The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #87484   Message #1633734
Posted By: Abby Sale
23-Dec-05 - 08:53 AM
Thread Name: happy? – Dec 23 (Molly Maguires)
Subject: happy? – Dec 23 (Molly Maguires)

The Archbishop of Philadelphia's excommunicates coal miner-activists, the Molly Maguires –
(published in the New York Times - 12/23/1875)

        Make way for the Molly Maguires,
        They're drinkers, they're liars, but they're man.
        Make way for the Molly Maguires,
        You'll never see the likes of them again.

                "Molly Maguires" by Phil Coulter,
                sung by Luke Kelly on The Collection, Homespun CD.

Note: The Molly Maguires, a secret organization of coal miners, supposedly was responsible for terrorism in the anthracite coalfields of Pennsylvania and West Virginia in the period from 1862 to 1876. The group named itself after a widow who led a group of Irish anti-landlord agitators in the 1840s. When poor working conditions and employment discrimination led to acts of sabotage and terrorist assassinations by Irish-American workers in Pennsylvania 20 years later, the "Mollies" were blamed. The Ancient Order of Hibernians, a local Irish fraternal association, was thought to be a front for the terrorists, and 10 of them were tried and hanged for murder. This lead to a decline of violence in the coalfields, proving that execution is an excellent method to reduce crime.   [Source: Ency. Brit.]

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