IRISH AMERICANS

  This is dedicated to lesser known Irish Americans.  Everyone is aware of John F. Kennedy and his wife Jackie (her mother was from County Clare).  Sure Ronald Regan was Irish as was Maureen O'Hara and Bruce Springsteen has a bit of the "green" in his heritage.  Walt Disney's father was Anglo-Irish.  Bareknuckle boxing champion, John L. Sullivan's parents were both Irish immigrants.  Henry Ford's father was born in County Cork.  Both of Eugene O'Neill's parents were Irish immigrants.  Of course, you know that he won the Nobel Prize for literature and also his plays won four Pulitzer Prizes for drama.  

Now, a little more obscure but no less notable

Have you ever heard of Mother Jones?  Her real name was Marry Harris Jones.  She was born in County Cork, Ireland and her parents emigrated to the U.S. during the Great Famine.  In 1897, she quit her job as a teacher and dressmaker to spend full time organizing unions and coordinating strikes against unfair labor practices including child labor.  She helped organize the Knights of Labor and the United Mine Workers.  She played a big part in forming child labor laws in our country.  Mother Jones lived to be 100 and the little lady stood up to unfair labor practices wherever they were found.  

She was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame and the National Mining Hall of Fame.  There are numerous songs, books and plays written about this lady. You'll find schools and school buildings carrying her name. On the Senate floor she was once called the "grandmother of all agitators."  Her response was that she hoped to become the great-grandmother of all agitators.  

Mother Jones is an Irish American of whom you can be proud.