Margaret Frances Skinnider (28 May 1892 – 10 October 1971) was a revolutionary and feminist born in Coatbridge, Scotland. She fought during the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin as a sniper, among other roles, and was the only woman wounded in the action. As a scout, she was praised for her bravery. Sadhbh Walshe in The New York Times refers to her as "the schoolteacher turned sniper".
Early life
Margaret Frances Skinnider was born in 1892 to Irish parents in the Lanarkshire town of Coatbridge. She trained as a mathematics teacher and joined Cumann na mBan in Glasgow. She was also involved in the women's suffrage movement, including a protest at Perth Prison. Ironically, she had learned to shoot in a rifle club which had originally been set up so that women could help in defence of the British Empire.
During her trips to Ireland, Skinnider came under the influence of Constance Markievicz and became active in smuggling detonators and bomb-making equipment into Dublin (in her hat) in preparation for the 1916 Easter Rising. Along with Madeleine ffrench-Mullen, she spent time in the hills around Dublin testing dynamite.
When Skinnider was shown "the poorest part of Dublin" by Markievicz, she wrote, "I do not believe there is a worse place in the world." The street was "a hollow full of sewage and refuse", and the building "as full of holes as if it had been under shellfire".
Easter Rising
Operating variously as a scout, message runner (often dressed as a boy) and sniper, Skinnider took part in action against the British Army at the Garrison at the College of Surgeons and St. Stephen's Green under the Command of General Michael Mallin and Markievicz. Beneath her were 4 men under her command. Skinnider was reportedly an excellent markswoman.
She was seriously wounded when she was shot three times attempting to burn down houses on Harcourt Street to try to cut off the retreat of British soldiers who had planted a machine-gun post on the roof of the University Church. She was treated for her wounds by Nora O'Daly and Madeleine ffrench Mullen, who provided first aid in the College of Surgeons garrison.
Nora Connolly O'Brien describes Skinnider's leading role in this action:
In her autobiography, Doing my bit for Ireland Skinnider herself vividly describes her role as a sniper at St. Stephen's Green in the Easter Rising:
In terms of her role as a woman taking part in military action Skinnider comments:
The president of Sinn Féin, Gerry Adams, quoted Skinnider's words in his 2006 address to the Sinn Féin Ard Feis.
Skinnider was severely injured during the Easter Rising, being shot 3 times, with one of the bullets missing her spine just a quarter of an inch. One of the people fighting alongside her, 17-year-old Fred Ryan, was killed. Lying in the street dying, she was carried by fellow rebels to the College of Surgeons, where she was kept until the order to surrender came, after which she was transferred to St Vincent's Hospital on the other side of the Green. For the next two weeks Skinnider suffered terribly; the bullets she had been shot with were dumdum bullets, which expand after entering the body. Her wounds were treated with corrosive sublimate, but too much was used and as a result they removed all the skin on her back and her side. On top of this she had to fight off a fever and pneumonia.
As all of this was happening, her parents were mistakenly informed Skinnider had been killed or paralysed. William Partridge, the man who had saved her life, mistakenly thought she had died of her wounds after he left her, and had been saying prayers for her every night in prison. The matter was not cleared up until Nora and Ina Connolly came to visit her in the hospital.
After a number of weeks laid up in hospital, she managed to escape her guards before obtained a travel permit from Dublin Castle which enabled her to return to Scotland. During this time she visited some of the rebel prisoners being held in Reading Jail in England.