“You men say to us: ‘Your place is in the home,’ yet as children we must come out of the home at 11, at 13, and at 15 years of age to earn a living. We have got to make good or starve.”The charismatic and powerful public speaker who pushed for equal pay for equal work, better labor standards, and overall empowerment for women is profiled by Rosemary Rogers.Leonora O’Reilly was … [Read more...] about The Agitator: Leonora O’Reilly
Wild Irish Women
Wild Irish Women: More Sinned Against Than Sinning
Pilloried by the press and railroaded to prison, she still managed to sail into the sunset.During the summer of 1965 in the East Bronx, the collective grief in Saint Raymond’s convent was almost palpable. The nuns learned that one of their students, a former Good Irish Catholic Girl, had brought shame on them and the rest of the tribe. Alice Crimmins was now fodder for the … [Read more...] about Wild Irish Women: More Sinned Against Than Sinning
Wild Irish Women: Madame Bluebell
Ladies: who among us hasn’t at least briefly entertained the fantasy of having Catherine Deneuve portray you in the movie of your life? Okay, even if that’s not the direction you would go casting-wise, know that one Margaret Kelly had that distinct honor. Catherine Deneuve played a character based on her in the classic François Truffaut film, The Last Metro (Le Dernier Metro). … [Read more...] about Wild Irish Women: Madame Bluebell
Wild Irish Women: Chicago May
“How hard Ireland was on the women who could not fit in – the wild ones, the ones who had to get out, seeming emigrants but actual exiles.”– Nuala O’Faolain Chicago May wasn’t from Chicago and, in fact, spent little time there, but the name somehow suited her. May Duignan was born in 1871 in the remote county of Longford in the ancient world that was 19th-century Ireland. Her … [Read more...] about Wild Irish Women: Chicago May
Wild Irish Women: A Most Sorrowful Mystery
Oh! star of Erin, queen of tears, Black clouds have beset thy birth, And your people die like morning stars, That your light may grace the earth. – "Stars of Freedom," 1981 By IRA volunteer Bobby Sands, M.P. H-Block, Long Kesh Prison Camp Watching Bobby Sands die in 1981, much of the world realized, finally, that the young IRA soldier and hunger striker was a freedom fighter, … [Read more...] about Wild Irish Women: A Most Sorrowful Mystery