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"He Held It For Three Days"

"There Was Severe Fighting At The Back Gate"

“They Simply Disappeared From The Streets”

Women in the rising

On Easter Monday morning, Margaret Skinnider was ordered by James Connolly to report on troop movements in the city. Seeing nothing she returned and was then detailed as a dispatch carrier to Commandant Michael Mallin in Stephen’s Green.

Her task throughout the day was to bring messages to and from the General Post Office. Skinnider recalls how the garrison in Davy’s pub on Portobello bridge attacked British forces on their way to Stephen’s Green.

That night along with her comrades she camped out in the Green and awoke to the sound of gun fire from the Shelbourne Hotel which had been occupied by the British forces during the night.

At 4 o’clock in the morning they started machine gun fire on us.

As a result the Stephen’s Green garrison were forced to leave the park and head for the safety of the College of Surgeons. During the evacuation James Fox, a member of the Citizen Army was killed.

Margaret Skinnider was a member of the Glasgow Branch, Cumann na mBan and was attached to the Irish Citizen Army during the Easter Rising.

Margaret Skinnider was interviewed for 'I Was There', broadcast on Radio Éireann, 19 April 1960. Photograph of Stephen's Green courtesy of the National Library of Ireland.

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