Overview

In 1916, as Ireland tore itself apart, two people from opposite sides of history found each other... Winnie and George tells the true story of two extraordinary people. Maria Winifred Carney - known as 'Winnie' - was a Roman Catholic republican, a member of Cumann na mBan, and James Connolly's personal secretary who carried a Webley gun in the GPO during the Easter Rising. George McBride was a Protestant unionist, a Young Citizen Volunteer, and a British soldier who fought at the Somme during the Great War. They should never have met. They may never have married. From opposite sides of Belfast's sectarian divide, Winnie and George each lived remarkable lives shaped by Ireland's most turbulent era - the Easter Rising, the Somme, partition, and the birth of Northern Ireland. Yet both shared an unwavering passion for justice and the rights of the working class. When their paths finally crossed, they discovered something greater than politics, religion, or war: a love that would defy their families, their communities and history itself. Enhanced with dramatised dialogue and meticulous historical research, this sweeping biography brings to life a marriage that should have been impossible - and the profound lesson that love, once discovered, can be greater than the sum of all our divisions.

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9781781172766

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Reviews

Winnie & George is both an engaging account of historical events in Belfast and Dublin, but also of how commonalities of human experience can help transcend divisions, and develop into friendship and love.That Murphy has done her historical research is clear, but she has been mindful of her mother-in-law's insistence that the book be ""told for people like her to read"", and not be a dry delineation of facts. - Sunday Times The unusual story of Winnie and George is one of three stories playing out in this book. Winnie's relationship with James Connolly is fascinating, and Murphy's research does it great justice. Connolly obviously relied on Winnie's intelligence and valued her opinions: ""If he did not receive a letter daily from her, he still wrote in hope that one would arrive in the night post."" - Irish Times Winnie & George may be a love story, yet at its heart are the stories of two remarkable friendships. - Irish News

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