Two Belfast women, Mary Ann McCracken and Winifred Carney, will soon have statues commemorating their heroism, leadership and commitment to social justice and freedom erected in the grounds of Belfast City Hall. It was agreed at the Strategic Policy and Resources Committee last week that the Council will nowbegin the process of costing and designing the statues.
In 2012 an Equality Impact Assessment confirmed what anyone with eyes already knew – that the grounds of Belfast City Hall were overwhelmingly dominated by white, male, upper class and unionist images. The City Hall did not reflect the reality of life in Belfast and especially of a changing Belfast.
To address this imbalance Sinn Féin brought forward proposals four years ago to transform the City Hall and grounds. The process has been slow as some within the Council have sought to frustrate this new direction. However, last Friday’s Council meeting has now moved the proposal around the two Belfast women a decisive step forward.
Winifred Carney was born in Bangor but was reared at 5 Falls Road. She attended the Christian Brother’s School in Donegall Street where she worked for a time as a junior teacher. She qualified as one of the first lady secretaries and short hand typists in Belfast from Hughes Commercial Academy. Subsequently she worked for a time in a solicitor’s office in Dungannon.
Winifred had a keen interest in the Irish language and culture and joined the Gaelic League. She was a strong advocate for the rights of women and was a committed socialist. She was very close to Marie Johnson who worked as secretary for the Irish Textile Workers’ Union. The union had been established by James Connolly in 1911.
When Marie became ill she asked Winifred to take over the responsibility. Two years later Connolly, along with Winifred Carney, published the Manifesto of Irish Textile Workers’ Union – To the Linen Slaves of Belfast.
Carney was also a member of the Cumann na mBan which she joined with Connolly’s two daughters Nora and Ina Connolly. She was also in the Irish Citizen Army. In 1916 she was the first women to enter the GPO during the Rising. She worked closely with Connolly in preparing dispatches.
When the GPO was evacuated after five days of fierce fighting Carney was with the wounded Connolly as he was carried to number 16 Moore Street. There five of the signatories to the Proclamation held their last meeting as the Provisional Government. Julia Grenan, Winifred Carney and Elizabeth O’Farrell were present and when Tom Clarke broke down at the prospect of surrender Last Words tell us; “Miss Grenan and Miss Carney went across to him to try and consol him but instead they themselves dissolved into tears and Clarke comforted them.”
Following the surrender Winifred Carney was imprisoned in England. She stood unsuccessfully for East Belfast in the 1918 election and continued to work for the Transport Union. In 1920-22 she was secretary of the Irish Republican Prisoners’ Dependents Fund 1920-22. In 1922 she was imprisoned in Armagh jail.
In 1928 she married George McBride. He had fought in the First World War and was from the Shankill Road. They were both committed socialists although differed on the national issue and the Rising. Winifred Carney died on 21 November 1943 and was buried in Milltown Cemetery, Belfast. Belfast Graves erected a headstone on her grave in 1985.
Mary Ann McCracken was the sister of Henry Joy McCracken, executed for his part in the 1798 Rebellion. She was a radical thinker, social reformer, who was implacably opposed to slavery and poverty, was a friend of the disadvantaged, and an advocate for the rights of women.
She was born in Belfast in July 1870 to a wealthy Presbyterian family. Her Uncle Henry Joy raised the funding for the construction of the Poor House by the Belfast Charitable Society – now Clifton House – in 1774. Mary Ann McCracken was a member of the Board of the Society and retained a close personal and working relationship with it until her death in 1866.
In July 1798 her brother Henry Joy McCracken was sentenced to be hanged for his part in the United Irish Rising. In a letter she later described the events:
“I took his arm, and we walked together to the place of execution where I was told it was the General’s orders that I should leave him, which I peremptorily refused. Harry begged I would go. Clasping my hands around him, (I did not weep til then) I said I could bear anything but leaving him. Three times he kissed me and entreated I would go; and, looking round to recognise some friend to put me in charge of he beckoned to a Mr. Boyd, and said ‘He will take charge of you.’ ... and fearing that any further refusal would disturbed the last moments of my dearest brother, I suffered myself to be led away.”
After the failure of the rebellion Mary Ann dedicated her life to many causes. The breadth of her interests and activism is remarkable. She helped provide education and apprenticeships for children through the Poor House Ladies Committee. In 1847 at the age of 77 she was one of those who established the “Ladies Industrial School for the Relief of Destitution” with the aim of helping those suffering as a result of An Gorta Mór.
Mary Ann was one of the first to support the “Belfast Ladies Clothing Society” and raised money for the “Society for the Relief of the Destitute Sick”. She was a member of the committee that lobbied for a change in the law to end the practice of ‘climbing boys.’ Their work involved scrambling up the chimney’s of the wealthy to clean them. The risk of falling and the impact on the health of the boys as they cleared away soot was significant.
Her opposition to slavery was relentless and total. When Waddell Cunningham, a merchant, proposed in 1786 that the Belfast Slave Ship Company be established the scheme was vehemently opposed by those who later established the United Irish Society. This and the publication of Thomas Paine’s Rights of Man and the French and American revolutions hugely influenced Mary Ann her brother Henry Joy and all of those who came to found the United Irish Society in Belfast in October 1791.
In a letter written in 1859 Mary Ann recalls how deeply Thomas Russell despised slavery. He was one of those: “ ... who in the days of Wilberforce (campaigned against Slavery in England) abstained from the use of slave labour produce until slavery in the west Indies was abolished, and at the dinner parties to which he was so often invited and when confectionary was so much used he would not taste anything with sugar in it ...”
Her opposition was such that as a small frail woman she would hand out leaflets opposing slavery to those boarding vessels to sail to the USA. In a letter written in 1859 – a year before the American Civil War began, she describes America: “...considered the land of the great. The brave, may more properly be styled the land of the tyrant and the Slave ... Belfast, once so celebrated for its love of liberty is now so sunk in the love of filthy lucre (money earned dishonourably) that there are but 16 or 17 female anti-slavery advocates, for the good cause paying 2/6 yearly – not one man, tho’ several Quakers in Belfast and none to distribute papers to American Emigrants but an old woman within 17 days of 89.”
Frail in body she might have been but strong in heart and spirit she remained all of her days. Mary Ann McCracken died on the 26 July 1866 aged 96.
Rab McCullough.
My condolencesto Marian and the family of Rab McCullough. Rabdiedsuddenly last week. He was one of Irelandsleadingbluesmusicans. He played with AC/DC, Van Morrison, Rory Gallagher, Jimmy Hendrix and otherglobalrock stars. He alsotaught Bobby Sands toplay the guitarwhentheywereimprisoned in the 1970s.
I wrote a little piece aboutthisrecentlyafter Danny Devenneypublished hisiconicprint - The Session- featuringBobby,John Lennon, Che, Woody Gutherie and othershaving a music session. Rabgave me somedetails of Bobby’searlyefforts to learn how to play the guitar and of hismusicalinfluences. He, Tomboy Loudan and Bobby used to jam together faoi glas na gallaimh.
Recently I askedRab if he wouldjoin Tomboy, BikMcFarlane and otherexprisonermusicans, post thecovid restrictions, in a session of musicfrom the 60s and 70s that they played togetherwith Bobby in the Crum and Long Kesh. Rabwasdelighted to be asked. He rhymed of a list of potential numbers from Rod Stewart, Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan,John Lennon and others. Tomboy also signed up. Bikagreed to ramrod that gig and we spokeabout it only last week. Unfortunately it won’thappennow. Not with Rab anyway. Buthis music will live on. Belfast Blues is a classic.
Go deanfaidh Dia trocairear Rab. Mo comhbhrón le Marian agus a chlann.
Féile na gCloigíní Gorma.
Last week it was an honour for me to be on a paneldiscussionaboutthe Belfast Hills. This discussion- on zoom- waspart of Féile na gCloigíní and includedLynda Sullivan,Friends of the Earth, Jim Bradley, Belfast Hills Partnership, Maria Morgan, LigoneilImprovement Association, and Melina Quinn, National Trust.
I recalledthe role the local community played in gettingquarryingon the mountainstopped and how the campaign for the conservation of the Bog Meadows and Divis and Black Mountain developed. I made the point that none of this wouldhavehappenedwitout local activism and the efforts of Terry EnwrighSnr, Adrian Crean, Terry Goldsmith and others. Colin Glen has a similarhistory. Empoweredcommunities can make a differance.
Getting my notes together for this event started me thinking of the time when my familygot a house in the late 1950s in Ballymurphy. At that time the Murphwassurrounded by greenfields. A river, nowmostlyunderground, ranparralell with Ballymurphy. That was one of our favouriteplacesto play when we weren’t on the mountain. Springhill wasyet to be built. It was a great green space - Husky’s Field- with a big red bricked houseused as a clinic, at itscentre. We wentthere for codliver oil and orangejuice. What is now Springhill Avenue was a long tree linedavenue. Thepowers that be destroyed all that. Theyeradicatedeveryblade of grass and built Springhill, agreybrickand blacktaramackedestate with all greeneryerased.
Thankfully that toonowis gone, following sustainedhousingcampaigns, from Divis to Moyard, Turf Lodge, the Shankilland otherremenants of disasteroushousingdevelopments from the 1960s.
Therewerevery old houses - The YellowHouses- at the corner of what is now Springfield Park. Theywere a reminder that thiswas a ruralarea. Therewere a number of workingfarms. One opposite Springhill. Anotherbeside Corrigan Park. Yet another at the Top of the Rock at the lefthandjunction of the Whiterock and Springfield Roads. We usually went up the mountain via the mountainloney.
Therewas an old tin churchenroute, opposite Dermot Hill,smallerbut not dissimiliar to Saint Matthias’on the Glen Road.Above and behind that therewere two flaxdams with swans and an epidemic of frogspawnin the earlyspring. At the top of the loneytherewas a spring of freshmountainwater, nowpiped off. Behind it was a track – nowblocked- up to the Hatchet Field. We spentchildhoodsummers on the mountain.Thattrack to the HatchetFieldwas our main routeupwardstowards the acres of buebellswhichgive Féile na gCloigíní Gorma its name.
We alsoused to walk up to Torneroy - close to Lamh Dearg and listen to the CorncrakesaboveTurf Lodge.
It is good that Féile celebrates all this. But more importantly it alsolooks with hope to the future. A future in whichhumans can live in harmony with nature. In our case as Belfast people in harmony with our Belfast Hills. My thanks to everyone who has made this possible. Many thanks also to all who organise the many events ofFéile na gCloigíní Gorma. It is based on the princilples of Community, Solidarity and Wellbeing. Great work and veryenjoyablealso.