Molly Maguire

American  

[muh-gwahyuhr] / məˈgwaɪər /

noun

1. Irish History. a member of a secret terrorist society organized in Ireland in 1843 to prevent evictions by the government: so called because the members disguised themselves as women.

2. U.S. History. a member of a former secret association, organized about 1865, that terrorized the mine operators' agents in an effort to get relief from oppressive conditions in the anthracite coal-mining regions of Pennsylvania: ceased to function about 1877.

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Molly Maguire British  

/ ˈmɒlɪ məˈɡwaɪə /

noun

1. Irish history a member of a secret society that terrorized law officers during the 1840s to prevent evictions

2. (in Pennsylvania from about 1865 to 1877) a member of a society of miners that terrorized mine owners and their agents in an effort to obtain better pay

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Etymology

Origin of Molly Maguire

An Americanism dating back to 1865–70

Example Sentences

McParlan’s boss Allan Pinkerton had asked him to write a report on Irish secret societies like the Threshers, Ribbonmen, White Boys and the Society of Molly Maguire, and McParlan believed that the Mollies were American offshoots of the Irish organizations.

From Washington Times

One condemned Molly Maguire proclaimed innocence while mashing a dirty handprint into the wall of his cell, where he said it would remain as long as the Mauch Chunk jail kept standing.

From Washington Times

In 1980, when her show “Molly Maguire,” about the travails of the Irish under British rule and in the United States, was staged in a church in Manhattan, John Corry wrote in The New York Times that the show was “powerful, moving and staged within an inch of its life.”

From New York Times

He got up that Molly Maguire series for the new cleaning fluid.

From Project Gutenberg

Nearly the same thing may be said of the parish of Cloone, the headquarters of Molly Maguire.

From Project Gutenberg