Sam Hanna Bell Samuel Beckett John Hewitt Bernard (Barney) Hughes James Joseph Magennis VC Frances Elizabeth Clarke Stewart Parker William Carleton Rosamond Praegar

Winifred Carney (1887 - 1943):
Political activist


Winifred Carney was born in Bangor, County Down, was educated at the Christain Brothers' School in Donegall Street, Belfast and was for a time a junior teacher there. She qualified as a secretary and shorthand typist from Hughes' Commercial Academy, one of the first women to do so. She worked as a clerk and became involved in the Gaelic League, in the Suffragist movement and in socialist activities. In 1912 she met James Connolly and became secretary of the Textile Workers' Union, which was in practice the women's section of the Belfast branch of the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union, though officially part of the Irish Women Workers' Union. She typed Connolly's articles for publication and became a friend and confidant. In Cumann na mBan, she taught first aid and was very proficient in rifle practice. She was summoned to Dublin by Connolly on the 4th April 1916, and as adjutant she joined the insurgents in the General Post Office, where they were garrisoned. She stayed with Connolly after he had been wounded. In 1917 she was the Belfast delegate to the Cumann na mBan convention and a year later stood as Sinn Fein candidate with the view to establishing a Workers' Republic. She lost the election, but continued to work for the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union until 1928. In 1924 she had joined the Labour Party. In 1928 she married George McBride in Wales, and they moved back to Belfast. She alienated people who could not understand why she would wish to spend her life with 'an Orangeman'. In the 1930s she joined the Belfast Socialist Party. Her grave in Milltown Cemetery remains unmarked.


Born: 1887
Died: 1943
Kate Newmann