Margaret McCoubrey (1880–1955) was an Irish

suffragist Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise, is the right to vote in public, political elections and referendums (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote). In some languages, and occasionally in English, the right to v ...

and active participant of the

co-operative movement The history of the cooperative movement concerns the origins and history of cooperatives across the world. Although cooperative arrangements, such as mutual insurance, and principles of cooperation existed long before, the cooperative movement bega ...

Life

McCoubrey nee Mearns was born on 5 January 1880 in

Elderslie Elderslie may refer to one of the following locations: * Elderslie, Scotland Elderslie ( gd, Ach na Feàrna) is a village in the council area and historic county of Renfrewshire in west central Scotland. It chiefly serves as a commuter village, ...

, near

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

in Scotland. McCoubrey married an Irish trade unionist and moved to

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdom ...

. There, in 1910 she joined the Irish Women's Suffrage Society (established in the city by

Isabella Tod Isabella Maria Susan Tod (18 May 1836 – 8 December 1896) was a Scottish-born campaigner for women’s civil and political equality, active in the north of Ireland. She lobbied for women’s rights to education and to property, for the di ...

in 1872), and was an active militant alongside

Elizabeth McCracken Elizabeth McCracken (born 1966) is an American author. She is a recipient of the PEN New England Award. Life and career McCracken, a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, graduated from Newton North High S ...

(the writer "L.A.M. Priestley") and Elizabeth Bell (the first woman in Ireland to qualify as a doctor and gynaecologist). When in 1913, Dorothy Evans started organizing the

Women's Social and Political Union The Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) was a women-only political movement and leading militant organisation campaigning for women's suffrage in the United Kingdom from 1903 to 1918. Known from 1906 as the suffragettes, its membership an ...

(WPSU), she followed them in joining the British organization, and travelled to London as a representative of women in the north of Ireland.Margaret Ward, "Conflicting Interests: The British and Irish Suffrage Movements", ''Feminist Review'', No. 50 (Summer 1995), pp. 127–147 The theme of self-sacrifice was paramount amongst suffragettes and Margaret McCoubrey claimed that suffragettes were continuing an Irish tradition of violent protest.'An articulate and definite cry for political freedom': the ulster suffrage movement
/ref> At the outbreak of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, she disagreed with the WSPU's orders to cease agitation, and instead founded a branch of the Irish Women's Suffrage Society in Belfast. She joined the peace movement and gave refuge to conscientious objectors. At that time, the majority of women in

Ulster Ulster (; ga, Ulaidh or ''Cúige Uladh'' ; sco, label= Ulster Scots, Ulstèr or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional Irish provinces. It is made up of nine counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kin ...

perceived pacifism as unpatriotic and female suffrage as unimportant in comparison with the dangers threatening wartime Europe. As a result, only a few suffragists remained active during the War. McCoubrey single-handedly ran a month-long peace and suffrage campaign in Belfast in August 1917, inspired by her belief that 'a woman looking down on a battlefield would not see dead Germans or dead Englishmen but so many mother's sons'. She became general secretary of the Co-operative Women's Guild and in 1922, she was elected to represent the Irish guildswomen on the newly formed International Women's Co-operative Committee, which came into existence at

Basel , french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese , neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS ...

. She was an active member of the

Independent Labour Party The Independent Labour Party (ILP) was a British political party of the left, established in 1893 at a conference in Bradford, after local and national dissatisfaction with the Liberals' apparent reluctance to endorse working-class candidates ...

, and, in 1920, was elected as a Labour councillor for the Dock ward of Belfast. McCoubrey died on 11 April 1956 in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McCoubrey, Margaret 1880 births 1955 deaths People from Renfrewshire Irish suffragists Members of Belfast City Council Independent Labour Party politicians Women councillors in Northern Ireland Co-operative Women's Guild