"The vagueness of many "facts" surrounding the Molly Maguire period will forever permit the era great "historical elasticity." Many schools of thought can use "Molly Maguire" to justify their ideological positions or validity a particular belief. " - Harry Aurand
I can think of no other event in local history that has been covered as thoroughly as the Molly Maguires. In addition to the countless books and articles that have been written, lectures given, trial transcripts analyzed.... There' a major motion picture starring Sean Connery, and even a Sherlock Holmes story, written by Arthur Conan Doyle, based on the events. Such modern interpretations frequently add extra haze to factual history, and this history was cloudy enough before the fiction writers got ahold of it. Many can't even agree on whether or not the Molly Maguires even truly existed in America. Although I've visited all the sites, I've toured the jail, saw the handprint, visited the park and statue [incredibly powerful] read all the historical markers... and yet I still really didn't understand the Molly Maguire drama, so I recently set out to learn. There's an overwhelming amount of information and commentary available, as there always is when there are no simple answers. And this is a story with no simple answers. Anyone who claims to know exactly what happened, and the exact amount of guilt to assign, well, they are much braver than me. Here's a little of what I found:
And there were more than 56 murders in just a few years time. More than half of which are still unsolved today.
These may be the last facts on which all the historians agree. Harry Aurand summed it up well in his article THE MYTHICAL QUALITIES OF MOLLY MAGUIRE:
"It should not be surprising that the Molly Maguire episode lent itself to disagreement. It is, at best, ambiguous. Indeed, the only statements that can be made about the episode with any certainty are:
1. Numerous murders were perpetrated in Schuylkill County between 1861 and 1875. [more than 50! Although the exact numbers vary, all are well over 50!]
2. The Philadelphia and Reading Companies financed a private investigation into a reputed secret criminal society.
3. As a result of that investigation twenty men were executed for allegedly committing some of those murders. "
"These are the early days of organized labor in America, when robber barons hired armies of ersatz police to brutally repress strikes and intimidate low wage workers"
The Irish immigrants, facing rampant discriminations, were often given the worst jobs, in this already extremely dangerous occupation. "When they were fortunate enough to find work, they were working in the most dangerous and horrendous conditions in 19th century America."
And here we reach our fist major controversy, already.
Some historians do not believe the Irish were truly discriminated against in America., that "No Irish Need Apply" signs were a myth. My favorite, balanced, article is from VOX, and tells of a 14 year old girl taking on a professor, on this issue. You can read it here:
What Was A Molly Maguire?
"Comprised of Irish and Irish-American miners, the mollies were a secret society that committed sabotage, kidnapping of mine bosses, assassinations and sent threatening ‘coffin notices to warn bosses what would happen to them if there demands weren’t met."
To some, they were nothing more than thugs who ruthlessly killed the mine bosses who employed them. Others, meanwhile, have crowned them the patron saints of the modern labor movement who used anarchy and class warfare to fight against harsh working conditions.
"The Molly Maguires’ name can be traced back to early 19th century Ireland. Molly Maguire, an Irish widow, in the 1840s, protested against English landlords who tried to steal peoples land. She headed a group called the “Anti-landlord Agitators” who were best known for getting in bare knuckle fights with their landlords in order to maintain their land and their dignity. “Take that from a son of Molly Maguire!” was often heard after group members would deliver a beating. Eventually their violence gained notoriety across Ireland, and they later proudly called themselves the “Molly Maguires” after their leader" - One of the many Molly Maguire legends. There are many versions, and its possible there was never a real woman with that name.
Testimony of David Kelly, as reported in the Scranton Republican, 1877
Many of the Irish immigrants coming into the Pennsylvania Coal region had come from oppressed regions of Ireland where "Molly Maguires" fought for human rights.
"...The Molly Maguires, a secret society of assassins rooted in the north of Ireland. The emergence of the Mollies on the banks of the West Branch and their prolonged battle with the mine owners became one of the most sensational newspaper stories of the nineteenth century. Indeed, the Mollies fired the first shots in America’s labor wars. " - The Sons Of Molly Maguire by Bulik
"The American Mollys Maguires were a rare transatlantic outgrowth of this pattern of Irish rural protest..... they were led by tavern keepers and called on strangers from neighboring “lodges” of the AOH to carry out beatings and killings, pledging to return the favor at a later date."
"The notion that a secret Irish Society operated in Schuylkill County circulated as early as the 1950s, when Benjamin Bannan, the Whig editor of the Miners Journal, complained that the majority Democratic Party was controlled by an Irish Society which was the American branch of the terroristic Molly Maguires" - Aurand, Harold, and William Gudelunas. “THE MYTHICAL QUALITIES OF MOLLY MAGUIRE.”
What Was (Is) The AOH?
"Powder Keg" Kerrigan, a Molly Maguire, in his confession, made the "bold assertion" that the AOH and the Molly Maguires were one and the same. "Many of the members of the Order of Hibernians are among the most respectable and influential members of the Catholic Church, and no one would assume that these could have any knowledge of the terrible crimes perpetrated in the coal region by secret foe. But it is also true that ever detected 'Molly Maguire' displays an 'A.O.H.' badge very conspicuously on his person. Late exposures bear out the assertion that if every member of the Ancient Order Of Hibernians is not a Molly Maguire, there is good reason to believe that every Molly Maguire at least pretends to belong to the Order of Hibernian."
"The Ancient Order of Hibernians is an Irish Catholic fraternal organization. Members must be male, Catholic, and either born in Ireland or of Irish descent. Its largest membership is now in the United States, where it was founded in New York City in 1836." https://aoh.com/
A description by McParland, of his initiation into the AOH may sound sinister to some today, but this would be commonplace for any fraternal organization.
The AOH still exists today. Today, the orders mission: "The Order seeks to aid the newly arrived Irish, both socially and economically. " - http://www.nyaoh.com/about-the-aoh/
Franklin B. Gowen 1836-1889
Gowen learned the coal trade in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, studied the law in Pottsville, Pennsylvania and was elected district attorney of Schuylkill County at age 26. Becoming an attorney for the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad in 1863, he assumed presidency of the railroad in 1868. Under his leadership, the railroad greatly increased the acreage it controlled, and he took the lead in negotiating the first written labor agreement between mine operators and workers in the United States.
Gowen hired the Pinkerton Detective Agency to infiltrate the AOH, and then served as special prosecutor of the "Molly Maguires", a secret Irish organization responsible for acts of intimidation and violence against the companies in Pennsylvania's Coal region.
He served as a special prosecutor. His prosecution of ten men described as Molly Maguires led to their hanging in Mauch Chunk (now Jim Thorpe) and Pottsville on June 21, 1877.
Losing leadership of the Reading Railroad in the 1880s, he returned to private law practice. His death in Washington D.C. was described as a suicide, although some speculate that he was murdered. However, Shortly before his death, many of Gowen's friends and associates noticed a change in his overall mood. They remarked upon his more somber demeanor and noted that for a trip home to Philadelphia, he had boarded the wrong train. Gowen wrote to his insurance agent on December 9, 1889, to ask if he could cash in his $90,000 life insurance policy. Three days later, after he had arrived in Washington, DC, to argue a case before the Interstate Commerce Commission, Gowen purchased a revolver at a hardware store on Pennsylvania Avenue.
Illustration from Allan Pinkerton's " The Molly Maguires & The Detectives
The Long Strike of 1875
In 1875, the first important open coal dispute in the anthracite region began. It was known as the "Long Strike". During this time, both the unions and the coal companies were responsible for numerous violent acts, including brawls, sabotage, and murders.
The Pennsylvania Cossacks, or "Yellow Dogs", were a police force created by the Coal industry. " Pennsylvania Coal and Mine Police, a semi-private, semi-official paramilitary police used to terrorize and persecute the union and its supporters. " For $1, the state sold the mine and steel mill owners commissions, conferring police power to whomever the owners selected. Common gunmen, hoodlums', and adventurers were often hired to fill these commissions. Their purpose was stated as "to protect property", but the mill companies often used them as strikebreakers.
"McGowan, according to documents, decided to force the union into a strike which began on January 1, 1875 and then break it by a combination of brute force by the Coal and Iron Police, and dividing the men along ethnic lines. Alan Pinkerton himself suggested the formation of vigilantes to attack supposed and identified Mollies. After a spate of killings and assaults, including the suspicious murders of union men, a vigilante group did stage an attack on a home killing one man and one woman and wounding two who got away. The house had been identified by McParlan in his reports as belonging to a Molly. The spy, however, was so outraged that the vigilantes had used his intelligence to kill a woman, that he angrily turned in his resignation. Pinkerton mollified him with claims that they had not shared his information and was induced to stay on."
Meanwhile the Coal and Iron Police arrested and imprisoned most of the union leadership on charges of conspiracy in May. By July miner’s families were starving and vigilante attacks on union men were spreading fear. The strike was broken and the men forced to return to work with a devastating 20% pay cut.
McParlan noted that only after the strike did many rank-and-file Irish miners swing their allegiance to the supposed Molly Maguires. Even after continued attacks by vigilantes, the Mollies were slow to respond. Some believe that McParlan, now claiming to have “infiltrated their inner circle,” likely egged on plans for revenge.
On October 27, 1873, a slightly built, bespectacled, and unshaven man calling himself James McKenna alighted from a train at the station in Port Clinton, a small community on the southern border of Pennsylvania’s Schuylkill County. It was coal-mining country, a rough part of the world suffering from the effects of what one newspaper had called a ‘reign of terror’ orchestrated by a shadowy organization dubbed the Molly Maguires. Since 1862 the Mollies had been blamed for numerous murders, beatings, knifings, armed robberies, and incidents of arson. - History.net
The Undercover Pinkerton Detective
The detective assigned to go undercover in the anthracite region was James McParlan. He was a recent immigrant to America from Ireland, the same as those who were reported to be Molly Maguires in Pennsylvania, making him an ideal candidate to infiltrate the organization.
"Unending violence in the anthracite region convinced Franklin Gowen to approach Allan Pinkerton about the possibility of hiring a detective to infiltrate the secret ranks of the Mollys. "I have the very man for you," Pinkerton told Gowen. Pinkerton had in mind thirty-year-old James McParlan, a young man who had advanced rapidly up the Pinkerton ranks. A few weeks later, McParlan accepted the dangerous job. He would earn $12 per week plus expenses and would be required to file daily reports. His orders from Allan Pinkerton were clear: "You are to remain in the field until every cut-throat has paid with his life for the lives so cruelly taken." On October 27, 1873, McParlan, calling himself "James McKenna," arrived in Port Clinton to begin his undercover operation."
"McKenna" got work in the mines, made connections, and made a name for himself in daring acts and brawls. He built a reputation of a murderer running from the law, who now dealt in counterfeit money - thus explaining why he had money and did not have to keep any one job for long, as working in the mines greatly interfered with his work as a detective.
He testified in trials and wrote his memoirs, so his version of this time is well documented, although many do not believe him. Many others do. The truth is likely somewhere in the middle, but don't look for me to find it.
At the Sheridan House, a rough drinking establishment in Pottsville, McParlan's drink-buying, dancing, card-playing, and tough-talking won him the admiration of local Mollies.
"....This display of nerve, taken with the trashing of Frazer, gave McKenna a great reputation throughout that section; and he was soon regarded as one of the worst Mollys in the State, not only by members of the order who admired him, but by respectable citizens, who looked upon him with fear and abhorrence as a man capable of the most desperate acts. Wishing to leave no means untried that might ingratiate him still deeper in the confidence of the order, he created the impression that he had to his credit nearly all the crimes on the statute book, not excepting murder, and that the abundant supply of money he always seemed to have was the product of counterfeiting."
By the end of 1875, the job was clearly taking its toll on McParlan, who was anxious to put an end to the killing: "I am sick and tired of this work," McParlan wrote to Pinkerton. "I hear of murder and bloodshed in all directions. The very sun to me looks crimson; the air is polluted, and the rivers seem running red with human blood. Something must be done to stop it."
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Just a few of those who were murdered in the Anthracite Coal Region Of Pennsylvania. More than 56 murders were recorded in a three year span, and more than half of those murders are still unsolved today.
In 1875, a writer of the time observed, there came from coal-mining district of Pennsylvania "an appalling series of tales of murder, of arson, and of every description of violent crime." Mine company superintendents and bosses "could all rest assured that their days would not be long in the land."
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The Murders
While it is easy to criticize how the events of the investigation, trials, and hangings were conducted, and there's certainly a lot there to criticize, it's important to remember that there was a real problem with violence at this time.
More than 56 murders in three years time. And that's just the murders, not all of the other acts of violence.
Gowen may have been inflammatory, and he may have had ulterior motives, but all of his bluster did have some substance. Murders of mine bosses were very common, and they were mostly unsolved. The number of murders during this time, in this one area, is truly shocking, and should not be glibly ignored in a quest, no matter how valiant, to prove the accused as innocents and the prosecutors as villains.
Many murders were carried out in broad daylight with a host of witnesses, but even with large rewards offered, no witnesses would admit to having any information. When a suspect was arrested, he would immediately, and with ease, produce a host of alibis. It was the ease of which suspects collected alibis that made Gowen suspicious of a secret order.
Jim "Powder Keg" Kerrigan
The Molly Squealer - gave a 210 page confession, which bolstered McParlan's testimony.
The Trials“The Molly Maguire trials were a surrender of state sovereignty. A private corporation initiated the investigation through a private detective agency. A private police force arrested the alleged defenders, and private attorneys for the coal companies prosecuted them. The state provided only the courtroom and the gallows.” - Carbon County Pennsylvania judge, John P. Lavelle
In the entire series of Molly trials, not a single Irish American was empaneled on a jury. Instead, the fate of the Mollys was decided largely by German immigrants, many of whom admitted to understanding English only poorly." - https://www.famous-trials.com/maguire/101-home
Lead prosecutor Charles Albright, a former general in the Civil War, appeared in court wearing his full civil war uniform. Early disputes in this area began with Irish immigrants objecting to mine authorities "informing" on them to the US government for draft purposes.
"James Kerrigan... turned state’s evidence and implicated three more men. Franklin Gowan personally prosecuted the cases which hit a snag when Kerrigan’s wife testified that he had committed the murder and had tried to save himself by pinning it on innocent men. The trial ended in a mistrial. At a second trial Mrs. Kerrigan was mysteriously unavailable to testify and all five men were sentenced to hang while Kerrigan was set free."
“At the time of their conviction, it was a very dangerous thing to be called a Molly Maguire—about as bad as it is for a dog to be called mad in the streets. ... what if these men had no part in the Smith murder at all, but were hounded down by a mob spirit ... simply because they were believed to have belonged to the Molly Maguire Order?” - The Boston Pilot, 1879
The men were convicted in each case on the scantest of evidence.
The Executions
"An execution which it was thought would be one of the quietest hangings that ever took place in Mauch Chunk has proved the most exciting. A reprieve from Gov. Hartranft arrived here one-half minute after the drop fell — just 30 seconds too late to save the lives of the condemned men.…
A scene of great excitement took place in the jail; but, although the condemned men had been hanging only a few minutes, there was no movement made toward cutting them down. The telegraph messenger reached the jail door before the drop fell; but no attention was paid to his knocking and ringing, the wife of one of the men having previously been extremely violent outside. When the drop fell the knocking and ringing continued, and the Sheriff sent out a man to arrest the persons whom he imagined to be creating a disturbance. It was then found to be the telegraph messenger with a reprieve. A brother of McDonnell, who had been kneeling by the scaffold, arose and excitedly charged the Sheriff and the bystanders with the murder of his brother. The excitement spread, and the Sheriff appealed to one of the priests, who exonerated him from blame. Amid this excitement and the reproaches of the maddened brother of McDonnell and the wailings of the bereaved families outside, the hanged men were forgotten, and their bodies remained suspended for 30 minutes after the drop fell. There is no reasonable doubt, however, that both were dead when the reprieve came."
Nineteen Men, named As Molly Maguires, were sent to the gallows. 43 children were left behind by the men who were hung.
Peter McManus, in Northumberland County
Mauch Chunk June 21, 1877 :
- Alexander Campbell
- Michael J. Doyle
- John "Yellow Jack" Donahue
- Edward Kelly
Pottsville Jail June 21. 1877
6. James Carroll
7. Thomas Duffy
8. Hugh McGeehan
9. Thomas Munley
1878
11. Dennis Donnelly
12. Thomas Fisher
13. Patrick Hester
14. John Kehoe "King Of The Molly Maguires"
15. Peter McHugh
16. Patrick Tully
1879
17. Martin Bergin
18. James McDonnell
19. Peter McManus
A movie was made, starring Sean Connery, and the Sherlock Holmes Story "Valley Of Death" is based on the Molly Maguires.
Assorted Analysis
"Neither the guilt nor the innocence of the indicted men can be irrevocably demonstrated. The validity of both McParlan's and his collaborators testimony is suspect. McParlan's later behavior in the Haywood case undermines his credence in the Molly Maguire episode. The personal characteristics and the positions of his collaborators weaken their testimony. A self-confessed perjurer and others seeking immunity are hardly creditable witnesses when placed in the context of the Haywood case.
Conversely, there is no concrete evidence supporting the innocence of the reputed Mollies. It cannot be assumed, for example, that McParlan used the same tactics in his investigation of the Molly Maguires that he employed in the Haywood case. All of the convicted proclaimed their innocence, but rarely does one build a defense by admitting guilt. Successful perjury trials combined with the well established tendency to easily procure "iron clad alibis" in Schuylkill County criminal cases to weaken the testimony of the defense witnesses.
Superficially, the early efforts to establish a linkage between the Molly Maguires and the W.B.A. supports the perception that the episode was an anti-union plot. But why would Gowen launch a conspiracy to destroy a union which appeared to be on the verge of collapse? When Gowen hired the Pinkerton to investigate the Molly Maguires in 1873 the union had been seriously weakened by internal discord. For two consecutive years it gladly accepted offers to extend a rather poor contract with the mine operators. In the Scranton area only 200 men could be mustered for the union's annual parade and the Wilkes-Barre district was unable to hold a parade. In Schuylkill County the miners talked about a strike for higher prices, but the tension between them and their laborers was so great that the miners felt they would not be supported if they struck!" - Harry Aurand
J. Walter Coleman argued that the exploitation of the miners and employer hostility to unions created an atmosphere in which the development of secret labor organizations was to be expected. Coleman accepted the guilt of the Molly Maguires, but tempered his decision by observing "responsibility for many of the violent deeds committed as a phase of labor disturbances is not to be fixed by earthly judges."
"The double execution at Mauch Chunk yesterday is a disgrace to public justice in the state of Pennsylvania. The demeanor of the men on the scaffold, their resolute and yet quiet protestations of innocence of this crime . . . were things to stagger one's belief in their guilt. . . . They were "Molly Maguires," they were arrested and arraigned at a time of great popular excitement, and they were condemned and hanged "on general principles." . . . The official explanation which is sent from Harrisburg of the delay [of the reprieve] we are sorry to say is rather worse than no explanation at all. . . . What more plausible explanation do the facts themselves suggest than that the Governor of Pennsylvania was willing in deference to one class of his constituents to see the men hanged, while in deference to another class, if for no other reason, he was willing to make a pretense of saving them. " - Various newspapers
Schlegal wrote that Gowen's methods pushed justice to it's furthest limits and beyond, " but that his efforts were justifiable for the men convicted were truly "bloodstained". Schlegal conceded that John Kehoe may have been innocent of the 1862 murder for which he was executed, but felt that Kehoe was certainly guilty of other capital crimes.
Charles McCarthy wrote that the Molly Maguries were "nothing more than a part of Gowen's insane desire to murder Kehoe"
McCarthy believed it was all political. Kehoe opposed Gowen's candidate, Cyrus Pershing, for President Judge. Kehoe opposed Pershings big for Governor, and threw his support behind John Hartranft. McCarthy argues that Hartranft would have been defeated if not for Kehoe's support, and many have referenced the idea that Kehoe fully expected a pardon from the governor he had helped get elected. [that particular view, while popular, is rather quickly dispelled if you look at the number of votes cast by district. Kehoe does not to appear to have had nearly as much influence as some historians would like to give him. Pershing WON Schulkill county, by more than 1,300 votes]
Dewes also made a political argument, but from the other side:
Early writers agreed with Bannan that the Molly Maguires were a secret society promoting Irish Catholic control over the region. F. P. Dewees, for example, depicted the Molly Maguires as a group of power crazed cutthroats.' For more than a decade the band terrorized Schuyl-kill County with impunity. They secured immunity from prosecution by corrupting both the legal and political systems. Whenever a Molly was arrested "the ever-convenient 'alibi' was ready, and a verdict of 'not guilty' was compelled."' Should the alibis fail to save the accused, he would be granted a timely pardon. Pardons were easily obtainable for the Mollies had corrupted the political system. Controlling the Irish-Catholic vote, they easily won local offices from which they looted the public treasury. Their control of such a sizeable block of votes enabled them to bargain with both parties on the state level. During the gubernatorial election of 1875, for example, John Kehoe and other Mollies supported the Republican incumbent, John F. Hartranft, in exchange for cash and a promise of pardons.'
“While no one in his right mind would deny that the crimes the Mollies committed for which they finally paid the extreme penalty were unspeakable, it is also a fact that charges of inhuman cruelty could be laid against the operators. One ruthless method mine owners used to force workers into near slavery was regulation of the flow of labor into the country,” Arthur H. Lewis, a Philadelphia Police Reporter wrote in 1964.
"In the aftermath of the executions there were no revenge killings by the Mollies, no public disturbances of any kind and no word at all of the thousands of Molly Maguires that were supposed to have been in the hills above Mauch Chunk, ready to take a terrible revenge on those who hanged Alec Campbell. Indeed, there was total silence, which some interpreted by some to mean that the Molly Maguires had been cowed, but which others interpreted as meaning that there never had been thousands of Molly Maguires in the first place—that they were a phantom organization created by Gowen, Packer, and Parrish for their own ends." Patrick Campbell, A Molly Maguire Story
An 1877 Workman's Resolution
"The view of the Molly Maguire episode as an outgrowth of labor protest does deserve comment, if only to demonstrate its incredulity. It would be absurd to argue that violence was unknown to Schuylkill county between 1863 and 1875, or that the instances of violence did not increase during the long strike of '75. But it is equally foolhardy to suggest that the violence represented a class war. "
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A movie was made about the Maguires, it starred Sean Connery (You can rent it on Amazon Prime here) The movie helped preserve the Eckly Mining Village that is today a museum. See Wynning History's review of the movie here. In it his review he refers to the Pinkerton book as "massively fictionized". Since I believe he knows much more about this subject than I ever will, I find that hard to completely ignore.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle based his 1914 mystery, "The Valley of Fear," on Allan Pinkerton's "The Molly Maguires and the Detectives." Read Valley Of Fear Online For Free, And find it as a kindle download, or as an Audiobook on Audible here.
An Irish folk band called “The Dubliners” wrote a tale about their ordeal that sings, “Make way for the Molly Maguires. They’re drinkers, they’re liars, but they’re men. Make way for the Molly Maguires. You’ll never see the likes of them again.” Hear the song on Youtube here.
In October 2014, The Baker Street Irregulars came to the area to compare the Sherlock Holmes story to the history of the Molly Maguires. Read about that here: https://www.mcall.com/news/mc-xpm-2004-10-24-3575789-story.html
HARPER'S WEEKLY, New York, March 4, 1876
Books & Articles About The Molly Maguires:
- Aurand, Harold, and William Gudelunas. “THE MYTHICAL QUALITIES OF MOLLY MAGUIRE.” Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies, vol. 49, no. 2, 1982, pp. 91–105. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/27772818. (A very balanced look at both sides, and why no one has all of the answers when it comes to the Molly Maguires)
- The Molly Maguires And The Detectives by Allan Pinkerton The Kindle edition is $3
- Making Sense Of The Molly Maguires by Ken Kenney
- For a deeper look at the origins in Ireland - The Sons Of The Molly Maguires by Mark Bulik
- The Molly Maguires - The Story of Labor's Martyred Pioneers In The Coal Fields
- Francis Dewees drafted the authoritative text on which much of the “Molly” history is based. Dewees was a nephew of special “Molly” prosecutor Francis Hughes. In his acknowledgements, Dewees thanked the Pinkertons, the special prosecutors, and the most virulent of the local nativist press.
- A Molly Maguire Story by Patrick Campbell, Descendent of Alec Campbell who left the handprint on the jail at Jim Thorpe.
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