Upcoming Events

On Sunday, March 9, 2025, at 2:00 pm, Anne Flaherty will present the program “Who Was John Kehoe?” at Eckley Miners’ Village. The village, site of the filming of Martin Ritt’s The Molly Maguires, is located in Weatherly, PA. The event will include a book signing.

 

On Wednesday, March 19, 2025, at 6:30 pm, Anne Flaherty will present the program “Who Was John Kehoe?” at the Schuylkill County Historical Society. The society is located at 305 N Centre Street, Pottsville, PA. The event will include a book signing.

Available on Amazon

The Passion of John Kehoe and the Myth of the “Molly Maguires”

Recipient, Anthracite Heritage Foundation Book Award for 2025

 

By Anne Flaherty, Hibernian Press, Saint Leonard, MD, 2023. Paperback, 550 pages. $35.00. Includes bibliography, index, and glossary of terms.

 

In The Passion of John Kehoe and The Myth of the “Molly Maguires,” John Kehoe’s descendant, Anne Flaherty, overturns all widely accepted historical accounts of this turbulent period in Pennsylvania’s nineteenth-century anthracite coalfields. The haunting eloquence of the Irish Catholic men falsely accused as “Mollies” carries their tragic story. The charter of their benevolent order, the Ancient Order of Hibernians, was based on the tenet “Love guides the whole design.” The words of these Irishmen underscore how fallacious chronicling has silenced them for almost a century and a half.

 

To purchase, visit:

 

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=the+Passion+of+John+Kehoe&crid=3N2UBPP2CJ35E&sprefix=the+passion+of+john+kehoe%2Caps%2C96&ref=nb_sb_noss

 

To hear an interview with the author by Erika Funke of NPR affiliate WVIA Radio, visit this link :

 

https://soundcloud.com/wvia-public-media/anne-flaherty-january-16-2025?in=wvia-public-media/sets/artscene-1#t=0:00

 

 

 

Rebutting the Canon

The paper titled “REBUTTING THE CANON,” posted to the right at the top of the essay collection, traces the use of the “Molly Maguire” epithet by nativist editors from the 1850s to the 1870s and the subsequent effort by “Molly Maguire” prosecutors to embed the taunt in both the national consciousness and the historical canon. I am scheduled to deliver highlights from this paper on April 2 at the national meeting of the American Conference for Irish Studies (ACIS) at Houston, hosted by the University of St. Thomas William J. Flynn Center for Irish Studies. The paper also traces the term’s influence on subsequent works, including those of J. Walter Coleman, Wayne Broehl Jr., and most recently, Kevin Kenny. In the late 1960s the term’s influence flowed to film when the Pinkerton Agency obtained script approval for Martin Ritt’s The Molly Maguires, with Sean Connery portraying John Kehoe. The paper also documents rebuttals of “Molly Maguire” propaganda, including Philip Foner's rebuttal from 1947.

The column at the tab “JOHN KEHOE,” located above, has been updated. It gives a description of Kehoe’s execution at Pottsville Jail, including the ministrations of the six Roman Catholic nuns and two priests who comforted the condemned man.

Apologies to all who have tried to connect with me through Facebook. As my book titled The Passion of John Kehoe and the Myth of the "Molly Maguires" nears completion, I hope to become more responsive.

A. Flaherty

Note: The April 2020 ACIS meeting in Houston was cancelled due to concerns over the coronavirus outbreak.

Presentations and Thanks

Thanks to Bob Wolensky and Bode Morin for their recent program “Episodes in Anthracite Labor History,” held at Scranton’s Anthracite Heritage Museum, and for including my discussion of the “Molly Maguires” in that program.

A belated thanks to the American Conference for Irish Studies (ACIS) for including my presentation in programs for their national meetings at University College Cork in 2018 and Boston in 2019.

My upcoming presentations include the annual meeting of the Pennsylvania Historical Association, hosted by Indiana University of Pennsylvania.  On October 19, 2019, I will present the paper “Pennsylvania’s ‘Molly Maguires’: Fact vs. Fiction.”

At Scranton, thanks to Bob for his reference to Adam Smith’s admonition on the perils of monopoly. Thanks to Lucia Dailey, prior to the Scranton program, for recounting to me the details of the commemoration of the anniversary of the Avondale Mine Disaster, where more than one hundred mine workers perished from asphyxiation. Lucia’s recollection included this quote from an attendant at the event: “They knew how to live, and they knew how to die.”

Anne Flaherty

ACIS-West - Spokane

A warm thanks to the conference committee of ACIS-West for their unanimous acceptance of my proposal for inclusion in the 33^rd annual meeting of the American Conference for Irish Studies-Western Regional, held in October 2017 in Spokane, Washington.

The theme of the conference was “Ireland, Irish America, and Work.” Vice-consul John Callaghan, of the Consulate General of Ireland in San Francisco, spoke of the need for Irish Studies programs to both explore our culture and to “help other cultures know who we are.”

My paper, “Pennsylvania’s ‘Molly Maguires’: Fact vs. Fiction,” can be viewed in the essay collection posted here. It describes the efforts of Pennsylvania’s Hibernians hanged as “Molly Maguires.” Men of faith condemned to death in illegal trials, they used legal channels to advocate on behalf of the oppressed.

Anne Flaherty