Leonora O’Reilly was an American feminist, suffragist, and trade union organizer.
Background
Leonora O'Reilly was the daughter of John O'Reilly, a printer and member of the Knights of Labor, and Winifred (Rooney) O'Reilly, an Irish-born dressmaker. O'Reilly accompanied her mother to meetings at Cooper Union and her father's friend, Victor Drury, helped instill in her an appreciation for the Italian nationalist Mazzini.
Career
John O'Reilly died when Leonora was three years old. O'Reilly counted among her influences radical Catholic priest and social justice advocate Fr. Edward McGlynn and anarchist Peter Kropotkin.
O'Reilly began working in a factory at age 13. At 16 she joined the Knights of Labor, and Winifred O'Reilly soon followed her daughter's lead. Leonora belonged to many organizations composed of both working class and elite men and women.
Mentors helped further her education. After attending the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, O'Reilly and her mother became residents at the Asacog House, a settlement in Brooklyn. She also taught at the Manhattan Trade School.
Only with the financial support of elite women such as Louise Perkins was O'Reilly able to give up manual labor and become a full-time labor organizer with the Women's Trade Union League. In this capacity she served as a volunteer investigator to the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of 1911. O'Reilly served as the president of the Wage Earner’s Suffrage League from 1911-1912.
She also cooperated with Indian independence organizations and the NAACP. Leonora and Winifred O'Reilly both made their home in Brooklyn.
Politics
An ardent socialist, Leonora O'Reilly was a delegate to the 1915 Hague Women's Peace Convention, sailing through mine-laden waters aboard the MS Noordam. Around 1918, O'Reilly stopped working on behalf of labor and devoted herself to the radical section of American Irish nationalism in 1918.
Membership
She was a founding member of the Women's Trade Union League.