winnie and george MASTER:Layout 1 27/06/2017 13:50 Page 1 … · 2017-07-17 · Onefought inthe trenchesofFrance durungtheFirst WorldWar Theotherinthe GPO,attheEaster RisinginDublin,

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Winifred

and

George

Ruth Taillon

winnie and george MASTER:Layout 1 27/06/2017 13:50 Page 1

One fought in thetrenches of Francedurung the First

World War

The other in theGPO, at the EasterRising in Dublin,

1916


During the 1916 centenary commemorations,new acknowledgement was paid to the roleof women in the Easter Rising, and inparticular, the story of Belfast woman,Winifred Carney caught the imagination ofmany. Carney has for many years been oneof the – relatively – better known women of1916, but known mainly as the somewhattwo-dimensional ʻloyal secretaryʼ of the greattrade union leader, James Connolly. Morerecently, interest in Carney has focused onher marriage to George McBride – portrayedas a particularly unusual ʻlove across thebarricadesʼ romance.

Of course, there is some validity to thisframing of their story. George came from aUnionist background and had joined the UVFat the age of 15, then at 17 years of age hadenlisted in the British Army, subsequently

fighting as a machine gunner in the trenchesof Belgium during the First World War. Hewas taken prisoner by the Germans at theBattle of Messines and spent spent most ofhis time as a prisoner of war near Frankfurt insouthern Germany. Winifred, known asWinnie, was an officer in the Irish CitizenArmy and mobilised during and laterimprisoned after, the Easter Rising. It is truealso that there was family opposition to theirmarriage, on Winnieʼs side at least. Despitethe fact that by the time of their marriage in1928, Winnie was 41 years of age (andGeorge ten years younger), their weddingtook place in Holyhead – perhaps to avoid achurch wedding in Ireland and the familytensions that would have provoked, perhapsbecause neither Winnie nor George wanteda religious celebration of their union.

Winifred and George

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ImagesGeorge and Winifredʼs medals pictured together

A close-up of her service medals

Her service record that confirmed her pension.She never claimed her pension until just beforeher death.

A request from George after her death that she beawarded her service medal.

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Winifred and George


What brought them together in the mid-1920s was their shared commitment torevolutionary socialism. George nevershared Winnieʼs Republican perspective; hehad no interest in the national question, nordid he share Winnieʼs concerns aboutPartition. He regarded the Rising asfoolhardy at all sorts of levels: the certaintyof failure, the lack of military experience ofthe leaders, their naive belief that the Britishwould never destroy capitalist property inDublin at a time when they were destroyingcapitalist property throughout westernEurope. For Winnie, as for her close friendJames Connolly, the cause of labour and thecause of Ireland were inseparable. Georgedid, however come from a strong trade unionbackground. His father had been a followerof James Larkin and active in the 1907 strike.George recalled as a young boy going withhis father to hear Larkin speak at a rally incentral Belfast. After his experiences in thetrenches and as a prisoner of war inGermany George returned from the war asan atheist and with new, internationalistideas. He later went to work in Mackieʼsengineering factory.

Winnieʼs background, in contrast, wasCatholic and Nationalist. While her role in theevents of 1916 has been remembered – ifsomewhat distorted in Republicaniconography as the tweedy, somewhatprudish spinster with her typewriter in onehand and Webley pistol in the other – her

years of political activism both before andafter 1916 have been less understood.

By the time Winnie Carney met JamesConnolly in 1912, she was already anexperienced political activist, committed tothe cause of womenʼs suffrage, socialism,the Gaelic cultural and language revival andIrish independence. Winnie was interested inliterature, art, and music. She sang andplayed piano. She was a woman who hadmanaged to get herself an education –despite the fact that her own mother hadbeen a lone parent raising five children onthe income from a confectionary shop on theFalls Road. Winnie worked for a time as ateacher, but she attended secretarial collegeand qualified as one of the first ʻladysecretaries/shorthand typistsʼ.

She was a friend of Marie Johnson, a tradeunion militant who was a friend of Connolly.In 1911 women working in Belfastʼs linenmills were organised into the Irish TextileWorkersʻ Union and went on strike. WhenMarie Johnson became ill she asked Winnieto take over her work for the Textile WorkersʻUnion. So, at the age of 24, Winnie gave upher relatively comfortable position as asolicitorʼs clerk in Dungannon to becomeSecretary of the union. At five shillings perweek she was earning 1/3 of the wage of oneof her mill worker members. In reality it wasoften an unpaid post. This was when Winniefirst met James Connolly.

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In 1912, Winnie and Nell Gordon, a millworker who had been recruited as a unionorganiser, attended many factory gatemeetings to recruit union members. The twoof them were responsible for keeping theunion running during Connollyʼs manyabsences from Belfast. During the greatDublin Lock-out in 1913 Winnie and Nellworked very hard to raise funds for workersfacing hardship and they also helped tosupport and accommodate locked outworkers who came to Belfast. Girls ofsixteen and seventeen years of age werebeing arrested and imprisoned in Dublin soConnolly was bringing them to Belfast to findwork. It was Winnie who issued the strikenotice for higher wages for mill workers.

Winnie was one of about ten foundingmembers of Cumann na mBan, establishedin 1914 as a womenʼs auxiliary organisationto the Irish Volunteers. Winnie helped to setup the number one branch, Belfast Cumannna mBan. She was later branch President.She was acknowledged as a crack shot. Herskills were instrumental in winning a shootingcompetition with men in Belfast Volunteers.

In 1914 there were already strong tensionsbetween the ITGWU in Belfast, led by JamesConnolly, and the ITGWU in Dublin, led byJames Larkin. When Larkin returned fromAmerica in 1924 his expulsion from theITGWU led to a split in the union. Winniereminded people that Connolly did not trust

Winifred and George

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Larkin, who had left Ireland when “uprisingwas already in the air”. In July 1914, after nomoney had been transferred from Dublin toBelfast for about six months, Connolly wrotethat the only thing that kept him in his job was“the fear that the Orange element would saythat they frightened me out of Belfast.”

By 1916, as the Easter Rising was beingprepared, Winnie, now aged 29,wasConnollyʼs personal secretary and held therank of Adjutant in the Irish Citizen Army. Ithas been said that she was the only personfrom whom Connolly had no secrets. WhenLiam Mellows escaped from detention inEngland and was smuggled back to Irelandto lead the Rising in the West of Ireland, itwas Winnie who accompanied him on the tripfrom Belfast to Dublin.

On Easter Saturday night, Winnie stayed allnight at Liberty Hall preparing mobilisationorders and officersʼ commissions for the ICA.When she reported in again at 8am onEaster Monday, her first job was to type outthe mobilisation orders for the four citybattalions of what was now the unified Armyof the Irish Republic. At noon, the ICA formedin ranks outside Liberty Hall. Winnieʼs placewas at the front with James Connolly when itmarched off. She was the only woman whotook part in the initial occupation of the GPO.

When the fight was lost, Winnie was one ofonly three women who refused to leave theGPO and stayed with the headquarters staff.Eventually, the remnants of the garrison tookshelter in the house at 16 Moore Street thatbecame the headquarters for the ProvisionalCouncil of the Republic.

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Winifred pictured with Irish Vounteers outside Liberty Hall.


When the time came to surrender, they filedout behind a white flag. Connolly hadsuggested to Winnie that she remove hermilitary belt so that she could not easily beidentified as a combatant; Winnieʼsresponse was to write her name on the beltand continue wearing it. They were taken upwhat is now OʼConnell Street and herdedonto the grass at the Rotunda Hospital.They spent a cold night outside along with300-400 male prisoners. The British soldierscut the red crosses from Winnieʼs uniform.The next day the prisoners were taken toRichmond Barracks and then to KilmainhamJail. 77 of the 3000 prisoners who passedthrough Richmond Barracks were women.

When the executions of the male leadersstarted the women were deeply affected.Winnie recalled listening to the executionsfrom her cell; many years afterwards shewrote, “for many mornings to come we shallawake to that close noise of rifle firing andcrisp voice of the officer in command”. Mostof the women prisoners were released by 9May, but five were deported to England andinterned in Aylesbury Prison. Brigid Foleyand Marie Perolz were released in July butNell Ryan, Helena Molony and Winnie wereheld until Christmas Eve. ConstanceMarkievicz, was held in Aylesbury as aconvicted prisoner, but the other prisonerswere not allowed contact. The interneesasked to be treated as criminals in order tobe confined with Constance. They said they

would forego all the benefits of political statusand abide by prison rules – including an endto smuggling letters – but this was refused.

After her release from prison on 24December 1916, Winnie found it hard tosettle into routine trade union affairs althoughshe continued to work for the ITGWU in bothBelfast and Dublin. Throughout her life, sherefused to romanticise the Rising or trade onher relationship with Connolly. She remainedcommitted to her principles and alwaysargued that the Rising had been the rightthing to do under circumstances.

In 1917, Winnie was chosen as the Belfastdelegate to the National Convention ofCumann na mBan and elected president ofthe Belfast branch. Then in the generalelection of 1918, she was a Sinn Féincandidate, in the unwinnable Central BelfastVictoria Ward. Winifred, (the only female SinnFéin candidate other than ConstanceMarkievicz)insisted on a feminist socialistplatform. Although supported by BelfastCumann na mBan, she was unsupported bySinn Féin and had no electoral machine. Shereceived less than 3% of the vote (395 of13,373) and lost her deposit. She latercommented,

“I was disappointed losing the £150. Ihad neither personation agents,committee rooms, canvassers orvehicles and as these are the chief

Winifred and George

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features in an election, it wasamazing to me to find that 395 peoplewent to the ballot on their owninitiative.”

Winnie also expressed concern about thesocial conservatism of many of those whowere elected for Sinn Féin.

During the war of Independence and the CivilWar period, 1919-22, Winnie was Secretaryof the Irish Republican PrisonersDependentsʼ Fund. Her home was frequentlyraided. She spent time in prison in Lewes,England, Dublin, Armagh, and Belfast duringthis period.

In July 1922, Winnie was arrested by the B-Specials at her home at 70 NewingtonAvenue, where she lived with her mother. Itis interesting to note the range of“Documents and seditious papers” that wereseized there and from the ITGWU office.These included an unsigned publisherʼsagreement for a book by Winnie Carney andold letters from Republican friends andcomrades including several letters fromMichael Collins. They also found TheComplete Grammar of Anarchy, pamphletsentitled, The Bolshevik Revolution, Its Riseand Meaning and The Proletariat, byKautsky, and a number of letters that, thepolice record said, showed “her connectionwith Bolshevism etc.” This raid in 1922 alsonetted recent correspondence showing that

Winnie was involved in distributing money topeople in the Lower Falls area on behalf ofthe Irish White Cross. The police report saidthat, “She has been associating withdangerous characters and is believed tohave been acting as courier for the IRA.”

Winnie spent 18 days in police custody andlater in Armagh Jail. After her transfer toArmagh, she continued to protest against herinternment without charge or trial, and alsothe fact that she was being treated as if shewas a convicted prisoner, cut off fromcommunication with family and friends. Shewas released from jail on health grounds –the RIC Commissioner noting that she wasin “wretched health”. She was later convictedand fined 40 shillings for possession ofdocuments “relating to the Third NorthernDivision of the IRA”.

Perhaps Winifred was already suffering fromTB, and her health, as well as herresponsibility as carer for her mother, wascertainly a factor in restricting her politicalactivism during the remainder of the 1920sand 1930s. She once commented after onespell in jail during which she had worriedabout her mother that “revolutionariesshouldnʼt have families.” We can onlyspeculate about how the splits and conflictsamong socialists and republicans also actedas a deterrent, although Winifred seems tohave been able to keep friends in manycamps.

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Winnie joined the Court Ward branch of theIrish Labour Party in 1924, seeing it as ameans of continuing to work for the politicalunification of the country. It was here thatshe met George McBride. Court Wardbranch brought together younger radicalsand revolutionary minded activists at a timewhen Northern Ireland was very much apolice state and labour agitation wasconsidered seditious. The West Belfast andCourt Ward branches saw themselves asrevolutionary militants and later became theRevolutionary Workersʻ Groups. (In 1933, theRevolutionary Workersʻ Groups would mergeas the Irish Communist Party.)

The 1920s in Belfast were very difficult timesin which to be a socialist. Socialist meetingswere frequently broken up by unionist gangsknown as the “Dawson Bates drummingclubs,” named after the Minister of HomeAffairs. But the Catholic Church was alsovirulently anti-communist. Nevertheless,there were solidarity rallies in support of the1926 General Strike and protests in supportof anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti, executedin the United States in 1927. Winnie andGeorge were both present at Labour radicalsʼfirst public action — an unemployment marchto the Board of Poor Law Guardians.

After her marriage in 1928, Winnie left her jobwith the ITGWU. Although she attended theLabour Party conference in Scarborough,she also left the Labour Party that year.

Winnieʼs health by this time was poor, andshe was increasingly tied down by caring forher mother. Whatever the family problemsrelated to the marriage might have been, hermother lived with them until her death andWinnie nursed her mother through manyyears of ill health. They lived at 3 WhitewellParade, North Belfast. George later started asmall leather goods business.

Winnieʼs mother died in 1933 and soon afterWinnie Joined the Northern Ireland SocialistParty (NISP), a mainly Protestantorganisation based in the Shankill andNewtownards Road districts of Belfast. TheNISP was allied to the Republican Congress,set up in 1934 following a split in the IRA. Itwas supported by the son and daughter ofJames Connolly and the Irish Citizen Army.Certainly Winnie would have agreed with theBelfast statement calling for a RepublicanCongress that was issued from a specialconference of trade unionists in Belfast:

“We are convinced that the horrors ofcapitalism, the menace of fascismand the question of Irish unity areinterrelated problems, the solution ofwhich can only be found in thesolidarity of workers, small farmersand peasants, north and south”.

In June 1934, George and Winnie andseveral dozen Protestant socialists fromBelfast came to Bodenstown with the

Winifred and George

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Republican Congress for the Wolfe Tonecommemoration. On arrival in Dublin, theywent to Arbour Hill to lay wreaths onConnollyʼs grave and then travelled toBodenstown to take part in the paradebehind their banners reading ʻWolfe ToneCommemoration 1934 – Shankill RoadBranch – Break the connection withCapitalismʼ. On the second banner wasembroidered ʻJames Connolly Club, Belfast– The United Irishmen of 1934′.

About 17,000 people attended Bodenstownthat year, the vast majority of them IRAsupporters. Prior to the event, the IRA hadwarned all political groups not to carryunauthorized banners, an order designed toenforce control over rivals like Congress. Onthe day, about 800 marched with Congress,led by the ICA carrying a Starry Plough flag.Congress supporters refused to put awaytheir banners and IRA stewards moved toprevent them marching. Clashes broke outwhich saw the Shankill Road banner torn inhalf as Congress supporters tried to forcetheir way on to the parade.

The Congress column including the NorthernContingent marched behind the WorkersUnion of Ireland Band to the rousing strains

of The Red Flag. At Bodenstown cemetery,they were blocked by the Tipperary Brigadeof the IRA. The Irish Times commented thenext day on the irony of Ulster Protestantsbeing prevented by Tipperary Catholics fromhonouring Wolfe Tone.

Later that year, on Armistice Day in Dublin,about 2,000 ex-British Servicemen wearingtheir war medals marched under aRepublican Congress banner in ademonstration against poverty and war.(Onebranch of the Republican Congressconsisted entirely of British ex-servicemen.)While we donʼt know if George marched withthem, Winnie and George did work with othersocialists to organise support for therepublican side in the Spanish Civil Warduring the summer of 1936, which was alsothe last record of Republican Congressactivity.

From the mid-1920s Winifred shared her lifeand — at least until the mid-1930s — heractivism with George. After several monthsin hospital, she died from TB in 1943 age 55.There was a small funeral; with funeralnotices only from George, old comradesCumann na mBan No 1 Belfast Branch, theBelfast Socialist Party and the Belfast Branch

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ImagesA request from Winifred to the pensiondepartment in relation to her pension.

A note from George to the pensions department

A photograph of George with a relative ofWinifredʼs at her grave before he died.


committee of the ITGWU. She was buried inMilltown Cemetery, in a grave that remainedunmarked until 1985. George lived on formany years, the last of them as a patient inthe UVF Old Soldiersʼ Home in East Belfast.

He was buried in Clandeboye Cemetery, alsoin an unmarked grave, over which atombstone was raised by socialists and tradeunionists in 2016.

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PUBLISHED AS PART OF THIS SERIES:

Docker’s and Carter’s Strike

Belfast 1907

Fergus OʼHare

TheWomen of Belfast

Cumann na mBan

EasterWeek and After

Margaret Ward

Belfast

and The Rising

Jimmy McDermot

Winifred and George

Ruth Taillon


217 Falls Road, Belfast BT12 [email protected] �+44 (0)28 9024 1100

@FailteFeirste Facebook.com:visit/visitwestbelfast
