923 10th St
Golden, CO 80401
USA
The Molly Maguires and Colorado
The infamous Molly Maguires, a secret society of Irish coal miners, met their demise in the late 1870s after decades of activity in the coalfields of Pennsylvania. After being infiltrated by the Pinkerton Detective Agency, some Mollies met the rope, some were imprisoned, and some fled the region. The fall of the Mollies in Colorado coincided with the rise of Leadville’s booming silver economy and the establishment of the town’s Irish immigrant community, one of the largest in the Rocky Mountain West. As such, Leadville became home to over a dozen suspected Molly Maguires, including some of the secret society’s most notorious members. Additionally, the Molly Maguire connection between Colorado and Pennsylvania further deepened by 1887, when the famous Pinkerton detective who infiltrated and assisted in the unraveling of the Molly Maguires, James McParland, came to call Colorado home. Denver, Colorado, functioned as McParland’s base of operations where he waged a war against organized labor throughout the West.
The stories uncovered about these former Mollies challenge the narrative of the Irish secret society that is shrouded with violence, death, and tragedy and illuminate a less-told narrative about struggle and survival. Furthermore, the story of Colorado’s connection to the Molly Maguires extends the narrative of the secret society beyond the coalfields of Pennsylvania and reveals the ways in which the legacy of the Mollies influenced perceptions of organized labor and the very course of labor conflicts in the Rocky Mountain West.
About the Presenter
Kira Boatright is a graduate student in the Department of History at the University of Colorado Denver. Her scholarly activities have explored the history of labor, Irish immigrants, and race in the American West in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Kira has contributed to multiple public history projects devoted to uncovering the role of Irish immigrants in Colorado including Leadville’s Irish Miners’ Memorial at Evergreen Cemetery and History Colorado’s exhibit Unearthed: Voices of Leadville’s Shanty Irish.
Tickets
Free for members and students with valid ID; $5 for nonmembers.