 Both Lizzie and her sister were known as formally illiterate yet intelligent women, with strong working-class ties.They showed Engels the actual conditions of the factory employers in Britain.Eleanor Marx wrote that
Rachel Holms notes that "Like her sister, Lizzie Burns was a dedicated player in the Irish Republican movement, and the house she shared with Engels at 86 Mornington Street was a meeting place and a safe house for Fenian activists.