeting of the Sligo Irish Women's Suffrage and Local Government Association (IWSLGA) on Friday 18 December 1896 at Milltown National Protestant School in Drumcliffe, Sligo. The Sligo Champion dedicated a large section of the weekly paper to a detailed account of the events. Gore-Booth stressed the importance of gaining votes for women in order to improve their position in the workplace. She became actively involved with the work of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS), attending a conference of their parliamentary friends in the House of Commons on 7 February 1899.

A brief introduction to the Eva Gore-Booth family background, tracing the reality behind how they achieved their land and titles, explains why Eva was so troubled by her family history. The turbulent nature of Ireland is embodied in the story of the Gore-Booth. The origin of the family in Ireland can be traced to Paul Gore, a prosperous soldier during the reign of Elizabeth I. Gore came to Ireland in 1599. In recognition of his loyal service to the Crown, Gore was created a baronet in 1622. When Robert Gore-Booth reached the age of twenty-one in 1826, he succeeded to the estate. Four months later he married Caroline King, daughter of the first Viscount Lorton. Robert visited the town hall during his travels to Manchester on business. Lissadell House mirrors the Greek revival style of the building in Manchester.

Eva Gore-Booth's strategy was to either run a suffrage candidate at election or support an existing candidate, regardless of party, who advocated for women's suffrage. The radical suffragists actively supported the Labour candidate at the by-election. Frank Gillett, an artist for the illustrated Daily Graphic, drew impressive pictures of Winston Churchill, Annie Kenney, Gore-Booth and Selina Cooper at their various campaign posts. In January 1907, Gore-Booth launched a quarterly paper, the Women's Labour News, as the organ of the Women's Trades and Labour Council. Gore-Booth anticipated that the Women's Labour News would provide a forum to air grievances and establish consistency throughout campaigns for gender equality in the workplace. Through her various activities Gore-Booth had alienated the temperance suffragists and she again faced opposition from the women's anti-suffrage movement. In her article Gore-Booth warns that working-class women should not be dependent on men or upper-class-women to legislate fair laws.