Margaret Skinnider remembered in Dublin and Coatbridge on 50th Anniversary
Margaret Skinnider remembered on her 50th anniversary by Lasair Dhearg in Dublin and Coatbridge.
Skinnider was veteran of the 1916 Rising, a suffragette, a republican, a socialist, trade unionist and a teacher.
She helped train the Glasgow branch of Na Fianna, she participated in arms raids on Clydeside ship yards with the Glasgow branch of the Irish Volunteers, and when it was founded in 1915, she was one of the first members of the Glasgow Anne Devlin branch of Cumann na mBan.
In December 1915, at the invitation of Countess Markievicz, Skinnider set sail for Dublin with detonators and bomb wires, destined for the Irish Citizen Army, concealed on her person.
During the Easter week of 1916 she played a full combat role as a sniper, until she was wounded multiple times by gunfire from British forces.
She remained active during the Tan War and remained true to the Republic during the counter-revolution. Imprisoned by the Free State in 1923, Skinnider undertook three separate hunger strikes in her defiance as a political prisoner. After the ceasefire she became a teacher and involved herself in trade unionism until her retirement in the 1960’s.
She lived with her partner, Nora O’Keeffe, until O’Keeffe’s death in 1962, one of a number of lesbian couples central to Ireland’s fight for liberation during the revolutionary period.
Margaret Skinnider died in October of 1971. She is buried in the Republican plot in Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin alongside Countess Markievicz.
Skinniders life in struggle was an inspiration to Socialist Republicans everywhere, to continue in the pursuit of a 32 County Democratic Socialist Republic is the only fitting tribute to pay to her.
