Winifred Carney

Winifred Carney
Portrait of Carney
Born	4 December 1887 Bangor, County Down
Died	21 November 1943 (aged 55) Belfast, Northern Ireland
Resting place	Milltown Cemetery
Nationality	Irish
Other names	Winnie Carney
Known for	Political Activism and involvement in the 1916 Rising
Spouse(s)	George McBride (1928)

Maria Winifred Carney, also known as Winnie Carney, (4 December 1887 – 21 November 1943) was a suffragist, trade unionist and Irish independence activist.

Born into a lower-middle class Catholic family in Bangor, County Down, her six siblings and mother moved to Falls Road in Belfast when she was a child, where her mother ran a small sweet shop. Her father was a Protestant who left the family, leaving her mother to support them. Carney was educated at the Christian Brothers School in Donegall Street in the city, later teaching at the school. She enrolled at Hughes Commercial Academy around 1910, where she qualified as a secretary and shorthand typist, one of the first women in Belfast to do so. However, from the start she was looking towards doing more than just secretarial work.

In 1912 Carney was in charge of the women's section of the Irish Textile Workers' Union in Belfast, which she founded with Delia Larkin in 1912. During this period she met James Connolly and became his personal secretary. Carney became Connolly's friend and confidant as they worked together to improve the conditions for female labourers in Belfast. Carney and Connolly worked together to try a better women's rights and suffrage among the female factory labourers. According to her biographer Helga Woggon, Carney was the person best acquainted with Connolly's politics. Carney then joined Cumann na mBan, the women's auxiliary of the Irish Volunteers, and attended its first meeting in 1914.

She was present with Connolly in the Dublin General Post Office during the Easter Rising in 1916. Carney was the only woman present during the initial occupation of the building, which she entered armed with a typewriter and a Webley revolver. While not a combatant, she was given the rank of adjutant and was among the final group (including Connolly and Patrick Pearse) to leave the GPO. After Connolly became wounded, she refused to leave his side. This was despite direct orders from Pearse and Connolly. She had earlier taken the wounded Connolly's final dictated orders. Carney, alongside Elizabeth O'Farrell and Julia Grenan left the GPO with the rest of the rebels after their surrender.