The Sons of Molly Maguire Book Talk

Tour Highlights:

• Who were the Molly Maguires? Learn about this violent secret society that started in Ireland to protect peasants during the potato famine of the 1840s, then resurfaced in the hard coal region of Pennsylvania to protect immigrant Irish mine workers from economic and political repression in the 1860s and 1870s
• Uncover the strange connection between Molly Maguires in Ireland and a completely benevolent tradition – mummery
• Find out why the Molly Maguires were resurrected in Pennsylvania and how their actions came to a boiling point during the Civil War leading to over a decade of labor unrest, the murder of mine officials, and military occupation.
• Discover how a Pinkerton Detective Agency spy, James McParlan, infiltrated the Molly Maguires and worked undercover for years to bring them down
• Meet Yellow Jack Donahue – the man who had gone to New York to have a spell removed because he was haunted by the ghost of the mine boss he had killed for discriminating against the Irish - and more ghosts of the Molly Maguires

About this Event:

In the 1870s an immigrant Irish mineworker from Pennsylvania who'd assassinated a coal mine official came to New York City on a strange mission. He wasn't fleeing the law – he was fleeing the mine official's ghost. In a few years, he'd be dead himself, hanged for murder, one of dozens of men who were killed over the course of 15 years in America's first and longest labor war, and one of its bloodiest. Mark Bulik, a longtime editor at The New York Times, spent decades researching how it all started and ended, and will talk about it and his acclaimed history of the events, The Sons of Molly Maguire.

This talk is hosted by Untapped New York's resident Irish history tour guide Ashley Cathaláin!

About the Speakers:

Mark Bulik is a longtime editor at The New York Times. He grew up outside Philadelphia and graduated from Georgetown University. His first book, The Sons of Molly Maguire: The Irish Roots of America’s First Labor War, explored a violent 19th-century labor conflict in the coal fields of Pennsylvania, where his Irish-American ancestors worked in the mines for generations. He lives outside New York City with his family, two cats, and about 500 books.

Irish Podcaster Ashley Cathaláin hails from county Armagh and is now a proud Long Beach resident. She is the creator and leader of Untapped New York's Irish History Tour.