Irish-American Women in History

by Chelsea Bennett, Reference Department

March is Women’s History Month. When it comes to writing a blog post honoring half the world’s population, it can be hard to know where to start. On this occasion, I’ll take my inspiration from another March celebration – St Patrick’s Day (a very Irish-American holiday, as you learned in this blog post) – and introduce you to some pioneering Irish-American women in our country’s history.

In my research, I learned that the very first person to be “processed” through the Ellis Island immigration center on the day it opened in 1892 was a teen-aged girl from Ireland named Annie Moore. [1] You could say that, for as long as Irish women have immigrated to America, they have been blazing trails!

One of my favorite Irish-American women was born Mary G. Harris, but became better known in the second half of her life as fiery activist Mother Jones. From County Cork, Ireland, she came to America with her family as a child – one of more than a million families arriving as refugees of an gorta mór, Ireland’s “Great Hunger” tragedy, in the mid-1800s. She became a young widow in 1867, and lost her house and possessions in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. Her many hardships must have fueled her to become a social activist and union organizer. She worked to expose the miserable, deadly conditions of child labor workers, and devoted herself to improving the working conditions of coal miners all over the country. Her “organizing methods were unique for her time,” as well. “She welcomed African American workers and involved women and children in strikes.” [2] Because of her fierce dedication to reform, she was called “the most dangerous woman in America” and “the grandmother of all agitators.” [3] But – if you’ll indulge the metaphor – when you’re washing clothes, agitation is how you get the dirt out. I’d say Mother Jones did her fair share towards getting some dirt out of America’s labor system at the time. [4, 5]

Another famous Irish-American philanthropist was known as “The Unsinkable Molly Brown,” although her given name was Margaret, and her friends called her Maggie. The daughter of Irish immigrants, Margaret came from humble beginnings. She married a “poor man” who struck it rich in the mining industry, elevating them to a prominent position in Denver, Colorado, in the 1890s. Margaret loved her socialite life, but also became active in charities for miners and women. But she rose to fame due to her actions as a survivor of the sinking of the Titanic. After helping others board lifeboats, Margaret had to be persuaded to get into a lifeboat herself. But she took up an oar and threated to throw the lifeboat’s crewman overboard if he didn’t turn back to find more survivors! After she boarded the rescue ship, The Unsinkable Molly Brown organized other first-class passengers into a survivors’ committee. “The committee worked to secure basic necessities for the second- and third-class survivors, and even provided informal counseling.” [6]

Author Kate Chopin was born in 1850 as Katherine O’Flaherty, the daughter of a businessman from Galway, Ireland. (She used her Creole mother’s maiden name for her writing.) Living in late 19th century Louisiana, Kate Chopin denied being a feminist or a suffragist. But she viewed the culture around her with a probing eye. With a knack for clear, compassionate observation, and the boldness to write honestly – even if some subjects were deemed controversial, even immoral, at the time – Chopin nonetheless helped pave the way for 20th century feminist authors. The Awakening, about a young woman who determines to discover her identity beyond “wife” and “mother” despite societal conventions, is a staple in English literature classes. She also published several important short stories. [7, 8]

Author and journalist Maureen Daly was born in 1921 in County Tyrone, Ulster (currently Northern Ireland). She lived most of her life in America and became a naturalized citizen. As a young woman, she published a book called Seventeenth Summer (which she started writing when she was 17 herself). Although it was published for adults, the book “has been credited with beginning the modern period of young adult literature,” a genre that wouldn’t become widely recognized until the 1960s. [9] I wonder if Daly knew that writing books especially for teenagers was even ground that needed breaking?

The first female Poet Laureate in the USA was a woman named Louise Bogan, whose father was of Irish origin. Because of her gender, her family’s lower-middle class status, and her Irish background, she faced discrimination in the academic and literary communities. Nonetheless, she became a well-known poetry critic and poet, developing a style that was completely modern while still constructing her poetry in a deliberately traditional way. She was appointed our country’s fourth Poet Laureate (then called the “Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress”), the first woman to be awarded that honor, in 1945. [10, 11, 12, 13]

These six women may be long departed, but I found an Irish toast to thank them for their contributions to our culture and history. It’s often used to bless newlywed couples with children, but there’s one translation I really like, and I’ll apply it to the legacies they have left behind. To each one, I say, “Blessings on your posterity.” (Sliocht sleachta ar shliocht bhur sleachta in Irish. You’ll have to get someone else to pronounce it for you.) [14]

 

References:

[1] https://www.womenshistory.org/articles/raising-glass-irish-american-women

[2] https://aflcio.org/about/history/labor-history-people/mother-jones

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_Jones

[4] https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mother-Jones-American-labour-leader

[5] https://aflcio.org/about/history/labor-history-people/mother-jones

[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Brown

[7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_Chopin

[8] https://wcpltn.wordpress.com/2017/12/08/classic-southern-fiction-writers/

[9] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maureen_Daly

[10] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louise_Bogan

[11] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Poet_Laureate

[12] https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/louise-bogan

[13] https://www.britannica.com/biography/Louise-Bogan

[14] http://irish.spike-jamie.com/gaelic.html

Photographs:

• Women Shaking Hands, Photo by Sincerely Media on Unsplash
• Mother Jones with the Miners’ Children (NBY 1299), c. 1912. Photographer unknown.
• Margaret Brown hands Captain Arthur Henry Roston of the Carpathia a silver cup for his role in the rescue of Titanic Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (file no. LC-USZ62-121013)
• First edition cover of Seventeenth Summer by Maureen Daly, published by Dodd, Mead & Co.
• Louise Bogan, U.S. Consultant in Poetry, 1945-1946. Photo credit: New York World-Telegram and the Sun Newspaper Photograph Collection (Library of Congress).