Coatbridge

Coordinates: 55°51′45″N 4°01′36″W / 55.8625°N 4.0266°W / 55.8625; -4.0266

Coatbridge (Scots: Cotbrig or Coatbrig, Scottish Gaelic: Drochaid a' Chòta) is a town in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, about 10 miles (16 km) east of Glasgow city centre, set in the central Lowlands. The town, with neighbouring Airdrie, is part of the Greater Glasgow urban area. While the earliest known settlement of the area dates back to the Stone Age era, the founding of the town can be traced to the 12th century when a Royal Charter was granted to the Monks of Newbattle Abbey by King Malcolm IV. Coatbridge, along with its neighbour Airdrie, forms the area known as the Monklands.

It was during the last years of the 18th century that the area developed from a loose collection of hamlets into the town of Coatbridge. The town's development and growth have been intimately connected with the technological advances of the industrial revolution, and in particular with the hot blast process. Coatbridge was a major Scottish centre for iron works and coal mining during the 19th century and in this period was described as 'the industrial heartland of Scotland' and the 'Iron Burgh'.

Margaret Skinnider

Margaret Skinnider (28 May 1892 – 10 October 1971) was a revolutionary and feminist born in Coatbridge, Scotland. She fought during the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin. Her part in the Easter Rising was all the more notable because she was a woman, a sniper and the only female wounded in the action. She was mentioned three times for bravery in the dispatches sent to the Dublin GPO.

Early life

Skinnider was born in 1893 to Irish parents in the Lanarkshire town of Coatbridge. She trained as a mathematics teacher and joined Cumann na mBan in Glasgow, she was also involved in the women's suffrage movement in Glasgow. Ironically she had learned to shoot in a rifle club which had originally been set up so that women could help in defence of the British Empire. During her trips to Ireland Skinnider came under the influence of Constance Markievicz and became active in smuggling detonators and bomb-making equipment into Dublin (in her hat) in preparation for the 1916 Easter Rising. She along with Madeleine ffrench-Mullen spent time in the hills around Dublin testing dynamite.