Signed family name
Cooney
Signed given name
Margaret
Given address
Reed Street
Notes
Biographical information provided for the He Tohu exhibition:
Margaret Gertrude Page was born in 1862 in Gorteeny, Galway, Ireland, the second of eleven children. Ireland was going through a period of intense religious discord and economic and social inequality, prompting many people to emigrate. Margaret’s early life and education galvanised her interest in social justice, community care and political reform, which she expressed through fundraising and donating to causes, as well as supporting political meetings and petitions. She arrived in New Zealand in 1879, and worked until her marriage to a Mr Cooney in 1884. The couple had eleven children, three of whom predeceased Margaret, who died in 1922.