Wild Irish Women Archive
“Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.”
Maybe she had too many gifts: she …
“I am not going to give you any taffy!”
The charismatic and powerful public speaker who …
“The Greatest Living Irishwoman”
– George Bernard Shaw
Writer, playwright, folklorist, and co-founder of The Abbey Theatre, …
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Deirdre O’Connell’s Fanatic Heart
The Bronx girl who changed the face of Irish theater. An enigma and a shapeshifter, she changed her first name each time her life entered a new incarnation. Baptized Eleanor, she was […]
Wild Irish Women: “Hello, Suckers!”
Singer, showgirl, and queen of the speakeasy during Prohibition, Mary Guinan was a genuine Irish American wild woman. Larger (and louder) than life, she had an even bigger heart. ℘℘℘ […]
Wild Irish Women: Saint Brigid – Mary of the Gaels
A nun, abbess, and founder of several monasteries, Brigid of Kildare was a woman who defied authority, possessed great strength of will and determination, and whose cheerful giving of food […]
Wild Irish Women: Rita Hayworth, the Ravishing and Ravished Redhead
The tragic star who burned too bright but always gave the loveliest light. Her mother, the improbably named Volga, was an ex-Ziegfeld Girl, born to a printer, Allynn Hayworth, and […]
Wild Irish Women: Carmel Snow, the Fashionista
One of the most extraordinary fashion editors of all time was an immigrant from Ireland. The Irish don’t spring to mind when discussing fashionistas, women such as Anna Wintour or […]
What You Didn’t Know About Typhoid Mary
She was the original Patient Zero, a healthy and asymptomatic carrier of a deadly plague. Baptized in Ireland in 1869 as Mary Mallon, she was re-baptized in America as Typhoid […]