IRELAND, MARGARET ALLEN (17 Dec. 1894-22 Oct. 1961) was a leader in civic, social and welfare causes. Her years of community service included the founding of Highland View Hospital, serving as Ohio's Director of Public Welfare (1957), and election as the first woman president of the Northern Ohio Opera Association (1959).
Born in Chicago, Margaret was raised in New York and graduated from Brearley School. She married Robert Livingston Ireland, Jr. on 9 Feb. 1918 and later moved to Cleveland.
Ireland's interest in nursing led to her involvement with Cleveland's health-reform organizations. She was president of the Visiting Nurse Association and chaired its building committee and helped organize the Maternal Health Association. She headed the Welfare Federation's committee on the chronically ill and served on its board of trustees. She was the first board chairman of Highland View and headed its building committee. Ireland Drive, in front of the hospital, was named in her honor. In 1951 she established The IRELAND FOUNDATION primarily to benefit nursing and hospitals.
Politically active, she helped organize the Western Reserve Women's Republican Club of Cuyahoga County, chaired the Cuyahoga County Republican Party's Women's Committee, 1953-1957, and was an alternate delegate to the 1952 and 1956 Republican national conventions.
She received the Charles Eisenman Award for community service in 1954. The Women's City Club created the Margaret A. Ireland Citation to honor area residents exemplifying civic achievement and social devotion to community.
The Irelands had four children: Mrs. Louise Humphrey, Melville H., R. Livingston III, and Kate Ireland. An Episcopalian, she is buried in LAKE VIEW CEMETERY.
Cleveland Families Oral History Project, WRHS.