"FIRST WOMEN" WERE IRISH.

New Zealand Tablet, 15 May 1919, Page 28

"FIRST WOMEN" WERE IRISH.

Die first woman to whom a public monument .was erected in America was "Margaret, of New Orleans," who was Margaret Houghery, nee Gaffney, a native of Ireland. A statue commemorating this.noble woman stands in a public square in the city of New Orleans. The first woman to fight for American liberty, and the first of her sex to receive a pension from the Government, for services in the War of the Revolution, was an Irish woman, Margaret Cochran, the wife of John Corbin, a cannoneer in the Pennsylvania Artillery. At the siege of Fort Westington on November 16, 1776, when her husband was killed at his post, she instantly took his place, and by.her dexterous handling of the gun wrought death and destruction in the ranks of the Hessians storming the fort. ■ / •.■.-.; ■., , . , ; .;. : /! :■•■> -* The first female school - teacher mentioned in American t records i was "the good Mistress Healy," '.who taught--at Cambridge, in 1680. She, was the wife of ''William Healy, Irishman," who. located. in that university town as early as 1664. ; - v ., ;,,',,,,,,