Remembering Winifred Carney

Winifred Carney, known as Winnie in a portrait circa 1916

Remembering Winifred Carney, Born on this day in 1887. Winifred, born in Bangor on December 4th was an Irish revolutionary who fought with James Connolly and Patrick Pearse at the General Post Office in Dublin during the Rising on 1916.

Winifred was initially the only woman in the GPO (there were other Cumann na mBan volunteers stationed elsewhere around Dublin that day). Between dispatching orders from Pearse and Connolly she fought the British off with a revolver. She was a part of the breakout group from the GPO that fought their way to Moore Street where Pearse eventually surrendered.

Medals belonging to Winifred achieved during the 1916 Rising and the Irish Civil War

Winifred was send to Kilmainham and later Mountjoy Prison and was released only after the execution of the main leaders of the Rising. Winifred later fought for the anti-treaty faction during the Irish Civil War.

Winifred was a member of Sinn Féin, a trade unionist and a leading figure in the Irish Suffragist movement. She died in Belfast in 1943 and is buried in Milltown Cemetery. Today we remember Winifred and all the other Cumann na mBan volunteers of 1916 who fought valiantly so Ireland could be free from British tyranny.