Trained by the state to use a rifle so that she could help defend the British empire, Scottish maths teacher Margaret Skinnider used her skills as a sniper against that same empire.
She was born on May 28 1892, in Coatbridge, Lanarkshire, into an Irish immigrant family. During childhood summers spent with relatives in County Monaghan, Margaret was horrified and angered by the poverty and inequality she witnessed. She trained as a teacher and worked at a school in Glasgow, but from early on she was also actively involved in groups supporting Irish independence and in the campaign for women's suffrage.
The intelligence services clearly weren't paying attention, since she was allowed to join a women's rifle club. These were set up during the first world war, the idea being that if Germany invaded Britain, women who could shoot straight would be able to help repel the beastly Hun. Margaret worked hard at her task, ending up as a very fine shot.
Her potential value to the cause was soon recognised by leading Irish revolutionaries including Constance Markievicz, and Margaret the maths teacher spent Christmas 1915 smuggling arms into Ireland in preparation for the planned uprising. She made the trip across the water with detonators hidden in her hat and wires hidden by her coat. To avoid the charges accidentally going off she spent the voyage on deck, away from any sources of heat. At the beginning of the next term if any of her pupils had asked her "What did you do in the hols, Miss?" a complete answer would have had to include the unexpected line "I spent a while testing dynamite in the Dublin hills with some of my socialist republican lesbian chums, dear."
Margaret was off to Ireland again when the 1916 Easter holidays began. She joined the Easter Rising as a member of the Irish Citizen Army, a left-wing militia with its origins in the trades unions. The aim of the somewhat disparate groups involved in the insurrection was to end British rule and establish a Republic of Ireland.
In the battle for control of Dublin Margaret Skinnider served in various roles. There are reports of her disguising herself as a boy to run messages between units and then disguising herself as a civilian woman when on scouting missions. While operating as a sniper, however, she was careful to wear her full uniform.
But by the time the uprising ended in surrender after six days, Margaret had been injured out of the fighting. In charge of a unit of four men, she'd been sent to burn down a building being used by the enemy. A skirmish took place in which she was shot three times and severely wounded. After seven weeks in hospital, and a brief period of arrest, she managed to get back to Scotland, apparently using her Scottish accent to convince the authorities that she was an innocent Brit eager to return home.
Once recovered, Skinnider spent some time in the USA, fearing internment in the UK. She spent that period on propaganda tours and publishing her war memoirs. In 1917 she moved to Ireland permanently, working as a teacher in Dublin. She was arrested again during the War of Independence (1919-21) - and arrested one last time, by the Irish on this occasion, for her part in the civil war which followed: she was an anti-Treaty republican, fighting against the provisional government.
The rest of her working life was spent as a teacher in Dublin, and an active trade unionist; in the 1950s she served as her union's president. She also remained involved in left-wing politics. She died in 1971, ten years after retiring.
In 1925, Margaret had applied for a war veteran's pension, given that she had worn Ireland's uniform, taken a direct part in combat, and received injuries in the line of duty which left lasting damage. The application was refused, the Irish government writing to her that it was "satisfied that the Army Pensions Act is only applicable to soldiers as generally understood in the masculine sense."
This was an answer never likely to satisfy a trade union militant, former suffragist, and ex-sniper - and, sure enough, after years of asking, she finally got her £80 per annum in 1928.
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Sources:
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/1CWCQ43hqTRx2qkq8jj2tqm/margaret-skinnider
www.womensmuseumofireland.ie/exhibits/kathleen-clarke-67a56
www.dib.ie/biography/skinnider-margaret-ni-scineadora-maighread-a8112
www.thejournal.ie/margaret-skinnider-road-2409258-Oct2015/
https://dublinpeople.com/news/entertainment/articles/2013/03/23/the-women-of-1916/
www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/ep/p-1916/1916irl/cpr/cwr/ms/