40 years before Hillary Clinton, a woman with Irish parents sought to break the US presidential mould

Before Hillary Clinton, 34 women have tried to become US president, including a daughter of Irish parents who ran 40 years ago, and a radical feminist in the 1870s, writes Bette Browne          

The US presidential spotlight may be on Hillary Clinton, but women first ran for the White House more than 140 years ago, and one of them was the daughter of Irish parents.

Forty years ago, Ellen McCormack competed — like Clinton — for the Democratic Party nomination. She was born in New York but her mother was from Leitrim and her father was from Wicklow.