When Henry VIII became ruler of England in 1509, he inherited the title of "Lord of Ireland". Ireland had been independent, but because Henry wanted a divorce, that was about to change.

England and Ireland were Catholic countries. When the Pope would not grant Henry VIII permission to divorce, Henry repudiated the papal authority over the Church of England and introduced the English Reformation.

Although the Irish Parliament officially recognized the English Reformation, most Irish remained Catholic, setting the stage for 500 years of bitterness that split the Irish over a myriad of political, religious, economic and social issues.

Between 1767 and 1841, Ireland's population tripled resulting in severe overcrowding. The population was totally dependent on the potato as a staple for subsistence. The Irish farmer was often a tenant farmer, renting from an absentee English landlord. The relationship between the landlord and tenant was tenuous. Eviction for nonpayment of rent was common.

In 1310, the English Parliament passed an act that declared, "No mere Irishman shall be received into a religious order among the English in the land of peace." This term "mere Irish" reflected the English attitude that the Irish were lazy and ignorant, unwilling to work, combative, argumentative and unruly.

If the tenant could not pay his rent, the landlord could appropriate the tenant's crops, hold title to them until ready to harvest, and then sell them and deduct his expenses. Any livestock could be seized. Although tenants only rented the land, they were responsible for providing dwellings and other farm buildings, fencing, fertilizer and anything else necessary for successful agriculture. All improvements became the property of the landlord when the tenant was evicted.

The peasants, finding peaceful efforts to solve these problems unsuccessful, and the courts leaning heavily toward the landowner, turned to one of the most pervasive and infamous of Irish land reform methods—the secret society. Unfortunately, the Irish leaders who arose were more interested in political reform, Catholic emancipation, and abolition of the Union Jack, rather than in land reforms.

Taking direct action by force to combat an evil was an ancient tradition in Ireland. Fights between Irish families are as old as Ireland. The Whiteboys was the first secret society to gain notoriety. They wore white shirts over their clothes while on a night raid. British troops were called and brutally committed an eye-for –an-eye type of retaliation, which in turn was answered by the Whiteboys with equal brutality.

The first Ulster movement was the Oak Boys—a band of men who wore oak branches in their hats. They were successful in getting county officials to repeal some of the more stringent laws, but the Oak Boy movement soon died out.

Then came the Hearts of Steel. They first vented their violent anger by cutting the leg tendons of cattle, but they soon turned to humans. Like the White Boys, they died out. Northern Ireland did not remain calm for long, as soon came the Orangemen. The Orangemen had an undeclared religious war that resulted in both sides committing acts of terror. The Orangemen are an organization that is celebrated today in Northern Ireland.

By the end of the 18th century, secret societies were well ensconced across Ireland. With the crushing of the United Irishmen in 1798, the hey day of the secret society was born.

The smashing of the rebellion led to an uneasy peace. England kept large numbers of troops in the country and continued to enact more stringent laws. The suspension of habeas corpus made Ireland a powder keg ready to explode. New societies cropped up—Black Conclusion, Standardmen, and Threshers. The ability of England to control these societies ebbed and flowed with the conditions at home, The Threshers were active for only a few years; trials and hangings drove most of them underground and the name of the society disappeared.

Other groups appeared by these names: Defenderism, Carders, Ribbonmen and Rockite. The words "society" and "conspiracy," if applied literally, would stretch the truth. Their actual structure was so loose it was almost nonexistent. These were Irishmen who hoped, schemed, prayed and planned for a universal uprising, but their efforts went unrewarded. The lack of unity in Ireland throughout its history played a significant role in the inability of the Irish to pursue a common cause and expel invaders. The same problem hampered the efforts of the secret societies. Most were isolated groups and there was no overriding national structure.

This began to change with the rise of the Molly Maguires in the middle-to-late 1840s. A landlord would receive a threatening letter informing him that "Molly Maguire is angry that you would turn out one tenant and give it to another... and I think you will be shot in Dublin to save your widow the expense of taking your corpse home.... Molly Maguire and her children have been watching you."

Was there ever an authentic Molly Maguire? Who knows? Highly conflicting versions were put forth, all couched in positive tones, but probably all rooted in folklore.

The most popular Molly Maguire story was that of a poor widow evicted from her home after the landlord's agent "severely abused she and her daughter". Alternatively, Molly's house was said to have been used as the first meeting place of a new secret society. Another version held that Molly was a huge fierce Irish woman with a pistol strapped to each thigh, who led gangs of Irishmen dressed in women's clothing on night raids.

A well known Irish version maintained that the Mollies were the result of a schism within a Ribbon group, the name being given to them in derision by their rivals, after a crazy old woman in County Fermanagh who imagined she had great armies and organizations of men under her control.

As a result of he Great Famine of 1845–1849, thousands of Irish emigrated to America. In Ireland, English landlords had owned them body and soul; in America, English mine owners and operators would own them body and soul.

The coal mine owners and operators wanted to ferment dissension among the miners by applying the labels "Irish coal," "Polish coal," "Italian coal," etc. Why? For fear that the miners would come together and realize that coal was merely coal; and they would be, unified in support of a the labor union. Were the miners desperate? You bet they were. Did violence happen in the coalfields? Yes, and on the part of both sides.

The miners were desperate for better working conditions and fair wages, and were capable of committing violent acts. However, based on Irish history, the likelihood of a cohesive, structured organization was highly unlikely.

Was there dissension and unrest and violence in the coalfields of Pennsylvania? You bet there was. The word "union" struck fear in the hearts of the coal mine owners. They feared the loss of their profits and would go to any length to ensure them.

There was violence in the coalfields before the term Molly Maguires was publicized, and violence continued long after 19 men were hanged as Molly Maguires. By labeling the miners' leaders Mollies over and over again in the regional newspapers, mine owners were able to portray them as outlaws—in today's terms terrorists—and thereby turn public opinion against them.

Nineteen so-called Mollies died for one simple reason—they were Irish Catholic leaders among the mine workers, and seen as a threat to mine owners and operators.