Margaret Rebecca Lahee

Margaret Rebecca Lahee (10 May 1831 – 14 June 1895) was an Irish popular Lancashire dialect writer from the 19th century.

Early life and education

She was born in Carlow, Ireland on 10 May 1831. She moved to Rochdale, Lancashire to learn millinery and dress making from a friend of her relatives. Lahee didn't like the career and instead became a professional writer.

At the time she published, Lahee concealed that she was both Irish and a woman. She published under MRL initially and then later as M.R.Lahee. She also wrote in the female perspective and touched on women's rights. Edwin Waugh said of her first novel that it was the best story in the Lancashire dialect. Lahee lived in Rochdale with Susannah Rothwell Wild for over thirty years. The women were buried in the same grave when they died. Lahee requested their grave should read They were lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in death they were undivided. However, there were difficulties in arranging the burial and the inscription was never erected. It was not clear if the difficulty was because she was Irish, a woman or because assumptions about her sexuality. She was one of the four dialect writers to be included in the monument to Lancashire dialect writers in Rochdale. In part her inclusion was at the successful campaign by Wild. Edward Sykes, a local architect, created the monument and it was completed in 1900. John Cassidy was the artist who created the portraits. The monument commemorates Margaret Rebecca Lahee, Oliver Ormerod, John Trafford Clegg and Edwin Waugh and it is in Broadfield Park, Rochdale.