Winnie Carney

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

In 1912 Carney was in charge of the women's section of the Irish Textile Workers' Union in Belfast. During this period she met James Connolly and became his personal secretary. 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.

Easter Rising 1916

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. She had earlier taken the wounded Connolly's final dictated orders, and had refused to leave him despite being ordered to evacuate the building with the injured After her capture, she was held in Kilmainham Gaol and later interned in Aylesbury with Nell Ryan and Helena Moloney. The three requested that their internee status, and the privileges it brought, be revoked so that they would be held as normal prisoners with Countess Markievicz. Their request was denied and she was released in December 1916. After the Anglo-Irish Treaty and the formation of the Irish Free State, Carney sided with the Anti-Treaty forces and was arrested several times