On April 6, the Institute of European Studies in partnership with the Irish Studies Program hosted Professor Kevin Kenny, the Glucksman Professor of History at New York University for a lecture commemorating the 25th anniversary of his book Making Sense of the Molly Maguires. In his presentation that was attended by 15 people, Kenny gave a brief overview of the story of the Molly Maguires and his research experience.
Kenny began with a brief retelling of the Molly Maguires history in the United States. The pivotal moment that Kenny focused on throughout his lecture is when on June 21, 1877, twenty men of the Molly Maguires were hanged for the murders of 16 people in Pennsylvania. Kenny gave a historiography of the Molly Maguires up to the release of his book. He pointed out two main historical conceptions of the Molly Maguires that radically opposed each other. First, their contemporaries’ portrayal of them as depraved killers. Allan Pinkerton’s book about the Molly Maguires enshrined this conception of them into American popular culture for generations. Second, 20th century historians’ challenge to this conception, which created a counter-myth that claimed the Molly Maguires were completely innocent. Kenny explained that he became interested in choosing this topic for his doctoral research because there was no consensus on who the Molly Maguires were or if they even existed.
Kenny’s conclusion is that the Molly Maguires were neither depraved killers nor completely innocent. Kenny determined that faced with appalling mining conditions in the United States, some Irish immigrant workers fought back with a specifically Irish pattern of violence. The Molly Maguires originated in Ireland in the 1840s and 50s, Kenny explained, and they acted to enforce a moral code by acting in ways such as taking vengeance on those who enclosed common land or targeted tenants who took the leases of evicted people. The Molly Maguires took up this pattern of violence in the United States when one of the largest Pennsylvanian trade unions was defeated, Kenny argued. Kenny closed his presentation by saying that since the release of his book he believes it is important to retain skepticism about this story as there were victims on both sides of the conflict.