Peter Maher

Finding Annie Peter Maher

This is a fictional tale but based on the true rags-to-riches story of a young Irish girl escaping the poverty of post-Potato Famine Ireland. Annie Elizabeth Maher ends up in the service of one of the wealthiest and well-connected families in New York. She mixes with artists, politicians, and wealthy business people and travels the world with her mistress, Georgiana. After Georgiana dies young, Annie retreats to make a new life in Long Branch, New Jersey. A successful and philanthropic woman with a portfolio of seven properties in 1900 is a rare event, let alone one who has emerged from poverty in Ireland. Nonetheless, she makes her mark on this seaside town and lives happily. However, she is arrested in 1924 and is committed to Trenton Asylum as a lunatic-was this a conspiracy to bring her down or an intolerance of female success? Of her time in Trenton under the now infamous Dr. Henry Cotton, how will this megalomania in medicine impact on her life?