Commemorating March as Irish American Heritage Month, the Ancient Order of Hibernians' (AOH) website posted an entertaining story about a "feisty little Irish lady" who was once called the most dangerous woman in America.

She was born in County Cork, Ireland, and emigrated during the famine years to Canada and then the U.S. After losing her husband and children to yellow fever and later her home and dressmaker shop to the great Chicago fire, Mary Harris Jones started a new career as a labor organizer among mine workers. She called them "her boys"; they called her "Mother Jones." She became known as the "miner's angel," a fiery agitator for the United Mine Workers. It was this role that led authorities to consider her a dangerous woman. Mother Jones was also a proponent of child labor laws and founder of the Social Democratic Party and later, the Industrial Workers of the World.

Although she died in 1930, Mother Jones' name is still prominent in labor history. Many musical tributes were written for her, but the lyrics of one famous song refer to her travels to mining camps in the Appalachian mountains promoting unionization. The AOH article ends like this:

Think of Mother Jones - one of the Irish who helped make America great - when next you sing, 'She'll be coming 'round the mountain when she comes...'