author
Margaret Skinnider
A schoolteacher turned revolutionary, she carried messages and weapons during the 1916 Easter Rising and later wrote a vivid firsthand memoir of the conflict. Her life brings together political courage, sharp observation, and a remarkable sense of purpose.
1 Audiobook
Doing My Bit For Ireland
by Margaret Skinnider
About the author
Born in Coatbridge, Scotland, in 1893 to Irish parents, Margaret Skinnider trained as a teacher before becoming involved in Irish nationalist and suffrage movements. She joined Cumann na mBan and traveled to Dublin during the Easter Rising in 1916, where she acted as a dispatch carrier and took part in dangerous operations around St Stephen's Green. She was badly wounded during the fighting, becoming one of the few women injured in active combat during the Rising.
Afterward, she told her story in Doing My Bit for Ireland, a firsthand account that remains one of the most memorable personal narratives of the rebellion. She continued to support republican causes and later worked for many years in education, eventually serving as a school principal.
Skinnider lived a long life that connected revolutionary Ireland with the generations that followed. She died in 1971 and is remembered both for her role in Irish independence and for leaving behind an unusually direct, personal record of those events.