So, I was curious about the Molly Maguires after discussing them in class, and it turns out that Mr. Tantillo was right! According one website, the real Molly Maguire was a real person! The real Molly Maguire was an Irish widow who protested against thieving landlords in the 1840's. She led the "Anti-landlord Agitators" and she and her followers would fist fight with the corrupt landlords to "maintain their land and their dignity". Eventually, the Agitators grew famous in Ireland and adopted the name "Molly Maguires" after their infamous leader. The Irish immigration to America brought over Molly Maguires who became active again to fight for Irish coal miner's rights.
Here's the source if anybody's interested:
http://www.pabook.libraries.psu.edu/palitmap/Mollies.html
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Recent Comments
Links of Interest
Contributors
Labels
- activism (1)
- advertising (1)
- aesthetics (1)
- Ag Day (1)
- agriculture (1)
- Alaska (1)
- Albrecht Dürer (1)
- alternative transportation (1)
- animal legends (1)
- animal welfare (2)
- Annie Taylor (1)
- Anthracite mining (2)
- art (8)
- Bambi (10)
- bears (1)
- Beauty and the Beast (1)
- Bierstadt (1)
- biocentrism (1)
- biodiesel (1)
- bird (1)
- BP Oil Spill (1)
- Bruegel (1)
- burial (2)
- C.E. Watkins (1)
- camping (1)
- campus (1)
- capitalism (1)
- cat (1)
- Centralia Pennsylvania (3)
- Chicago (4)
- chronological primitivism (1)
- civilization (1)
- climate change (2)
- coal (2)
- conservation campaigns (1)
- conservation history (1)
- controversies (1)
- cows (2)
- Cronon (4)
- current events (1)
- dare devils (2)
- debate (1)
- diesel (1)
- Disney (3)
- dolphins (1)
- Ecological Indian (4)
- environmentalism (3)
- fields (1)
- film (2)
- Final Exam (1)
- fire (3)
- fishing (1)
- Flying Penguins (1)
- Game Laws (2)
- Garrett Hardin (1)
- Gaston de Phoebus (3)
- geoengineering (1)
- Gilpin (1)
- gladiators (2)
- green guerrillas (1)
- Green movement (1)
- Gulf oil spill (1)
- Gullah (1)
- Harris Neck (1)
- hawk (1)
- Hudson River School (7)
- hunting (5)
- India (2)
- Inness (2)
- john trudell (1)
- justice (1)
- kanye (1)
- Krech (4)
- land protection (2)
- landmarks in publishing (1)
- landscape art (5)
- Maine (2)
- Marx Bros (1)
- mining (3)
- Molly Maguires (2)
- music (1)
- music video (1)
- NASA (1)
- national parks (3)
- nature (1)
- nature aesthetics (1)
- nature and culture (3)
- nature's metropolis (2)
- Niagara (4)
- NOAA (1)
- nutty naked guys (3)
- NY Times (1)
- oceans (1)
- oil (1)
- Olmsted (1)
- painting (1)
- panorama (3)
- Paul Ehrlich (1)
- photography (2)
- picturesque (1)
- Pocahontas (1)
- popular culture (5)
- population (4)
- primary sources (1)
- primitivism (10)
- punk rock (1)
- railroads (6)
- rainbows (1)
- redwood in Ithaca (1)
- research collections (1)
- rewilding America (2)
- Robin Hood (1)
- root causes (1)
- Sanborn maps (1)
- satire (1)
- science (2)
- seal clubbing (1)
- space (1)
- spotted owl (2)
- sublime (4)
- svo (1)
- tapestries (2)
- technology (2)
- television (3)
- term paper (3)
- The Cove (1)
- Thoreau (2)
- tourism (1)
- tracking (1)
- Tragedy of the Commons (1)
- urban legends (1)
- veggie oil diesel (2)
- video (2)
- water--beaverish (1)
- whaling (1)
- wilderness (4)
- wildlife (2)
- wind power (1)
- World's Fair (1)
- Yellowstone (1)
- Yosemite (3)
- Zardoz (1)
Blog Archive
- July 2013 (14)
- June 2013 (11)
- April 2013 (2)
- March 2013 (3)
- February 2013 (7)
- January 2013 (1)
- July 2012 (39)
- June 2012 (7)
- May 2012 (2)
- April 2012 (5)
- March 2012 (3)
- February 2012 (4)
- January 2012 (2)
- July 2011 (21)
- June 2011 (6)
- May 2011 (1)
- April 2011 (24)
- March 2011 (19)
- February 2011 (25)
- January 2011 (2)
- September 2010 (2)
- August 2010 (1)
- July 2010 (47)
- June 2010 (14)
- April 2010 (14)
- March 2010 (13)
- February 2010 (24)
- January 2010 (9)
- July 2009 (16)
- June 2009 (16)
- May 2009 (3)
- April 2009 (6)
- March 2009 (10)
- February 2009 (16)
- January 2009 (7)
- May 2008 (5)
- April 2008 (26)
- March 2008 (19)
- February 2008 (35)
- January 2008 (7)
- May 2007 (4)
- April 2007 (14)
- March 2007 (10)
- February 2007 (27)
- January 2007 (8)
Posts
4 comments:
I don't know if they went to extreme because of their failure in the strike before. If so, then their action is understandable. Since the movie didn't show any excuse for their actions, I think the identity of "the Molly Maguires" is really controversial.
I think your version of the origin of "Molly Maguire" is more acceptable - I am not sure if this is an explanation made up to display a negative public image of the Mollies, but one theory proposed by Kevin Kenny says that the name traces to the practice of men dressing up as women and blackening their faces, alluding to the practice of mummery, as a symbol of "upholding an alternative social order."
Sounds quite absurd to me. :/
While the movie evokes sympathy towards the Molly Maguires, as freedom fighters for equality against the inhuman law and order(with rather communist ideals, I think, especially the scene where the Mollies scattered the goods of the rich to the common people). However, I think it is only more recently that the actions of the Molly Maguires are cast into this new light. For a long time, the Molly Maguires were regarded as criminals and terrorists, with their intents considered to be irrational and ridiculed.
For anyone's interest, I found an article written about 20 years after the Molly Maguires(around the 1890s and 1900s I suppose), portraying the extent to which Molly Maguires were negatively conceived.
Link: http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/maguires/OverthrowofMollyMaguires.pdf
Of course Mr. Tantillo was right about the real Molly Maguire. He is always right, no matter what.
If this movie was showed to display the negative image of the Mollies, then it is totally understandable.
Post a Comment