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THE ONLY WOMAN wounded in action during the 1916 Rising is set to be honoured by having a road named after her.
Margaret Skinnider (1892-1971) was a sniper and a feminist who operated as a scout and message runner under the command of Countess Markievicz and General Michael Mallin.
She also smuggled detonators and bomb-making equipment into Ireland before the Rising and often dressed as a boy during her time as a rebel.
Born in Scotland, she joined Cumann na Mban and smuggled detonators and bomb-making equipment into Ireland before the rising.
The Glasnevin Trust says that during the rising itself she took up her position as a sniper in the Irish Citizen Army on the roof of the College of Surgeons.
She was an excellent markswonman having learned to shoot in a rifle club.
Skinnider was seriously wounded when she was shot three times attempting to burn down houses on Dublin’s Harcourt Street. She was trying to cut off the retreat of British soldiers who had planted a machine gun post on the roof of the University Church.
She was mentioned three times for bravery in the dispatches sent to the Dublin GPO.
The rebel had argued strongly with her commanding officers that she should be subject to the same risk as men who were involved in military action and her words were quoted by Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams in his Presidential address to his party’s Ard Fheis in 2006.
After the rising she was active in the War of Independence and was imprisoned before becoming paymaster general of the IRA during the civil war.
In later life she was a schoolteacher and became President of the INTO in 1956. She died in Dublin in 1971.
Now the Monaghan Municipal District of Monaghan County Council is considering a motion to re-name the North Road in Monaghan the Margaret Skinnider Road.
Local Sinn Fein Councillor Brian McKenna has welcomed the proposal.
“Margaret Skinnider, as most people in north Monaghan would know, was actually born in Scotland but her parents were from the Tydavnet area and she spent many of her childhood summers in the Tydavnet area,” he said.
“Margaret took part in the 1916 rising and we haven’t a connection with many people in the 1916 rising in Monaghan other than from James Connolly,” he added.
- Additional reporting by Rónán Duffy
Legend
http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/revolutionary-wives-author-sin%C3%A9ad-mccoole-on-discovering-the-stories-behind-the-1916-widows-1.2009143#.Vi3YR2Udc4s.mailto
This is a brilliant read. Sinead McCoole has done her research well.
A small Irish rebel army including it’s womenfolk, beat back a major superpower in 1916. If we had the numbers that are streaming across todays European borders, we could have achieved much more, but then again, today, most of us have gone ‘soft’.
“Beat back a major superpower”? Nonsense. Ireland was a constituent part of the UK for 116 years, with elected Irish MPs in Westminster. Home Rule was enacted in law. The largest conflict the world had seen was 2 years running with thousands more Irish serving and dying than the “rebels”. The rising had little public support and was crushed. The conspirators were treated no different to those had it occurred in any other city of the UK. Ireland’s path to so called “independence” was hampered, not helped by this and subsequent conflicts. But the revolutionary leaders didn’t want a peaceful transition. Impatient and wanting a “baptism of blood” to legitimise their cause. We’re still struggling with the aftermath today. Then they handed control to men in frocks in Rome. Some independence.
Well Bernard, if you call our great leaders acts’ after 900 years as ‘impatient’, you must be a very laid back individual. I assume that when you’re referring to ‘subsequent conflicts’, that you are including the discrimination of catholics, internment without trial periods, and the shoot to kill policies. Ah sure, a peaceful transition is what the invader meant all along. Oh! and another thing, for some, Ireland was never a part of the UK, in any shape or form, save 9000 years ago by natural landbridge. In case you didn’t cop it, thats what every Irish rebel was fighting against. Was the UK a superpower at the time? Yes it was. And irrespect of what other warmongering was occuring at the time, did we beat her from our shores? To a large extent yes. Was it through violent determination? You bet your life it was. And we’d be still waiting for a peaceful transition only for it. And one other thing. Connolly would turn in his grave. The control wasn’t given to Rome. Rome took it.
Paul you’re talking hysterical nonsense. Ireland is the nation equivalent of the delinquent child who wants dessert but won’t finish dinner first then has a tanty and shouts “Not fair”. You’re just parroting a nationalist myth that thankfully most have woken up from. Ireland isn’t that unique when compared to the other countries of “these islands” so spare the “we’re so oppressed” tagline. Maybe start by reading a few history books that incorporates the history of all these nations and their place within Europe.
Now I know youre pulling my chain,…..foreigner.
Great woman thats why there I an article about her deeds 100 years on and do you think there will be one about the likes of Tap Solny no fecking chance just another android he is .
Killer gets praise because she is a woman.
Soldier gets praised because she fought for her country. Something that seems alien even repugnant to some political parties and their supporters.
wrong tap freedom fighter gets praise because she was a freedom fighter.
tap have a coffee and chill
Margaret, I will enjoy my coffee better knowing that there is no looney about with a rifle aimed at my cup.
maybe your problem is that you drink too much coffee.
tap why would they aim at your cup when your head is big enough.
Tap/dermo plenty of killers parading around behind the orange order come your sectarian bigoted marching season.
loonies aim at cups soldiers aim to kill
what does an orangemans calender show? January February March March March ..
Needless to say she became a schoolteacher.
Shame we still don’t have any street named after Tom Clarke. First president of the republic
Gwynfor Evans and Daniel O’Connell are the type of role models that deserve recognition.
O Connell murdered a man in a duel…
No connection to 1916 other than Connolly. Oh yeah, tenuous
One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter, impossible to debate with so much emotion relating to 1916.
Women carrying bombs to kill people in Ireland– nothing to be proud of.
French women in the maquis did the same, should they have the same self loathing tendencies as your good self?..
have your say