Seven Historic Irish Women from Massachusetts Celebrated on March 8, International Women's Day

March 2022 is Irish Heritage Month and also Women’s History Month in Massachusetts. In honor of both, and on International Women's Day on March 8, we pay homage to these seven Irish women whose accomplishments in their respective fields have positively influenced society. 

Mary Kenney O'Sullivan
(1864-1943)

Nationally acclaimed union organizer Mary Kenny was born in Missouri to Irish immigrants. She
worked in Chicago and New York as an organizer before moving to Boston’s South End in 1893. She organized rubber makers, shoe makers and garment workers, shops where women were paid poorly and suffered bad working conditions. When her husband John O’Sullivan died, she continued her work, creating the National Women’s Trade Union League and taking part in the Bread and Roses Strike in Lawrence, MA. The Massachusetts State House has a plaque entitled Hear Us, honoring Kenny and five other women.  She is part of the Boston Irish Heritage Trail.

Rose Kennedy Fitzgerald
(1890-1995)

Rose Fitzgerald was born in Boston’s North End, the daughter of famous politician John ‘Honey Fitz’ Fitzgerald and Mary Josephine Hannon. She was raised in Dorchester and attended college in New York and The Netherlands. Considered the matriarch of America’s best-known political families, she and her husband Joseph P. Kennedy raised nine children in Brookline and Hyannis, including President John F. Kennedy, Senator and Attorney General Bobby Kennedy and Senator Ted Kennedy. Her daughters included Jean Kennedy Smith, U.S. Ambassador to Ireland, and Eunice Kennedy Shriver, founder of Special Olympics. The Rose Kennedy Garden is part of the Boston Irish Heritage Trail.

Christa Corrigan McAuliffe

(1948-1986)

Born in Dorchester, Sharon Christa Corrigan was the eldest of five children of Grace and Edward
Corrigan. She grew up in Framingham, married her high school sweetheart Steve McAuliffe, and began her career teaching. In 1984, President Ronald Reagan announced the first citizen in space would be a teacher, and McAuliffe was selected out of 11,000 applicants and began rigorous training. On 1/28/1986 the Challenger launched but exploded after take-off, killing everyone on board. Today the McAuliffe Center at Framingham State carries on the spirit of Christa by teaching students to dream big.

Mary Josephine Lavin

(1912-1996)

Born in East Walpole, Massachusetts, Mary Lavin was the daughter of Irish immigrants, whose family moved back to Athenry, County Galway, when she was about 10 years old. She wrote her first short story at age 24, and subsequently wrote 19 short story collections and three novels. Influenced by Jane Austin, Lavin's work is often compared to the literary masters including Sean O'Faolain and Liam O'Flaherty, as well as Balzac and Chekhov, wrote the New York Times. She won numerous awards, including three Guggenheim Fellowships. 

Francis 'Fanny' Parnell

(1848-1882)

Known as the Patriot Poet, Fanny Parnell was born in Avondale, County Wicklow, to a famous Irish family with strong Boston connections.  Her grandfather, Admiral Charles Steward, was commander of the USS Constitution, and her brother, Charles Stewart Parnell, was a Home Rule leader in Ireland. Fanny's sister Anna founded the Ladies Land League, and Fanny became the group's spokesperson in the United States.  Her poetry appeared often in The Boston Pilot, which issued a collection of her work when she died suddenly at age 34.  She is buried at Mt. Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge.

Katharine O'Keeffe O'Mahoney

(1852-1918)

Born in County Kilkenny, Katharine moved with her family to Massachusetts at age 10, living in Methuen and then settling in Lawrence.  She taught English at Lawrence High School, where one of her students was Robert Frost.  Later she made her living lecturing and writing books, among them Famous Women of Ireland (1907), an engaging overview of Irish women from pagan times to Ireland's literary revival.  She was president of the Ladies Ancient Order of Hibernians, and the St. Clare League of Catholic Women, a group formed to help orphaned children.  

Louise Imogen Guiney
(1861-1920)

Louise Guiney was born in Roxbury, the daughter of an Irish immigrant, General Patrick Guiney,
who was a war hero in the American Civil War. In fact, she traveled as a child with her mother to Virginia, where the Massachusetts Irish Ninth Regiment was stationed. She began publishing poems in the Boston Pilot under the initials P.O.L. with references to Latin, Greek and Medieval poetry, and readers assumed she was ‘a bright Harvard boy.’ She published a number of books, including Songs at the Start, Goose-Quill Papers and The White Sail. Her final work was entitled Happy Endings.

For more about Irish heritage in Massachusetts, visit IrishHeritageTrail.com.

To learn about cultural events in New England and traveling to Ireland, visit IrishMassachusetts.com.