Where did the name molly mcguire come from?

Question

Where did the name molly mcguire come from?

Answer 1

"Molly" is/was a pet name for Mary, and in a Catholic country such as Ireland, where the McGuires come from, Mary is a v. popular name.

Remember Molly Malone selling cockles and mussels, alive alive-o, from her barrow.

As to why Molly or Polly are pet names for Mary, Wikipedia didn't tell me.  Thanks for prodding me to go check a question  I've had for years.

Answer 2

The Molly Maguires were a group of Irish Catholic immigrants who settled in the hard coal fields of Pennsylvania.

After years of unfair wages and labor practices, they attempted to organize the first unions in America, only to be tagged "terrorists and thugs" by the mine owners.

Eventually, 20 were hung by a kangaroo court, and their story continues to this day.

The Irish miners were dubbed the "Molly Maguires," after a group of Irish peasants who dressed up as women to antagonize their landlords.

This group was infamously known as murderers and assassins and the press and police in America applied the name to the Irish miners.

The label was used by both the press and the owner-operators of the mining companies to their distinct advantage.

They called anyone who was pro-union a "Molly," inferring that they were criminals at best.

This helped to subdue, even if only slightly, uprisings in the work place.