“Women's Rights and All That”: Irish Women Activists in Springfield, Massachusetts, 1890–1930

The industrial city of Springfield, Massachusetts was home to a thriving Irish-American community in the early twentieth century. This paper focuses specifically on Irish women’s organisations in the city from the 1890s to the 1930s. It assesses the various social, political and religious organisations open to recently arrived female emigrants – such as the Gaelic League, the Ladies’ Auxiliary of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, and Cumann na mBan – and investigates how such organisations provided supports to women in their new communities.

The paper considers whether Irish women activists were afforded more visibility in the diaspora than in Ireland but also addresses women’s subsidiary roles in many key Irish-American organisations. By taking this microhistory approach, this paper aims to interrogate the varying functions of Irish women’s associational culture in the diaspora and also considers how the case of Springfield reflects wider trends in Ireland and in the diaspora.