Molly Maguires - Mollies in Ireland

Mollies in Ireland

The Molly Maguires originated in Ireland, where secret societies with names such as Whiteboys and Peep o'Day Boys were common beginning in the 18th century and through most of the 19th century. In Making Sense of the Molly Maguires, historian Kevin Kenny traces "some institutional continuity" from the Molly Maguires, back to the Ribbonmen, and previously, to the Defenders.

Another organization — the Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH), with which the Molly Maguires have sometimes been associated — was founded in the United States, and is properly described as a fraternal organization. Although some believe that the Molly Maguires, Ribbonmen, and Ancient Order of Hibernians are different names for the same organization, Kenny has cast some doubt on such linkages, describing the practice of conflating these names as a strategy which "provided an important rationale for eventual destruction". Kenny observes that most of the Ireland-based equivalents of the AOH were secret societies, and some were violent. Kenny describes a process of leaders from north-central and northwestern Ireland " their AOH lodges to classic 'Ribbonite' purposes".

Even though there was a specific organization called the Society of Ribbonmen, the term Ribbonism became a catchall expression for rural violence in Ireland. The Ancient Order of Hibernians was extended to Ireland by the Ribbonmen, according to the official history of the AOH. Kenny believes, "If the AOH was a transatlantic outgrowth of Ribbonism, it was clearly a peaceful fraternal society rather than a violent conspiratorial one." In some areas the terms Ribbonmen and Molly Maguires were used interchangeably. However, some have drawn distinctions between the Societies of Ribbonmen, who were regarded as "secular, cosmopolitan, and protonationalist", and the Molly Maguires who were "rural, local, and Gaelic".

Agrarian rebellion in Ireland can be traced to local concerns and grievances relating to land usage, particularly as traditional socioeconomic practices such as small-scale potato cultivation were supplanted by the fencing and pasturing of land. Agrarian resistance often took the form of fence destruction, night-time plowing of croplands that had been converted to pasture, and killing, mutilating, or driving off livestock. In areas where the land had long been dedicated to small-scale, growing-season leases of farmland, called conacre, opposition was conceived as "retributive justice" that was intended "to correct transgressions against traditional moral and social codes". The Mollies believed that they were carrying out "a just law of their own in opposition to the inequities of landlord law, the police and court system, and the transgressions of land-grabbers." The Mollies' reaction to "land-grabbers" of the 1840s — surreptitiously digging up the land to render it useful only for conacre — followed similar practices by Whiteboys in the 1760s, and by another group called the Terry Alts in the 1820s and early 1830s.

One area of Molly Maguire activity was County Donegal where they practiced rundale, in which land was divided for tenant usage by the tenants themselves, rather than according to the landowner's dictates. For example, the concept of "a cow's grass" acted as a measure of the land which was necessary to sustain one cow through summer grazing and winter fodder. The subdivision of land took into account the quality of grazing, and while some lots of land were frequently subdivided generationally among family members, other land was held in common. Although such practices had existed from "time immemorial", there were no written leases to protect the tenants. As landlords implemented new ways of using the land, such as "highly disruptive" experiments with intensive sheep farming, some tenants in Donegal and elsewhere were moved to resistance.

Most landlords and their agents were Protestant, while the Molly Maguires were Roman Catholic — an exacerbating factor that complicated relations. The victims of agrarian violence were frequently Irish land agents, middlemen, and tenants. Merchants and millers were often threatened or attacked if their prices were high. Landlords' agents were threatened, beaten, and assassinated. New tenants on lands secured by evictions also became targets. Local Molly Maguires leaders were reported to have sometimes dressed as women, i.e., as mothers begging for food for their children. The leader might approach a storekeeper and demand a donation of flour or groceries. If the storekeeper failed to provide, the Mollies would enter the store and take what they wanted, warning the owner of dire consequences if the incident was reported.

There are a number of folk tales about the source of the Molly Maguires' name. Molly may have been a widow who was evicted from her house, inspiring her defenders to form a secret society to exact retribution. Molly Maguire may have been the owner of a shebeen, an illicit tavern, where the society met. Another story suggested the name was that of a fierce young woman who led men through the countryside on nighttime raids.

Kevin Kenny, an author who has written extensively on the Molly Maguires, believes the most likely explanation is simply the practice of men dressing up like women and taking a female name both as a disguise and simple form of social transgression. While the Whiteboys were known to wear white linen frocks over their clothing, the Mollies blackened their faces with burnt cork. Kenny noted similarities — particularly in face-blackening and in the donning of women's garments — with the practice of mummery, in which festive days were celebrated by mummers who traveled from door to door demanding food, money, or drink as payment for performing. The Threshers, the Peep o'Day Boys, the Lady Rocks, and the Lady Clares also sometimes disguised themselves as women.