Who was the Irish Bridget? What relevance does her story have to the history of Irish immigration to America? Learn the answers to these questions in Dr. Margaret Lynch-Brennan’s presentation “The Irish Bridget: Irish Immigrant Women in Domestic Service in America, 1840-1930” which is based on her book of the same name. Dr. Lynch-Brennan will use photographs and personal letters the Irish Bridgets wrote to one another to give insight into the lives of these young immigrant girls. She will discuss their work life, their social life and their contribution to American ethnic history, labor history and women’s history. Dr. Lynch-Brennan will also explore the impact they had on Irish-American life in facilitating the rise of the Irish into the American middle class.

MARGARET LYNCH-BRENNAN earned a Ph.D. in American history from the University at Albany, State University of New York. She has given presentations in Ireland, Australia, Germany and throughout the United States. In addition to “The Irish Bridget,” Dr. Lynch-Brennan is the author of chapters in three other books and two journals. She worked as a consultant with the Lower East Side Tenement House Museum in New York City regarding the interpretation of Irish immigrant Bridget Meehan Moore in the Museum’s Moore family tenement. She also worked as a consultant for Lindenwald, the Kinderhook, New York, home of President Martin Van Buren, regarding the Irish domestic servants who lived and worked there. From 2015-2018 she served as a Public Scholar for the New York Council for the Humanities (A/K/A Humanities New York). She taught at the elementary, secondary, undergraduate, and graduate levels, and for many years served as an administrator for the New York State Education Department where she worked on issues related to civil rights, high school reform and professional development for teachers.

Sunday, May 3, 2026, 2:00- 3:30 p.m.