This biography is republished from The Dictionary of Irish Biography and was written by Frances Clarke. Shared by permission in line with Creative Commons ‘Attribution’ (CC BY) licencing.
Born: 6 August 1827, United Kingdom
Died: 12 September 1878
Country most active: United Kingdom
Also known as: Lizzie Engels
Lizzie Burns (1827–78), described by Friedrich Engels as ‘a real child of the Irish proletariat’, subsequently became Engels’s wife, though they were not officially married until the day before her death. In 1865 she and Engels both became members of the First International. She was a close friend of Marx’s daughter Eleanor, in whom she instilled a fervent enthusiasm for Irish nationalism. As a result of her influence Eleanor took to reading the nationalist paper The Irishman, and the two women accompanied Engels on a return visit to Ireland (1869), during which they witnessed the Fenian amnesty movement at its height. Lizzie claimed that she assisted and provided asylum for several Fenian activists, including some of those involved in the attack on the police-van in Manchester (18 September 1867) which led to the execution of the ‘Manchester martyrs’. Engels gave up his official home after retiring from business (1869) to live with her permanently. They later moved to London (1870), and in efforts to improve her failing health spent time in Scotland, Ramsgate, Brighton, and Germany. She died 12 September 1878 in London, and was buried in St Mary’s Roman Catholic cemetery, Kensal Green.