Margaret Connery | |
|---|---|
 Connery, circa 1920s | |
| Born | Margaret Knight 27 June 1881 Westport County Mayo |
| Died | 6 December 1958 Grangegorman, Ireland |
Meg Connery (27 June 1881 – 6 December 1958) was an Irish suffragist from Westport, County Mayo. Known for her wit and bravery, she was a prominent member of the Irish Women's Franchise League (IWFL) and participated in several demonstrations advocating for women's suffrage. Notably, in 1911, she was imprisoned for a week, and in 1912, she heckled Winston Churchill and broke windows in public protests to draw attention to the cause. Connery was arrested multiple times, and in 1913 she led a hunger strike while imprisoned for window-breaking at Dublin Castle.
Connery played a key role in spreading the suffragist message, organising speaking tours in rural counties and regularly contributing to the feminist journal Irish Citizen. During World War I, she critiqued laws like the Contagious Diseases Acts, seeing them as favouring men's interests. Connery's health deteriorated after a miscarriage in 1914, but she continued to campaign for women's rights and peace. She opposed both the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty and the Irish Civil War and later worked for labour rights with the Irish Linen Workers' Union. She remained lifelong friends with fellow campaigner Hanna Sheehy Skeffington and died in 1956.