Winnie and George, the real life Kevin and Sadie
- weewalksbelfast
- 6 days ago
- 3 min read
We read 'The Twelfth of July' for our Book Club in July which was written by Joan Lingard in 1970 and the first of five 'Kevin and Sadie' books. These books were ground breaking for the time as the couple fell in love across the religious divide here during the ‘Troubles’ as Sadie comes from a Unionist community and Kevin comes from a Nationalist community.
These types of relationships were not new and long before the 1970's we had another couple who fell in love across the religious divide – Winifred Carney and George McBride.
Winifred Carney, sometimes known as Winnie, was born in Bangor in 1887 to a Catholic mother and a Protestant father and George McBride was born eleven years later at Rusholme Street between the Crumlin and Shankill Road. According to the Census in 1911 he is living at Glenwood Street off the Woodvale Road and Winifred is living with her family at Carlisle Circus, although her father seems to be elsewhere. In 1913 George joins the UVF which had been established to oppose the British Government's Third Home Rule Bill and block Irish self-government. George was only 15 and the joining age was 17 but he seems to have got round that! This was the same year of the Dublin lock-out when Winifred was secretary of the Textile Workers Union and a close friend of James Connolly. During the lock-out girls aged 16 and 17 (not much older than George) were being sent to prison for their involvement so James Connolly sent them to Belfast and Winifred helped them get work here. George joined the British Army at the beginning of the First World War in 1914 when he was 17 but he told the rectruiting officer he was 19. He was then posted to France in 1915.
Winifred is sent to Dublin in preparation for the Easter Rising in April 1916. She is in the GPO during the Rising and is arrested and sent to prison for her part in it. She is in prison on the 1st of July 1916 which was the first day of the Battle of the Somme and George McBride takes part in the battle. She is released from prison in December of 1916 and George continues to fight during the First World War before being taken prisoner at the Battle of St Quentin.
After the First World War ends in 1918 they are both back in Belfast. George gets his old employment back in Mackies Foundry and Winifred stands for election. She gets about 395 votes, a number she seems to be happy with. George has joined the Labour Party and become a staunch socialist and trade union supporter, causes which were already close to Winifred's heart. She joined the Socialist Party in 1920 and the NI Labour Party in 1924. It was at a meeting of the Court Ward branch of the Labour Party that the couple met. They disagreed on some aspects of politics but they fell in love and got married in Holyhead, Wales in 1928.
After the marriage the couple moved into a house in Whitewell Parade. George is a salesman and Winifred leaves her job and resigns from the Labour Party to look after her mother who died in 1933. Winifred's health was also poor by this point and she spent several months in Whiteabbey Sanatorium hospital before her death from TB in November 1943 at the age of 55. George continued to advocate for her after her death, receiving the balance of her Military Service Pension in 1943 and requesting a service medal for her in 1944. Reflecting on his life with Winifred he said “I hope I was worthy of her. She seemed so very happy with me”. George McBride died in the Somme Nursing Home in April 1988. He was 90 years of age.
I talk about Winifred Carney on a few of my tours including the original Women of Belfast Walking Tour "Well Behaved Women Seldom Make History" and she also features on the 'Millies & Militants' tour. You can book a walking tour here
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