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From: Claire <>
Subject: Re: Molly Maguires
Date: Mon, 08 Apr 2002 18:19:31 GMT
References: <76999f87.0204080832.1efde2c6@posting.google.com>


Tom Gallen wrote:
>
> In some information I received about Mevagh Parish,Co. Donegal, a
> mention was made about a headquarters of the Molly Maguires, an
> agrarian secret society, in the Village of Glen. Does someone know if
> this has any connection with the secret society that operated in the
> coal regions of Pennsylvania?

In writing about the American Molly Maguires in MAKING SENSE OF THE
MOLLY MAGUIRES, Kevin Kenny (New York and Oxford: Oxford U Press, 1998)
begins Chapter 1 ("Whiteboys, Ribbonmen, and Molly Maguires"):

"Contrary to the nineteenth-century conspiracy theorists, it is highly
unlikely that an organization called the 'Molly Maguires' was imported
directly from Ireland to the United States. Nonetheless, the social
structure and cultural practices in the parts of Ireland where the
American Mollys originated offer some important clues about the nature
of Molly Maguireism in Pennsylvania. In the first half of the
nineteenth century, the Irish countryside was infamous for its
violence. At the heart of the violence was a mysterious, secret-society
tradition that had emerged with the Whiteboy movement of the 1760s. In
time, the term WHITEBOYISM came to be used generically, describing
agrarian violence as a whole. So, too, did the term RIBBONISM, though
there was also a distinct Society of Ribbonmen active in the 1820s and
1830s. The Molly Maguires, who emerged in Ireland in the 1840s, were
the last of the long line of rural secret societies that began with the
Whiteboys. The American Molly Maguires were a rare transatlantic
example of this Irish rural tradition. Without an understanding of
Irish rural history, the eventual outbreak of Molly Maguire violence in
Pennsylvania makes little sense. A detailed examination is needed,
first, of the general pattern of protest and violence in the Irish
countryside; and second, of the highly distinctive history and culture
of north-central and northwestern Ireland. For it was in this part of
Ireland, and the single county of Donegal in particular, that most of
the American Molly Maguires originated."

He then proceeds to go into this two-pronged discussion, explaining what
investigations were done at the time to support the conclusion that the
Irish Molly Maguire society had been directly or indirectly imported to
America and why he disagrees with that conclusion. So, the question of
how closely the Irish and American Molly Maguires were related is a
matter of whose reasoning/evidence you find most convincing.

Hope that helps.
Claire K.

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