10/10/2026
On this day - 10th October 1971; Margaret Skinnider, Irish Revolutionary, Easter Rising Sniper at the Royal College of Surgeon's Garrison, Teacher, Trade Unionist, Socialist & Suffragette dies aged 79.
Margaret was born in Coatbridge, Scotland to Irish parents. She studied and became a mathematics teacher in Scotland. She joined Cumann na mBan in Glasgow and the Suffragette movement. She was an extremely active member of Cumann na mBan, and had learnt, ironically how to shoot at a shooting club in defence of Empire. She travelled back and forth to Ireland, where she met Constance Markievicz and joined the Irish Citizen Army. She would smuggle detonators and bomb-making equipment into Dublin before the Rising. Markievicz had shown her around some of the slums of Dublin, to her disbelief, that people could live in conditions "full of sewage and refuse"... also writing "I do not believe there is a worse place in the world."
Margaret played an active role in the Easter Rising. She operated as scout and messenger, dressed as a man. But it was her sharp shooting skills that won her accolades. Under the Command of Commandant Michael Mallin and Constance Markievicz, she took up position in the College of Surgeon's building where she was a sniper. She even killed some soldiers, and was noted as being a great markswoman. When attempting to burn down houses on Harcourt Street to try to cut off the retreat of British soldiers' she was shot three times, nearly fatally, being seriously wounded from where the British had stationed a machine gun at Church University. She wrote: "It's all over,' I muttered as I felt myself falling. A moment later, when I knew I was not dead, I was sure I should pull through." Margaret spent several weeks in hospital before a daring plan to escape to Scotland.
She fled to the US in fear of internment and while there, she collected much needed funds for the Republican cause. She gave lectures about the Rising to other women and wrote her biography 'Doing My Bit for Ireland'. She returned to Dublin in late 1917 and during the Tan War, Skinnider was arrested and imprisoned by Crown Forces. By 1923 she was arrested and held at North Dublin Union for her part as an Anti-Treaty Paymaster General for the IRA. Imprisoned, she became Director of Training for the prisoners.
After release from prison in 1924, she worked as a teacher in a primary school. She was a member of the Irish National Teachers' Organisation (INTO) becoming its President in 1956. She retired from teaching in 1961. In the aftermath of the revolutionary period, she fought for women's rights until her latter years. Margaret died in Glenageary, County Dublin and was buried next to her old comrade Constance Markievicz in the Republican Plot at Glasnevin Cemetery.
