A Transatlantic Profile of Marguerite Moore

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Marguerite Moore was born in Co. Waterford in 1846. As a young woman In Ireland she became an early member of the Ladies Land League. Because of her organizing work in the League, in 1882 she was arrested and imprisoned in Tullamore Gaol. In America, she was an active Irish nationalist, a suffragist, and a leader in social reform efforts. Courtesy of Waterfordlive.ie.


On December 14, 1914 meeting was held in the Hotel McAlpin in New York City which resulted in the creation of an American auxiliary of Cumann na mBan, the Irish Women's Council, that collected money for the Irish Volunteers and produced Irish nationalist propaganda. The meeting was chaired by Dr. Gertrude B. Kelly-an Irish nationalist, feminist, physician, and activist.? Newspaper accounts described the keynote speaker as an older woman who was regarded by Kelly as a veteran of the Irish nationalist cause and; gifted speaker. This veteran figure told the audience of the work the women of her generation had done for the Irish cause and declared that "as the women came to the rescue then they would come to the rescue now."3 That woman's name was Marguerite Moore.4 Marguerite Moore was an Irish nationalist, a suffragist, and reformer in New York City in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. From her earliest activist days as member of the Ladies' Land League in Ireland, Moore understood the importance of relationships with other like-minded activists.5 By the end of her long life, she knew some of the most highly influential figures in both American and Irish history. She knew the value of social capital and personal relations in rallying individuals around a cause. When reconstructing the social networking map of Irish-American New York activists, Moore is an important character to look at because of the sheer volume of individuals she knew and organizations of which she was a member. Kelly's decision to invite Moore to speak at the first Cumann na mBan meeting was significant and strategic. Yet, very little is known about Moore and the historical references are surprisingly sparse for someone who was active in a place like the United States over many decades." Moore's example underscores the challenges in reconstructing the lives of women in history--even those women who were well-known and notable during their life.


EARLY YEARS IN IRELAND Moore was born as Marguerite Nagle in 1846 in Waterford City. She became an orphan at age twelve when her mother died.? A year after that presumably traumatic event, Moore and her younger sister were enrolled by their guardian, Rev. Edward Walsh, at Sacred Heart Convent Boarding School in Roscrea, Co. Tipperary.? It is not easy to reconstruct the lives of young Irish women who attended boarding school in Ireland in the 1860s, but this research has uncovered some insights on Moore's time in Roscrea. As a pupil at the boarding school, she became acquainted with a Vol. 32, 2018 A Transatlantic Profile of Marguerite Moore Every Irish woman who comes to America comes home. BY ELIZABETH LEE HODGES NEW YORK 1R15H HISTORY PAGE 39 Cumann na mBan (THE IRISHWOMEN'S COUNCIL), Headquarters : 206 Great Brunswick St. IRISHWOMEN, JOIN THE VOLUNTEER MOVEMENT AND BECOME MEMBERS OF THE ABOVE ORGANISATION. First Aid and Ambulance Classes. Reserve Corps of Trained Nurses. Drill, and Rifle Practice.


Contribute to our Equipment Fund, which has already bought Rifles for the Volunteers.


Mary Jane Irwin who later would go on to marry Fenian Jeremiah 'Donovan Rossa, and live out most of her life in New York.' Later, Nagle and Irwin--now Moore and O' Donovan Rossa-would reconnect.


Shortly after the conclusion of her education, she married John Henry Moore and moved to Moville, Co. Donegal. 10 Marguerite became a founding member of her local Ladies' Land League branch in Moville,"1 and seems to have connected with Anna Parnell. 12 After rising in the ranks of the Ladies' Land League to become an active member of the executive branch in Dublin, Moore caught the attention of the British government. In February 1882, while under police surveillance, she was arrested while attempting to establish a branch of the Ladies' Land League in Ballycumber, Co. Offaly.13 Moore's crime, as stated by the authorities, was attempting to "excite discontent in the minds of Her Majesty's subjects." Following her trial, she was sentenced to six months imprisonment in Tullamore Gaol, but she only served just over two months of that sentence before her release on June 7, 1882.14 Moor's 1882 imprisonment would It is unclear as to why she was released from prison early, but we do know three other Ladies' Land League women were released from prisons across Ireland during the same week. Perhaps the idea of imprisoning women, especially wives and mothers like Moore, was to unseemly for contemporaries. Whatever the reason, it is worth noting that Moore had seven children between the ages of four and seventeen when all this occurred.


After the dissolution of the Ladies' Land League in 1882, Moore seems to have kept a low profile until she immigrated to the United States in 1884. We do not know much about Illustration (top): Founded in April, 1914, Cumann na mBan was a women's association formed to advance Irish independence and to organize Irish women i achieve that purpose. It coordinated its activities with those of the Trish Volunteers. Courtesy of RTE.ie.


Photo: Born in Co. Wicklow, Anna Parnell as a young woman became increasingly interested in political affairs in Ireland. The author of observations on the British Parliament ("Notes from the Ladies Cage') she joined her sister Fanny in New York to raise funds for the National Land League. Courtesy of History Ireland. the specifics of her emigration, but it was prebecome a pivotal moment in her life. She used the experience of her arrest and incarcerdaughter.15 We are left to speculate as to the Elizabeth Hodges holds a Master of Arts degree in Irish and Irish-American Studies from Glucksman Ireland House at New York University. She obtained her BA degree in History from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. She is currently an educator at the Lower East Side Tenement Museum in New York City. ?2019. Published with permission of Elizabeth Lee Hodges. ation as a talking-point in most of her speeches in the United States over many her prison experience to increase her fame and notoriety, Moore demonstrated that she a was a woman of action and not empty words. influence the collapse of the Ladies' Land League had on her decision to leave Ireland, but Moore's exodus after becoming a widow IS an Irish nationalist audience. By weaponizing not unusual within the larger Irish emigration decades_-even when she was not addressing In doeS oN as cipitated by the deaths of her husband and trends.16 Statistically, Irish women made up the majority of Irish immigrants in the United States, and in northeastern American cities Vol. 32, 2018 PAGE 40 NEW YORK 1R15H HISTORY Illustration: A depiction from the London Illustrated News in 1881 shows officials in Ireland dispersing a meeting of members of the Ladies Land League. The organization was founded in the same year to serve as an alternative administrative body for the National Land League. Courtesy of Mayo County Library. such as New York and Boston women outnumbered men in Irish communities. 17 Even though many of these women were young and unmarried, widows like Moore with young children still arrived in significant numbers.18 ACTIVISM IN THE UNITED STATES From the limited sources we have available, it is clear that Moore's activism continued in the United States, and the dynamic atmosphere of Gilded Age New York City drew her into causes beyond Irish nationalism. While it is probable that Moore had already held suffrage and labor reform inclinations previous to her immigration, we do not have evidence of this. It is not until she is living in New York that she began speaking publicly on these subjects, thereby creating documentation of her ideology which we can access somewhat through newspaper sources.


Upon arriving in the United States, Moore was immediately confronted with issues of women's rights through her immigration process. As an immigrant woman, she would not be able to naturalize as a citizen in her own right because the law stated that women naturalized only after their husbands or fathers did.19 Considering that Moore arrived to the United States as a widow and without a living father, she did not have access to the full citizenship rights that her male counterparts would have enjoyed, and she was thus deprived of a full legal identity of her own. The only way Moore would have been able to become a citizen was if she remarried a United States citizen (whether natural born or naturalized) as per an 1855 immigration act.20 Because of these laws, for most of Moore's life in the United States she was unable to become a citizen in the adopted country that she tirelessly worked to improveespecially for women.21 MOORE AND IRISH AMERICAN NATIONALISM Moore lived to the age of eighty-seven, a long life especially by the standards of the day. Over the course of her lifetime, she lived through significant shifts in the outlook and activism around Ireland's status in the British Empire. Although labels and categories can be probin lematic in terms of ideologies, we can say in broad terms that Moore lived through periods of constitutionalism, reform nationalism, and physical force nationalism, and one could state reasonably that Moore's evolving ideology was indicative of the evolution of Irish nationalism in the United States. While she was intensely interested in Ireland, Moore was living in New York City which was a battleground for the competing ideologies surrounding Ireland's Vol. 32, 2018 NEW YORK 1R15H HISTORY PAGE 41 THE LAND LEAGUE HIS PROCLAMATION Illustration: Michael Davitt& founder of the Irish National Land League in 1879. Raised in England after eviction forced his family to emigrate, Davitt learned Irish history, became a leading member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, and was imprisoned in harsh conditions for his IRB activities. He came to believe that achieving ownership of their land by the Irish was a necessary factor in improving their economic and political possibilities. Courtesy of Michaeldavittmuseum.ie MIcHAEle DArren: dence, but not a social revolution."3 Davitt, representing the land reformer side, allied himfate. Moore's relationships with other nationalists and reformers also would affect her own ideological evolution.


To fully evaluate Moore's nationalist actions after immigrating to the United States, some description of the state of Irish-American however, was not invested in Parnell's desire for nationalism at the time of her arrival is helpful. Home Rule or Davitt's support of the Land Constitutional, land reform, and physical force nationalism formed a brief, but powerful, alliance in 1879 creating Ireland's "New Departure," which was an uneasy alliance between the leaders of these different nationalist ideologies. This marriage of different forms of nationalism was led by Charles Stewart Parnell, Michael Davitt, and the Americanbased John Devoy. The act of having physical force nationalists such as Devoy (who represented Clan na Gael in New York), and the Irish Republic Brotherhood in Ireland sit at the table with Parnell was not a simple or easy alliance. 22 The goal of the New Departure was more political than social- -Irish indepen-War, but he saw them as a means to an end which would result in full independence.


The New Departure fell apart after the more socially radical faction under Ford started to gain more influence. Differences in ideology between moderates and supporters of land nationalization ultimately led to the demise of the New Departure after Parnell issued his "No-Rent Manifesto" from Kilmainham Gaol. It was intended to put pressure on Prime Minister William Gladstone by instructing the tenant farmers to withhold rent, but in the United States the manifesto splintered the already thin alliances between the radical Ford faction, physical-force nationself with Patrick Ford in New York who wanted to reform Irish America through the pages of his newspaper, the Irish World.?4 Devoy, Vol. 32, 2018 PAGE 42 NEW YORK 1R15H HISTORY Illustration: A Currier & Ives print, published in 1881, depicts Charles Stewart Parnell addressing a group of Trish leaders. He is identified as president of the National Land League and a member of Parliament. A founder of the League, he renounced violent activity and was a key figure in establishment of the Irish Parliamentary Parry in 1882. Courtesy of Library of Congress.


Vol. 32, 2018 alists like Devoy, and the more moderate constitutionalists. Shortly after this splintering, Parliament passed a land act in 1881, and Charles Stewart Parnell negotiated his release from jail as well as an amendment to the Land Act by signing the Kilmainham treaty in 1882 ending the Land War.25 A concurrent result was the disbandment of the Ladies' Land League in the attempt to sideline the women.


After the Irish National Land League of America disbanded in 1883, the Irish National League of America was created in the same year as a replacement to the previous organization with the goal of obtaining Home Rule. Similar to her leadership role in the Ladies' Land League in the United States, Delia Stewart Parnell was pivotal in the organization of women's branches.26 By 1886, Marguerite Moore connected with Delia Stewart Parnell and became involved the Home Rule movement." Together, Parnell and Moore formed an alliance with American suffragist Lillie Devereux Blake. 28 As the head of two different JAW QUILLIVAN. ILE ITNOW I AL. - TN HEALE. N P New York suffrage associations, Blake's appearance alongside well known Irish-American women such as Moore and Delia Stewart Parnell was strategic because it validated Blake in the Irish-American community as an ally.29 Despite being a Home Ruler at different points, the lines between different types of Irish nationalism began to blur in the late nineteenth century, and Moore began tomove away from constitutionalism before the turn of the century. One of the earliest recorded speakin engagements Marguerite Moore attended was an Irish nationalist rally endorsing the dynamite campaign which lasted from 1881- 1885. In 1885, she attended an event that was intended to commemorate Robert Emmet's 107th birthday and gave : fiery speech about her love of Ireland and her hatred of England.


During her speech, she detailed the miserable state of Ireland past and present. Moore stated "The Irishmen of America demand vengeance. ...The sappers and the miners who blow the people up are [as] necessary to the Irish army NEW YORK 1RISH HISTORY PAGE 42 as are dashing cavalry or steady infantry."30 The conclusion of her speech incorporated the following declaration: The English Government is treating Ireland as bad now as in the days of Emmet, though it is done less brutally.


Let the people be united with their eyes fixed on one goal, "Ireland a nation.


In Ireland the spirit of nationality is the Statue of Liberty in 1886.33 The New York City Woman Suffrage Alliance, according to the New York Times, was greatly displeased with the unveiling ceremony and referred to the "grand pageant" as an "empty farce."34 Moore was one of the speakers present at the protest which was intended to point out the hypocrisy of having a woman symbolize freedom and liberty placed at the strong and is spreading. The young men are yearning for a fight. Theopportunity should not be allowed to pass.3 THE SUFFRAGIST MOVEMENT IN AMERICA Outside the Irish nationalist campaign Moore was very interested in the rights of women and politics of her adopted country. Her relationship with Lillie Devereux Blake is interesting because of how much each woman's political views affected the other. According to Moore, Blake very early on recognized Moore's oratorical abilities and enlisted her into the suffrage campaign.32 One of Moore's first appearances within the suffrage movement was at the unveiling of gateway of a country where women are not free.35 As president of NYCWSA, Blake organized a women's protest on a boat which would sail around Bedlow's Island36 during the unveiling ceremony.37 Blake had initially attempted to gain a platform for the women to speak on Bedlow's Island, but she was outright denied. She then unsuccessfully applied to participate in the naval parade, so Blake's last resort was to hire a steamer for the women to stand on. On the day of the unveiling, two hundred members of the NYCWSA embarked on their protest declaring that "in erecting a statue of Liberty embodied as a woman in a land where no woman has political liberty men have shown Photo: Delia Stewart Parnell was born in the United States in 1816 and moved to Co. Wicklow after her marriage to John Henry Parnell, who was Irish. She held strong political views about Irish independence and, at times in the mid-1800s, provided a haven for Irish nationalists. She later established residence in New Jersey and worked to win support for the Land League in America. Courtesy of Pixels.com Vol. 32, 2018 page 44 New York Irish History a delightful inconsistency which excites the wonder and admiration for the opposite sex.?38 Towards the end of her life Moore spoke of this event with great sense of accomplishment and nostalgia and jokingly remarked, ?[If ] Lady Liberty hadn?t been so brazen she would be blushing from having so many men at her feet.?39 Moore?s battle for women?s suffrage did not end with the Statue of Liberty protest. One of her most active years in the suffrage campaign was 1894?the year of the New York State Constitutional Convention.40 The constitutional convention began on May 8th and the main goal was to propose an amendment which would give women suffrage. In the months leading up to the convention, Moore and dozens of other suffragists in New York campaigned heavily in New York City to gather support for the amendment. Moore at one point was attending and giving multiple speeches a week across Manhattan as well as hosting suffrage meetings in her home in Greenwich Village.41 In February of 1894, the New York Woman Suffrage League organized a mass meeting to rally the people to the cause and prepare them for the constitutional amendment battle in the coming months. Blake made the opening address by explaining the history of New York constitutional conventions as well as sharing her experiences with trying to get the legislature to allow women be delegates to the one that summer. Blake stated, ?I was even bold enough to approach the Tammany tiger and try to soothe it. This is not a question of ?The Lady or the Tiger;? I said ?the lady and the tiger should walk to victory together.? But the lady did not walk to victory?neither did the tiger.?42 When Moore spoke, she began by referencing a conversation she had with an African-American man after he saw an electric cable car for the first time. She reported the man had said ?God bless the Yanks. They freed the negroes, and now they have freed the mules.? Moore commented: They have freed the negroes and the mules, and now they should free the women. It is not for ourselves we plead. Most of us have brains enough to take what we want. It is for those who are helpless, poor, and oppressed. We are not asking for woman?s rights, but equal rights?equal pay for men and women.43 Notwithstanding the problem with making a comparison between chattel slavery and the status of women, it is probably fair to assume that the point of Moore?s statement was benign. She very clearly felt deeply for women?s rights, but also cared a great deal for the rights of the poor and others. The amendment failed, but Moore?s campaigning efforts did not go unnoticed. Women were ready for the vote, but New York was not.


After the turn of the century Moore?s public appearances seemed to have diminished in frequency, but she still held on to her ties to the suffrage movement as much as possible. By this point in the movement, many of the suffragists she had worked closely with were dying off. Newspaper coverage gives us an idea of the women Moore was interacting with during these movements. During the nineteenth century stages of the suffrage movement, Moore would have been a contemporary of notable women such as Susan B. Anthony, Carrie Chapman Catt, Clara Barton, and Lillie Devereux Blake. The work she put in made her relatively famous amongst Irish-American activist women which set an example for the next phase of the movement. The next generation of suffragists that Moore aligned herself with were almost exclusively Irish-American nationalists. championing social reform Aside from her suffrage inclinations, Moore?s background in the Ladies? Land League created a foundation for her social reform work in the United States as well as her political ideology. Using her past experiences in Ireland while campaigning for more rights for tenant farmers, as well as her experiences campaigning for suffrage and reform movements in the United States, Moore was equipped to assist candi- Vol. 32, 2018 NEW YORK TRISH HISTORY PAGE 45 dates who shared her ideology with their polit-George's most famous books, Progress and ical campaigns. " Moore's engagement with the Poverty and The Irish Land Question, which political and economic philosophy of Georgism was not unique or an anomaly-Henry George's writings and work were influential for Irish-Americans in an era when discourse around land reform and poverty resonated in the United States and in Ireland in similar ways. It is only natural, when the demographic weight of the Irish bloc in the United States was sizable, that George might appeal. Moore encountered George early on and took up her engagement with him when she immigrated it seems. described his theories on land and class, and were incredibly popular with Irish-Americans. In 1881 George was asked by Patrick Ford, proprietor of the Irish World, to go to Ireland as a correspondent to report on the land agitation. George was only initially slated to stay in Ireland for six months, but he did not return to New York for almost a year.45 Moore claimed that they met at some point during George's travels.-6 Based on George's surviving correspondence and the lack of archival papers for Moore, it is unclear when exactly George Photo: Henry George was an American writer and political economist who won widespread interest in the late nineteenth century. Best known for his 1879 book, Progress and Poverty, he argued that the economic benefits of land and its resources should be shared by everyone in a country. His book on the Irish land question was published in 1881, and his influence on Marguerite Moore was considerable. Courtesy of Library of Congress.


Vol. 32, 2018 PAGE 46 NEW YORK 1R15H HISTORY Illustration: Father Edward McGlynn was . co-founder with Henry George of the Anti-Poverty Society in 1887. As pastor in several New York City parishes, McGlynn was affected by the large number of requests for aid and employment he received, and he found the ideas of George meaningful for addressing poverty. Mc Glynns sermons and speeches were not tolerated by more conservative church leaders and, in 1887, he was excommunicated for five years. McGlynn held a doctorate degree in theology and philosophy. Courtesy of Hgarchives.org. erty could be solved then "crime would necessarily cease. "50 She believed that poverty was a "top down" issue that went from the corrupt politicians all the way down to men who were willing to sell their votes thus perpetuating the cycle of poverty created by those in power. As an Irish woman who frequently addressed Irish-American audiences, she used Ireland as : Catholics (and non-Catholic women in general) including Moore. The ideology of the organization essentially stated that poverty is created by corrupt human laws which allow the privatization of goods created by God to serve everyone.


Moore became involved in Anti-Poverty Society through protests after McGlynn was Vol. 32, 2018 tool to bring her audience along: "Don't look at Ireland, lookto your land theories at home. The land robbery of Ireland is growing rapidly in America to-day. Labor in America is being crushed by landlordism just as it is in Ireland."51 The Anti-Poverty Society was created by George and Fr. Edward McGlynn in March of 1887 as the result of the scandal between McGlynn, the Catholic Church (specifically Archbishop Corrigan), and George during the 1886 New York mayoral campaign which ultimately led to McGlynn's excommunication. 52 Despite the fact that the organization was intended to be nondenominational, thereof) was the source of all crime thus if pov-McGlynn's role as president appealed to many and Moore met during his stay in Ireland, but he did mention her imprisonment in one of his speeches in Dublin shortly before her release in June of 1882.47 Assuming Moore's claim of her interactions in Ireland with George are accurate, after Marguerite immigrated in 1884 she resumed an acquaintance with George and was flung into the larger American political scene. 48 In the years after her immigration, Moore aligned herself closely with George's ideology and even referred to him as "the greatest political economist of his day."49 George's theories on poverty appealed to Moore because she believed that poverty, and not money (or lack New York Irish History page 47 removed from his parish. Moore told the crowd gathered outside of St. Stephen?s Church, where McGlynn had been pastor, that Ireland had men like Corrigan too. Moore?s public speeches compared Archbishop Corrigan?s treatment of McGlynn to the evictions in Ireland as well as stating there were clergymen in Ireland like Corrigan that were not ?for the people??they were either ?British tools? or simply good politicians. These men were, as Moore described, ?tyrannical? because they were willing to stamp out the Land League, but the Irish people put them in their place with financial protest tactics. Moore instructed everyone, especially the women of the congregation, to withhold their money from the collection boxes until their priest was restored: If Archbishop Corrigan wants to have in St. Stephen?s a priest that you do not want, let him pay the expenses of the priest out of the $40,000 a year that is given to him, clear of all expenses; if he wants you to pay the expenses tell him you will do it when your priest is restored. Be true to Dr. McGlynn. Be as true to him as he has been to you.53 Moore?s scathing criticism of Corrigan?s actions went as far as declaring Corrigan unchristian. ?How could the archbishop condemn Irish evictions when he himself evicted the doctor on a cold winter?s day and sent him out in to the world without a dollar in his pocket?call such conduct Christian? No; it was inhuman and unchristian.?54 Her Catholic spirituality was incredibly important to Moore?s identity and public persona. Her willingness to blatantly charge Corrigan as being unchristian shows Moore?s level of dedication to McGlynn and his ideology.


The threat of Church censure was not a phenomenon limited to Moore?s support of McGlynn. Due to the upheaval amongst Catholic Americans over the McGlynn affair, the Church did not look kindly on Anti-Poverty Society membership. Two years after the creation of the Society, Corrigan declared membership in it a mortal sin.55 Despite this condemnation, Moore and many other women members continued to participate in the organization in many capacities including fundraising for the United Labor Party (ULP). The participation of Catholic women in politics generated significant conflict within the Church, and the women faced censure for their activities. However, Moore and many of the other female members continued to participate in the Anti-Poverty Society regardless. Moore?s willingness to risk disciplinary action from the Catholic Church for being a member shows just how important she felt this organization was?not her lack of spirituality. Her Catholic faith was incredibly ingrained in her identity which was revealed in her writings well as her speeches.56 campaigning for henry george Anti-Poverty women, as previously stated, fundraised and campaigned for Henry George during his 1887 campaign. Moore was among these radical women campaigners, and thoroughly documented her experience in an article for the Woman?s Journal titled ?My Experiences in a New York Campaign.?57 Moore?s account of the campaign is less about Henry George, his ideology, or even why she supported him, and more about what it was like to be involved in a political campaign. Much of her language in the article centered on morality and purity of women as a justification for suffrage and women standing on the political stage. In addition to using morality and purity as a means of justification, Moore also challenged men to essentially take a page out of the women?s book. Moore states: Women who demand suffrage on equal terms as men are constantly told that the drunkenness, profanity, and general indecency which surround ?polling places? render it impossible that any woman could cast the ballot and retain her dignity and self-respect. In reply we retort that it is the duty of all men interested in their country?s weal to purify the polling places and render them fit to be entered by the mothers and wives of the nation.58 Vol. 32, 2018 page 48 New York Irish History In addition to Moore?s challenge to the men to fix the corruption of the polling places for the good of the nation (i.e., the ?mothers and wives of the nation?), she also stated that she was able to navigate through this political corruption and bribery. She stated ?...through it I have fought side by side with the men of the party to which I belong.?59 She shared a sense of comradery with her fellow campaigners that was not affected by her sex. Moore expressly mentioned that she was treated with great respect while campaigning by everyone, including audiences comprised solely of men, which made her feel as comfortable as if she was ?speaking in a parlor meeting of woman suffragists.? Moore?s physical role in the campaign consisted of canvassing, giving speeches, and even entering polling booths to watch the process. She states that she travelled to every corner of the city canvassing as well as giving three speeches a day while standing on top of a bench in the open air. Despite her heavy involvement (she explicitly points out she was just involved as any man), she states that the one thing she was not allowed to do was cast a ballot in her own name. Moore?s participation in George?s campaign, as she stated in her account, gave her the opportunity to show the public that women were just as interested in the country?s politics as men, thus furthering the suffrage cause. Moore concluded her article by stating, based on her experiences, that the public was beginning to understand that the fate women?s suffrage depends on the ?...purification of our governments of city, State, and nation.?60 working for the irish republic Moore?s public appearances significantly diminished after 1900 aside from two important years: 1914 and 1916.61 The inaugural meeting of Cumann na mBan was described earlier, but 1916 was an important year for Moore in a few ways. In 1916, Mary Jane O?Donovan Rossa, a link to her school years and Ireland, passed away. It is unclear as to how their relationship evolved through adulthood because of the lack of surviving archival materials, but Moore?s statements about Mary Jane after her death leads one to believe that they remained friends. After O?Donovan Rossa died in 1916, Marguerite gave an emotional eulogy at a memorial in New York.62 Much like other Irish Republican funerals, including that of her husband Jeremiah, Mary Jane?s funeral in the United States was intended to not only pay respect to the older generation of Irish nationalists but also to rally Irish-Americans behind the Irish nationalist cause. Some of the most famous Irish-American nationalists were Mary Jane?s pallbearers?John Devoy and Robert Ford, Patrick Ford?s son, for example. Aside from detailing Mary Jane as an exceptional pupil with exceptional literary ability, devout mother and wife, and an ?unswerving Christian woman,? Moore emphasized Mary Jane?s devotion to Ireland: Heaven could have done without her for a little while longer, but she is sorely needed here below in this great crisis of Ireland?s history, when, bound and fettered, crushed but her spirit unbroken, our loved motherland is suffering as never before throughout the years of her thralldom. Mrs. O?Donovan Rossa?s well-known love for Ireland, her strength for the guidance and inspiration of those now pressing on in the battle for liberty.63 Despite the loss of her guidance, Moore stated that Mary Jane would still be fighting for Ireland in heaven to ?hasten the day of Ireland?s deliverance.?64 Outside of paying her respects to her departed friend, the core of Moore?s message was that even in death the work of an Irish republican is never over.


It is unclear as to whether Moore was asked to give this eulogy as a strategic move because of her speaking abilities or simply because of her childhood connection to Mary Jane. But a key element of Moore?s speech was Vol. 32, 2018 NEW YORK 1R15H HISTORY PAGE 49 Intong 7 SpoonerauRor 4 1866 Photo: A portrait of Mary Jane Irwin in 1868. She and Marguerite Moore became friends apparently in the 1860s as girls attending a convent boarding school in Co. Tipperary At age nineteen, she married the Irish nationalist, Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa. She remained involved in Irish nationalist causes throughout her years in America. At a memorial ceremony following her death in 1916, Marguerite Moore noted her "well-known love for Ireland" and her strength as a source of guidance and inspiration in the fight for Irish liberry. Courtesy of Cork Archives the fact that she was an older woman coming to terms with her own mortality. She stated that "...a link between me and the days of my childhood has snapped, and memories of my girlhood come thronging fast upon mememories of the days when Mary Jane Irwin was a fellow pupil with me in our much loved convent home."65 A FORGOTTEN LEGACY? Marguerite Moore herself passed away in the home of her daughter Susan, surrounded by her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, in White Plains, New York on February 6, 1933-only months before her eighty-seventh birthday.66 She currently shares a grave marker in Holy Cross Cemetery in North Arlington, New Jersey with her son Thomas and her daughter Philomena.67 Moore is an individual who lived through an incredible number of historical events both in Ireland and the United States, and she was also witness to Irish and American women gaining suffrage in 1918 and 1920 respectively. By the end of her life, Moore had brushed shoulders with some of the most well-known figures in American history, but after her death she was virtually forgotten. Marguerite Moore is another example for the roll call of Irish-American women who led lives full of agency and action in Ireland and in the United States. For Marguerite, the desire to be anagent of change did not end after she left Ireland. A few years after she immigrated, she was asked by another woman activist if she was having a difficult time adjusting to the United States. Marguerite's simple reply was one that speaks to her personal commitment to the improvement of the United States: "Every Irish woman who comes to America comes home."68 Vol. 32, 2018 page 50 New York Irish History Endnotes 1 This is a statement Moore made in 1888 at the inaugural meeting of the International Council of Women in Washington D.C. Report of the International Council of Women 1888 Convention, 44. 2 For a study on Kelly and her role in the founding of Cumann na mBan in New York see Miriam Nyhan Grey, ?Dr. Gertrude B. Kelly and the Founding of New York?s Cumann na mBan,? Miriam Nyhan Grey ed., Ireland?s Allies: American and the 1916 Easter Rising (Dublin: University College Dublin, 2016), 75?89. 3 ?Irishwomen Organize,? Gaelic American, New York, NY: December 19, 1914, 2. 4 Sometimes referred to in the press as Margaret Moore. 5 Of the scholars who have written about women?s roles within Irish nationalism, the leading scholar of Irish women?s nationalist history is Margaret Ward. Among her articles and book chapters, Ward?s book Unmanageable Revolutionaries: Women and Irish Nationalism is considered the most comprehensive work on women and Irish nationalism which focuses on three organizations: The Ladies? Land League, Inghindhe na h?ireann, and Cumann na mBan. Margaret Ward, Unmanageable Revolutionaries: Women and Irish Nationalism (London: Pluto Press, 1995), Kindle Edition; For additional scholarship on the Ladies? Land League see the following: Anna Parnell, The Tale of a Great Sham, ed. Dana Hearne (Dublin: Arlen House, 1986); Jane M. Cote, Fanny and Anna Parnell: Ireland?s Patriot Sisters (London: Palgrave Macmillion, 1991); Ely M. Janis, A Greater Ireland: The Land League and Transatlantic Nationalism in Gilded Age America (Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 2015), Kindle Edition. 6 The only scholar that has written anything about Moore is Tara McCarthy, but there has not been an extensive study on Moore beyond her activism. However, McCarthy?s work is the most comprehensive study on the role of Irish-American activist women in the Gilded Age. Tara M. McCarthy, Respectability and Reform: Irish American Women?s Activism, 1880?1920 (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2018). See also: Frances Elizabeth 7 Livermore and Mary Ashton Rice, A Woman of the Century: Fourteen Hundred-seventy Biographical Sketches Accompanied by Portraits of Leading American Women in All Walks of Life (1894), (Forgotten Books: 2017), 517. Based on Church records from her school days (see the following note), Marguerite had to have been born in 1846 even though several census records state she was born in 1849 which could have been a mistake. Probate records state that Garret Nagle died in 1849, however the date of Mary Jane?s death is incorrect. The Probate record for Mary Jane Nagle stated she died in 1852 when in fact she died in 1857. ?Ireland Calendar of Wills and Administrations, 1858?1920,? FamilySearch, 26 Feb 1852; Principal Probate Registry, Dublin; ?Deaths,? Waterford News, Waterford, Ireland: February 27, 1857, 2. Irish Provincial Archives, Sacred Heart Convent Boarding School register book, Roscrea 1859; Marguerite Moore, ?Roscrea Convent and the School and the Writer New Them?Sixty Years Ago,? Irish Provincial Archives, Sacred Heart Convent Boarding School, Roscrea, RSA 127, 1921. Moore, ?Roscrea Convent and the School [...],? 33; Irwin attended the convent boarding school from 1860 until 1862 starting at age 15 to study music, drawing, and singing. Sacred Heart Convent Boarding School register book, Roscrea 1858. Ireland Roman Catholic Parish Marriages, Dungarvan, Microfilm 02469/05, National Library of Ireland: 1863; Waterford News, Waterford: July 17, 1863. Together they had seven children total of which six survived to adulthood. It is unclear what role (if any) John Moore played in his wife?s Ladies? Land League exploits. In fact, we know very little about Mr. Moore beyond the fact that he owned a hotel in Greencastle near Moville. Perhaps John Moore was a private man who eluded any attention he might garner by his energetic wife? Or, maybe in this example, Marguerite demonstrates from an early stage, that she was not a woman defined in relation to the man in her life.


After the birth of her daughter Susan Catherine Moore in 1869, the family moved to the coastal town of Moville on the Innishowen Peninsula in Donegal where John owned a hotel. ?Ireland Births and Baptisms, 1620?1881,? database, FamilySearch, Susan Catherine Moore, 01 Mar 1869; citing Waterford, Ireland, index based upon data collected 8 9 10 11 Vol. 32, 2018 New York Irish History page 51 by the Genealogical Society of Utah, Salt Lake City; FHL microfilm 101,183. 12 Anna Parnell travelled to Moville in 1881 as part of a larger tour through Ulster which Moore participated in. ?The Ladies? Land League in the North. Enthusiastic Reception of Miss Anna Parnell in Londonderry. Great Demonstration at Moville,? Derry Journal, Londonderry, Ireland: May 16, 1881: 5; 13 Moore claimed she was under surveillance years later in an interview about her prison experience. ?Life in an Irish Prison: Mrs. Marguerite Moore?s Experience in Tullamore Jail,? The Times, Philadelphia, PA: December 4, 1887, 3; ?A Lady Leaguer Sent to Jail,? Belfast Evening Telegraph, Belfast, Ireland: April 1, 1882, 4; ?Another Lady Land Leaguer Sent to Jail,? Irish Times, Dublin, Ireland: March 31, 1882, 7. 14 ?Release of Mrs. Moore,? Derry Journal, June 7, 1882, 3; ?Release of Mrs. Moore,? The Nation, Dublin: June 10, 1882, 5. 15 Leila Moore died on Christmas Eve in 1883 at age eleven. According to information about Marguerite?s widowhood given on the 1910 US Census, John Henry Moore died sometime the same year. ?Deaths,? Dublin Weekly Nation, Dublin: January 5, 1884, 16. 16 Diner, 37. 17 Nolan, 8. 18 Diner, 38. 19 Elizabeth Clifford and Pearce, Susan C., ?Women and Current U.S. Immigration Fact Sheet,? Sociologists for Women in Society, January 2012. 20 Marian L. Smith, ??Any Woman who is now or may hereafter be married...? Woman and Naturalization, ca. 1802?1940,? Genealogy Notes 30, 2 (Summer 1998). 21 Even though Moore would have been able to become a citizen after immigration laws changed in 1922, there is no evidence that Moore ever filed a declaration of intent to start her citizenship process. 22 Parnell wanted the Irish Parliament to be restored back to Dublin after it was abolished in 1801 under the Act of Union. Under Home Rule, Ireland would become a part of the British Commonwealth (like Canada for example). 23 Kevin Kenny, The American Irish: A History (Harlow, U.K.: Longman, 2000), 176. See David Brundage, Irish Nationalists in America: The Politics of Exile, 1798?1998, (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2016). See also Eric Foner, ?Class, Ethnicity, and Radicalism in the Gilded Age: Land League and Irish America,? Marxist Perspectives 1 (Summer 1978): 1-55. 24 O?Donnell, 123; See D.B. Cashman, The Life of Michael Davitt: Founder of the National Land League. To which is added, the Secret History of the Land League by Michael Davitt (Glasgow and London: Cameron & Ferguson, 1889), Hathi Trust. 25 McCarthy, 90. 26 Ibid., 91. 27 Moore became an active INLA member for about a year until her last recorded official INLA appearance in 1887. Her first recorded public appearance with the INLA was in 1886 at a large rally in Union Square. Blake, Delia Parnell, and Ellen Ford (Patrick Ford?s sister) were among the other speakers at the rally. ?The Home Rule Meeting of Workingmen in Union Square, New York,? Springfield Republican, Springfield, MA, July 7, 1886: 5; ?Labor?s Voice for Ireland,? New York Herald, New York, NY, July 6, 1886: 3; ?Irish National League,? Irish American Weekly, New York, NY: April 14, 1886, 5; ?Getting Money for Parnell,? New York Tribune, New York, NY: January 27, 1886, 8; ?Mrs. Marguerite Moore?Scathing Denunciation of British Misrule and Capitalistic Monopoly,? Philadelphia Times, Philadelphia, PA: December 4, 1887, 2. 28 Blake is well known for her literary works, but she was also a civil war correspondent, suffragist, trade unionist, journalist, and an ally to the Irish nationalist cause. While living in New York, Blake wrote a regular column for the Woman?s Journal detailing her own suffrage activities as founder of New York City Women?s Suffrage Alliance (founded by Blake and Matilda Joslyn Gage and later reformed into the New York City Suffrage League) (NYCWSA) and president of the New York State Woman Suffrage Association (NYSWSA) as well as Moore?s suffrage activities. Grace Farrell, Lillie Devereux Blake: Retracing a Life Erased (Boston, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, June 1, 2009), 170?71. 29 McCarthy, 173; Farrell, 120; There is also evidence that Delia Parnell attended a handful of suffrage meetings including the 1884 NYSWSA Convention in Buffalo, NY. Willcox, Hamilton, ?New York Vol. 32, 2018 page 52 New York Irish History State Convention,? Woman?s Journal, October 4, 1884, 340. 30 ?Dynamite Indorsed,? Boston Journal, Boston, MA, March 5, 1885: 6; ?Applauding Dynamite,? Philadelphia Times, Philadelphia, PA, March 4, 1885: 3. 31 Ibid. 32 ?Bayonne Woman, 87, Recalls Meeting Clara Barton, Who Formed the American Red Cross,? Jersey Journal, Jersey City, NJ, November 21, 1931: 3. 33 ?They Enter a Protest: Woman Suffragists Think the Ceremonies an Empty Farce,? New York Times, New York, NY ProQuest Historical Newspapers: October 29, 1886, 8. 34 Ibid. 35 Ibid. 36 Now known as Liberty Island. 37 Farrell, 155. 38 ?They Enter a Protest.? 39 Bayonne, NJ newspaper 40 For a study on the suffrage campaign in New York State see Susan Goodier and Karen Pastorello, Women Will Vote: Winning Suffrage in New York State (Ithaca, NY: Three Hills, 2017). 41 Lillie Devereux Blake, ?Our New York Letter,? Woman?s Journal, Boston, MA.: February 17, 1894, 53. Nineteenth Century Collections Online; Lillie Devereux Blake, ?Our New York Letter,? February 24, 1894, 61; ?Fighting for Enfranchisement,? New York Herald, New York, NY: April 27, 1894, 12. 42 ?Women Who Want to Vote,? New York Times, New York, NY: February 27, 1894: 3. 43 Ibid. 44 For the most comprehensive studies on Gilded Age and Progressive Era politics and reform see Rebecca Edwards, New Spirits: Americans in the Gilded Age, 1865?1905 (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2006); Rebecca Edwards, Angels in the Machinery: Gender in American Party Politics from the Civil War to the Progressive Era (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1999). 45 Henry George Papers, General Correspondence, Box 2 Reel 2, New York Public Library. 46 ?She?ll Speak for Bryan,? The Sun, Baltimore, MD: August 22, 1900: 10. 47 There were several notable Ladies? Land Leaguers present including A. Parnell, Hanna Reynolds, and Jennie Wyse Power; George Papers, Writings and Notes, Slipcase 13 Reel 9. 48 Moore, ?My Experience in a New York Campaign?; ?More Hopeful Than Ever,? Evening World, New York, NY: November 5, 1887: 2; ?She?ll Speak for Bryan,? 49 ?Mrs. Moore on Poverty,? Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia, PA: December 4, 1887, 2. 50 Ibid. 51 ?American Pauper Labor,? Washington Post, Washington D.C.: April 2, 1888, 3. 52 McCarthy 100; Stephen Bell, Rebel, Priest and Prophet: A Biography of Edward McGlynn, Robert Schalkenbach Foundation, New York, NY: 1968; Edward T. O?Donnell, Henry George and the Crisis of Inequality (New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 2015). 53 ?At St. Stephen?s,? Standard, New York, NY: May 28, 1887, 8; Stephen J. Ross, ?The Culture of Political Economy: Henry George and the American Working Class,? Southern California Quarterly 65, 2 (Summer 1983), 145?166. 54 ?In Dr. McGlynn?s Parish,? Standard, New York, NY: June 11, 1887, 4. 55 McCarthy, 103. 56 Moore wrote several articles for the Catholic World magazine after travelling back to Ireland in 1895. 57 Moore, ?My Experiences in a New York Campaign.? 58 Ibid. 59 Ibid. 60 Ibid. 61 It is unclear why Moore?s activities began to slow down after 1900, but her increased age and potential poor health is a possibility. 62 ?Mrs. Moore Delivers Eulogy at Grave of Mrs. O?Donovan Rossa,? Irish World, New York, NY: August 26, 1916, 3. 63 Ibid. 64 Ibid. Vol. 32, 2018 New York Irish History page 53 65 ?Mrs. Moore Delivers Eulogy at the Grave of Mrs. O?Donovan Rossa,? Irish World, New York, NY: August 26, 1916, 3. 66 ?Mrs. Marguerite N. Moore?Leader in the Women?s Suffrage Movement Here is Dead,? New York Herald Tribune, New York, NY: February 8, 1933, 17; ?Deaths,? New York Times, New York, NY: February 7, 1933, 19; Waterford Lady?s Death in New York,? Waterford News and Star, Waterford, Ireland: February 24, 1933. 67 Memorial page for Marguerite Moore (unknown?1933), Find a Grave database and images, citing Holy Cross Cemetery: North Arlington, NJ. 68 Report of the International Council of Women 1888 Convention, 44. Bibliography Bell, Stephen. Rebel, Priest and Prophet: A Biography of Edward McGlynn, New York, NY: Robert Schalkenbach Foundation, 1968. Brundage, David. Irish Nationalists in America: The Politics of Exile, 1798?1998. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2016. Cote, Jane M. Fanny and Anna Parnell: Ireland?s Patriot Sisters. London: Palgrave Macmillion, 1991. Diner, Hasia R. Erin?s Daughters in America: Irish Immigrant Women in the 19th Century. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1983. Edwards, Rebecca. Angels in the Machinery: Gender in American Party Politics from the Civil War to the Progressive Era. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. Edwards, Rebecca. New Spirits: Americans in the Gilded Age, 1865?1905. Oxford University Press: 2006 Farrell, Grace. Lillie Devereux Blake: Retracing a Life Erased. Boston, Mass: University of Massachusetts Press, June 1, 2009. Foner, Eric. ?Class, Ethnicity, and Radicalism in the Gilded Age: Land League and Irish America.? Marxist Perspectives 1 (Summer 1978): 1-55. Goodier, Susan, and Karen Pastorello. Women Will Vote: Winning Suffrage in New York State. Ithaca, NY: Three Hills, an Imprint of Cornell University Press, 2017. Grey, Miriam Nyhan ed. Ireland?s Allies: America and the 1916 Easter Rising. Dublin, Ireland: University College Dublin, 2016. Janis, Ely M. A Greater Ireland: The Land League and Transatlantic Nationalism in Gilded Age America. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 2015. Kindle Edition.


Kenny, Kevin. The American Irish: A History. Harlow, U.K.: Longman, 2000. Livermore, Frances Elizabeth and Mary Ashton Rice, A Woman of the Century: Fourteen Hundred-seventy Biographical Sketches Accompanied by Portraits of Leading American Women in All Walks of Life (1894). Forgotten Books: 2017, 517. McCarthy, Tara M. Respectability and Reform: Irish American Women?s Activism, 1880?1920. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2018. Nolan, Janet A. Ourselves Alone: Women?s Emigration from Ireland, 1885?1920. Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 2015. O?Donnell, Edward T. Henry George and the Crisis of Inequality. New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 2015. Rodechko, James P. ?An Irish-American Journalist and Catholicism: Patrick Ford of the Irish World,? Church History, American Society of Church History, vol. 39 no. 4: December 970, 524?540. Ross, Stephen J. ?The Culture of Political Economy: Henry George and the American Working Class,? Southern California Quarterly, vol. 65 no. 2: Summer 1983, 145?166. Ward, Margaret. Unmanageable Revolutionaries: Women and Irish Nationalism. London: Pluto Press, 1995. Kindle Edition.


Whelehan, Niall. The Dynamiters: Irish Nationalism and Political Violence in the Wider World, 1867?1900. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012. Clifford, Elizabeth and Susan C. Pearce. ?Women and Current U.S. Immigration Fact Sheet,? Sociologists for Women in Society: January 2012. Smith, Marion L. ? ?Any Woman who is now or may hereafter be married...? Woman and Naturalization, ca. 1802?1940,? Genealogy Notes vol. 30, no. 2: Summer 1998. National Archives. Vol. 32, 2018