{"id":66743,"date":"2008-07-29T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-07-29T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/uri-professors-book-explores-life-of-joseph-banigan-new-england-labor\/"},"modified":"2008-07-29T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2008-07-29T00:00:00","slug":"uri-professors-book-explores-life-of-joseph-banigan-new-england-labor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2008\/07\/uri-professors-book-explores-life-of-joseph-banigan-new-england-labor\/","title":{"rendered":"溏心vlog免费B站 professor\u2019s book explores life of Joseph Banigan, New England labor"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\tIrish Titan, Irish Toilers tells story of child laborer who became wealthy industrialist<\/p>\n


\n\tKINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 July 29, 2008 \u2013 Escaping starvation and death in Ireland, Joseph Banigan came to Rhode Island only to experience brutal poverty, child labor and vicious discrimination in the United States.<\/p>\n


\n\tScott Molloy, professor of labor and industrial relations at the 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s Schmidt Labor Research Center, theorizes that such horrors haunted Banigan throughout his life and may have been the reasons for his ascension to the heights of American industry and wealth.<\/p>\n


\n\tIn his new book, Irish Titan, Irish Toilers, Joseph Banigan and 19th Century New England Labor, the West Kingston resident provides a detailed look at Banigan, his times, his rise to president of the U.S. Rubber Co., his battles with organized labor and his leading philanthropy.<\/p>\n


\n\tThe 308-page book, published by University of New Hampshire Press, completes Molloy\u2019s 10 years of research on Banigan, who turned his Woonsocket Rubber Co. into the leading rubber shoe manufacturer of its time. From the 溏心vlog免费B站 library to Ireland\u2019s County Monaghan where Banigan was born, Molloy chased every news clip, trade reference and family story to round out the saga of one of this country\u2019s most innovative manufacturers and businessmen.


\n\u201cThese are the books that are generally never written because the source material is so scarce,\u201d said Molloy, a former city bus driver and union chief. \u201cBut I stick with these subjects because they are the stories of the hardships and struggles of the working class.<\/p>\n


\nA 1970 graduate of Rhode Island College, Molloy drove a bus while pursuing his Ph.D. at Providence College, which he earned in 1991.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cThe question that kept eating at me as I researched Banigan was \u2018How did this man, who should have been mired in child labor and poverty, become a national business leader?\u2019\u201d Molloy said.<\/p>\n


\n\tMolloy said Banigan came to the United States in 1847 when he was about 8 years old, and completed only one year of school here. \u201cAt 9 years old, he became a full-time worker at the American Screw Co. in Providence\u2019s Fifth Ward,\u201d Molloy said.<\/p>\n


\n\tBy around 1860, Banigan finished an apprenticeship in the jewelry trade and served a short time at the Providence Rubber Co. where he met John Holt, his future business partner and father-in-law. He took the lessons learned in the jewelry industry and at the rubber company and became a partner with John Haskins in making rubber plugs for bottles and containers in the Boston area.<\/p>\n


\n\tDespite \u201cthe most despicable and hateful language used against the Irish and Catholics,\u201d Molloy said by the time Banigan was 25, he was more American than Irish, and became an advocate for Irish integration in mainstream New England life even though the Irish found security in their clannish neighborhoods.<\/p>\n


\n\tOn June 27, 1867, Banigan and his partners incorporated the Woonsocket Rubber Co. on Social and Clinton Streets in Woonsocket. In 1889, after establishing several operations in Millville, Mass., Banigan opened the Alice Mill for the Woonsocket Rubber Co., which was named after his mother. Molloy said it was the premier shoe production facility in the world. Its success almost scuttled the formation of the U.S. Rubber Co. cartel in 1892 because none of the companies had a comparable facility.<\/p>\n


\n\tWhile building his rubber empire, Banigan did not forget his fellow Irish countrymen, hiring them to work in his factories and treating them with a dignity they had never experienced.<\/p>\n


\n\tIn his book, Molloy states that during the mass arrival of Famine refugees, the Irish population in Rhode Island swelled to almost 16,000 in 1855, constituting about one-tenth of the state\u2019s population of 150,000 and more than a quarter of the residents of Providence. For a time, the Irish were the dominant immigrant group in Woonsocket.<\/p>\n


\nSensitive to the immigrant experience in late 19th century America, Banigan was familiar with the plight of Woonsocket\u2019s population, which Molloy said was 75 percent foreign born. \u201cThere was no such thing as legal immigration before World War I. So when I hear people, especially the Irish-Americans say, \u2018My ancestors came here with papers,\u2019 I scold them. They didn\u2019t even have toilet paper.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tBanigan took it upon himself to help the immigrant populations, making huge donations to orphanages, the Lying Inn Hospital (now Women & Infants Hospital), the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, the Home for the Aged, St. Maria\u2019s Home for Working Girls and even Brown University, which Molloy said at times crackled with anti-Catholic rhetoric.<\/p>\n


\n\tA devout Catholic himself, he was a major supporter of St. Charles Church in Woonsocket and the construction of Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral in Providence, the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese in Rhode Island.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cHe is the biggest Irish-Catholic philanthropist in the history of Rhode Island,\u201d Molloy said.

\n\tMolloy\u2019s book is available in local bookstores, Amazon.com, Booktopia.com, Overstock.com and University Press of New England at http:\/\/www.upne.com\/1-58465-690-5.html<\/p>\n


\n\tThere will be a book signing party for South County residents at Pancho O\u2019Malley\u2019s, 140 Point Judith Road, Narragansett, Tuesday, Aug. 12, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. The book will be available at a 25 percent discount, $19.99.<\/p>\n


\nPictured above

\nScott Molloy poses at the Rhode Island Irish Famine Memorial in Providence with his new book. Irish Titan, Irish Toilers, Joseph Banigan and 19th Century New England Labor. 溏心vlog免费B站 Communications and Marketing Photo by Joe Giblin<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Irish Titan, Irish Toilers tells story of child laborer who became wealthy industrialist KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 July 29, 2008 \u2013 Escaping starvation and death in Ireland, Joseph Banigan came to Rhode Island only to experience brutal poverty, child labor and vicious discrimination in the United States. Scott Molloy, professor of labor and industrial […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66746,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66743"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66743\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}