Mother Jones is remembered for many things, for her bravery, her resilience, her support for the unionisation of all workers especially women, her leadership of the March of the Mill Children and so much more.
March of the Mill Children. Shandon 2019. Photo: Claire Stack.
And yet her enduring spirit remains relevant and very much alive across the world mainly as a result of a simple sentence addressed to poor miners standing in a dark field in West Virginia, over 120 years ago… According to her autobiography, Mother Jones went to speak one night to a mining town in the Fairmont district in West Virginia.
Daughters of Mother Jones at the Durham Gala.Photo: Courtesy of Mother Jones Heritage Project, Chicago.
She discovered that the meeting was to be held in a church. On entering she discovered that the priest was collecting money from the union miners presumably for the rent of the church in which the meeting was taking place.
‘I reached over and took the money from the priest. Then I turned to the miners. “Boys , this is a praying institution. You should not commercialize it”
She led the union miners out to a nearby field, in front of a school and held the meeting. Pointing to the school, she advised them to hold their meetings at the school declaring
” Your organisation is not a praying institution. It’s a fighting institution. It’s an educational institution along industrial lines.
Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living!”
Source: The Autobiography of Mother Jones, Chapter V1 War in West Virginia. Charles H Kerr Publishing Company. Page 41.
Those profound words of Mother Jones at a little town in Fairmont, West Virginia in 1902 remain so powerful that over 120 years later they continue to echo through history wherever union members and people gather to fight for justice and human rights.
It’s been uttered by presidents, on banners in the US Congress, printed on posters, written on plaques and walls in union halls, quoted by trade unions across the world and by social justice and human rights organisations in countless articles….it has become a rallying call for many especially during Covid, and recently at Palestinian support demonstrations, imprinted on awards, painted on union banners at strike picket lines.
Demonstration by Jewish union members against the genocide in Gaza.
The President of Ireland, Michael D Higgins in paying tribute to the front line workers quoted it to praise and generate public support for their brave efforts to combat Covid-19 in April 2020.
Source: US Department of Labor.
Organisations from Oxfam to Greenpeace, many peace and justice organisations and the Justice for the Stardust 48 Campaign have repeated this battle-cry. Its global reach stretches from the New Zealand Professional Firefighters Union (NZPFU) to SIPTU (formerly the Irish Transport and General Workers Union of Connolly and Larkin) in Ireland and to the Washington State Nurses Union.
The New Zealand Professional Firefighters Union on International Workers Memorial Day.Washington State Nurses Association.
The front page of the New York Times (23rd April 1972) contained the quote. when reporter George Vecsey described the pop art wall posters with a picture of Mother Jones when he visited Appalachia. A few days later a “Mother Jones Day” organised by Miners for Democracy took place in Pursglove, West Virginia. It was addressed by Kenneth “Chip” Yablonski, son of murdered union leader Jock Yablonski who urged the miners to reclaim democratic control of their union, the UMWA, in which Mother Jones was one of its first organisers under then President John Mitchell.
The New York Times 23rd April 1972.
Variations of the cry such as “mourn the dead” or “remember the dead” rather than the original “pray for the dead ” are also used. A wonderful documentary written and performed by Kaiulani Lee called Fight Like Hell: The Testimony of Mother Jones has been produced. Controversially, the growing use of the phrase “fight like hell” by the Right has increased in recent times. We must reclaim those passionate words, which reflect the communal ideas of Mother Jones, first spoken back near Fairmont all those years ago to the union miners gathered at the dead of night in that field.
Source: Library of Congress.
Historian Elliott Gorn in the introduction to his book, Mother Jones: The Most Dangerous Woman in America mentioned that the words “Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living” are all that most people know of Mother Jones.
As long as her words resonate as a call to action wherever in the world people struggle for social justice then Mother Jones lives on.
On November 16th 2024, Lord Mayor of Cork, Cllr Dan Boyle visited the future site for the erection of the sculpture of Mother Jones in Chicago.
Above: Margaret Fulkerson, Brigid Duffy (members of the Chicago Mother Jones Statue Committee), Kathleen Farrell, (one of the lead sculptors along with Kathleen Scarboro), Cork Lord Mayor Dan Boyle, Rosemary Feurer, (project director) Ireland’s Consul General for Chicago and the Midwest Brian Cahalane, and Nathan Mason, Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events representative. The group is standing in front of the Water Tower and near the site of the future sculpture. Photo courtesy of the Mother Jones Heritage Committee.
The Lord Mayor had returned to the city where he was born and he was welcomed by members of the Mother Jones Heritage Committee along with one of the sculptors, Kathleen Farrell who are in the final planning stage of erecting this landmark sculpture near the famous Chicago Water Tower.
Rosemary Feurer, project director who attended the first festival in Cork in 2012, in welcoming the Lord Mayor pointed out that the sculpture of Mother Jones project was initiated following her visit to this festival in Shandon, close to the birthplace and baptism of Mary Harris in Cork. The strong connections between the Mother Jones committees in Chicago and Cork have been strengthened over the past decade and both groups have worked to promote the story and the spirit of the inspirational Mother Jones, whose heritage we share.
The Lord Mayor of Cork, Cllr. Dan Boyle with Brigit Duffy and Ireland’s Consulate General, Brian Cahalane. Photo courtesy of the Mother Jones Heritage Committee.
The Lord Mayor expressed the view that the efforts of the Chicago Committee will also be an inspiration to the Cork City Council in relation to celebrating the spirit of Mother Jones in Cork itself. He stated that he has a portrait of Mother Jones in his office, this portrait also hangs in the Irish Consulate General’s office in Chicago which commissioned the painting from artist Lindsay Hand.
The Mother Jones Heritage Committee, through effort and commitment, is having a statue of Mother Jones erected at a key city centre location in Chicago. I was delighted to hear of the support of Chicago City Council for this project and the inspiration given to the Chicago group by the Spirit of Mother Jones Festival in Cork. Cork should be similarly inspired to further acknowledge Mary Harris/Mother Harris in her native city.
Sculptor Kathleen Farrell with the Cork City Librarian, Patricia Looney. Photo courtesy of the Mother Jones Heritage Committee.
The sculpture is expected to be erected in Chicago during 2025 and should be a fitting monument to the Cork woman who as an emigrant during the Great Hunger went on to become “the most dangerous woman in America”.
Project Director: Rosemary Feurer, on the Bells of Shandon during the inaugural Mother Jones Festival 2012. Photo courtesy of the Cork Mother Jones Archive.
The Cork Mother Jones Committee wishes to announce that the 2025 Spirit of Mother Jones Festival will take place in and around the Shandon Historic Quarter over three days from Thursday, 24th July, until Saturday, 26th July.
Large Crowd Attend the Mother Jones Plaque at 2024 Festival.
According to James Nolan, spokesperson for the festival,
“We are delighted to confirm that our 14th Annual Spirit of Mother Jones Festival will once again be held in Shandon in 2025.This unique festival is dedicated to labour leader Mother Jones and has become an eagerly awaited festival and summer school in Cork each year. It is entirely organised by a voluntary committee and attracts huge crowds to our community annually.
Audience Response at 2024 Festival.
We appreciate the support of the Irish trade union movement and the Cork City Council, along with local businesses, which enables the festival to remain free and open to everyone who wishes to attend.We will announce participants and speakers over the next months, but we promise that our emphasis will, uniquely among summer schools, remain on heritage, history, trade union rights, social & climate justice and human rights issues, all matters close to the heart and rebel spirit of Cork-born Mary Harris.”
Some Participants at the Launch of the 2024 Spirit of Mother Jones Festival. Photo: Claire Stack.
The Cork Mother Jones committee is asking people to suggest ideas for topics, possible speakers or issues they might wish to see at the 2025 festival.
Proposals should be based on material which is relevant, interesting and challenging and we promise to consider all suggestions.
The Cork Mother Jones Committee extends our sincere sympathy to Catherine and the Cooke family and friends, on the sad passing of Richard T Cooke on Friday 25th October 2024.
Richard was a founding member of the Cork Mother Jones Committee in 2011 and an active participant each year in the Spirit of Mother Jones Festival. Quintessentially a Cork man with a grá for Kerry, he loved this city, its people, its history and its heritage and he cycled everywhere on his bike. His writings in articles, books, songs and music, radio and TV reflected the past, and present of this city and its many colourful inhabitants by the River Lee, in the heartland of the marsh where he was born and reared.
Richard T Cooke speaking at the launch of the 2020 Spirit of Mother Jones Festival at University College Cork.
Growing up near the North Mall, Richard lived in the Rock Terrace and was educated nearby at CBS Blarney Street, later at the School of Commerce and later still at University College Cork. He also worked in the then Cork Corporation’s Archives Institute and became prolific in researching and publishing books on the history of his beloved city. Cooke and Scanlon’s Guide to the History of Cork (with Marion Scanlon) became a school textbook. In the foreword, historian CJF MacCarthy, whom Richard admired as a mentor and a friend, described it as “a compact volume of Cork lore, compiled in a wise, careful and dedicated manner by the authors”.
Richard at the 2023 Spirit of Mother Jones Festival.
He played a huge role in researching and writing the very successful heritage television series My Home by the Lee screened by Irish Multichannel TV, Cork in the mid 80s. Irish Millennium Publications later published My Home by the Lee by Richard T Cooke in 1990 which is described as “the people’s history of Cork”. Dedicated to CJF MacCarthy, it contains many of Richard’s own photographs and drawings by Catherine M. Courtney, and remains a fitting memorial to Richard’s painstaking research and lively text. His classic book on “The Mardyke – Cork City’s Country Walk in History” echoes the loss of this once magnificent amenity.
Richard with Joan Goggin (Mother Jones).Richard with piper, Norman O’Rourke.
Richard’s versatile contribution to the community life of Cork over almost five decades is inestimable. From his work in the Middle Parish, as editor of the Middle Parish Chronicle and the Parish Development Committee to his community heritage organiser of festivals such as the Coal Quay Family Festival and multiple heritage events in the City and County, Richard was the driving force behind so many gatherings.
Richard and the Shandon Shawlies.
He was also President and Chairperson of the Cork Adult Education Council. He wrote many songs and told stories as Muddy Lee and his band which are remembered at events throughout the city. He interviewed Echo boy Michael O’Reagan, musician Mick Murphy and sang songs with the Cork Shawlies and so many other Corkonians who create the unique atmosphere in the city.
Richard with Jimmy Crowley.
Richard helped organise the very first Mother Jones Festival in Shandon in 2012 to which he brought a sense of enthusiasm and his energy and his concerts will live long in the memory. His dedicated work for the Spirit of Mother Jones Festival each year and his affection for this “great woman”, his positivity and encouragement to the committee was appreciated by everyone involved.
Richard with Dr. Séan Pettit
A highlight for Richard took place in 2016, when his dear friend, historian Dr. Séan Pettit agreed to speak at the festival. Introduced by a proud Richard, the “Master” gave a mighty performance before a capacity audience. Sadly Séan passed away a few months later and Richard gave a memorable funeral oration in St Patrick’s Catholic Church for Séan. Our visit to the Stardust Memorial Wall in 2023 left a lasting impression on Richard as he often spoke about it. His online YouTube video reflects the powerful emotion of that day.
Richard at the Filming of the 2021 Spirit of Mother Jones Festival in the Cork Butter Market Garden.
Prior to the 2019 festival, Richard in an interview on the Examiner, when asked what he would do if he was king for a day;
“I’d give everybody in the land a day off to enjoy a holiday and a voucher for a 99 cone and sprinkles and Leo can pick up the tab”
Codladh sámh a chara agus suaimhneas síoraí do anam
The Mother Jones Foundation annual dinner was held at Springfield, Illinois on Saturday evening 12th October last. The Foundation is the longest established organisation which promotes the work of Mother Jones and is dedicated to educating and raising awareness about labour history.
Mother Jones Foundation Dinner 2024. Photo: Mike Matejka.
The large attendance at the 2025 event heard guest speaker, author Hamilton Nolan speak of the power of the trade union movement to practice democracy, “a union is not a special interest, a union is a training school for democracy”.
Solidarity Forever. Photo: Mike Matejka.Solidarity Forever: James Goltz is on the right hand side. Photo: Mike Matejka.
Nolan called on trade unions to organise millions of working people into the movement and to just go out and organise. While union membership has dropped dramatically in the past decades, there has been a recent resurgence in numbers, in activism and in the fight against inequality.
Author: Hamilton Nolan with Joann Condellone of the Mt. Olive Cemetery Committee. Jim Alderson is in the red shirt. Photo: Mike Matejka.
Sunday October 13th saw a further large attendance gather under a sunny blue sky for the annual Miners’ Day at the Union Miners’ Cemetery outside Mt. Olive where Mother Jones is buried.
Miners Parade Arriving at Mt Olive Cemetery 2024. Photo: Mike Matejka.
Miners Day commemorates the tragic events of October 12, 1898, when union miners confronted the Chicago-Virden Coal Company at Virden over the arrival of strike-breakers. During a subsequent gun battle at the local railway station, a total of thirteen people died, eight miners and five company guards and some 40 miners were wounded.
Union Miners Cemetery at Mt. Olive, Photo: Mike Matejka.
However when Mount Olive town refused to allow some of the miners to use the cemetery, the miners purchased land just north of the town. The Union Miners Cemetery was thus established and remains the only union-owned cemetery in America. For the past 125 years people have gathered annually to remember those Virden miners.
Joann Condellone, a founding member of the Mother Jones Museum in Mt Olive and of the Perpetual Care Associaton of the Union Miners Cemetery welcomed all to the ceremony. The opening speaker, Tim Drea, the Illinois AFL-CIO President spoke of the vital contribution immigrants had made to the American Labour movement. Mary Harris was herself an immigrant from Ireland.
President of Illinois AFL-CIO, Tim Drea. Photo: Mike Matejka.
Highlight of the day was the appearance of Cecil Roberts, President of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) who spoke of the huge work which the union had contributed to ensuring pensions and health care for the miners. He called for a just transition for the communities impacted by the reduction and phase out of coal due to climate change.
President of the UMWA, Cecil Roberts speaking in Mt. Olive Cemetery. Photo: Mike Matejka.
President Roberts, whose great Grandmother Ma Blizzard was a close friend of Mother Jones and whose family supported the miners during the infamous Paint and Cabin Creek strikes in West Virginia during the “Coal Wars” of 1912-1914 gave an account of the impact on miners and their families and solidarity of those who fought for justice in those struggles.
Cecil Roberts with Joann Condellone. Photo: Mike Matejka.
In a prescient observation, President Roberts also recounted the burning of the miners’ union tent village by the Colorado National Guard and Mine company militia and the massacre of the women and children and men at Ludlow in Colorado one hundred and ten years ago. Many of those killed in Ludlow were immigrants from Greece.
Cecil Roberts with UMWA comrades: Photo: Mike Matejka.
He then concluded by quoting Mother Jones who spoke in her autobiography of the “dark story” of coal, and asked how in order for “life to have something of decency, something of beauty – a picture, a new dress, a bit of cheap lace lace fluttering in the window – for this, men who work down in the mines must struggle and lose, struggle and win.”
Loretta Williams as Mother Jones: Photo: Mike Matejka.Dale Hawkins as General Alexander Bradley. Photo: Mike Matejka.
The Daughters of Mother Jones at Mt. Olive Cemetery. Photo: Mike Matejka.
Loretta Williams and Dale Hawkins in period costume transformed into Mother Jones and union leader, English born “General” Alexander Bradley for the proceedings, while Wildflower Conspiracy provided music and union songs. Loretta attended the Spirit of Mother Jones festival in 2018. Wildflower Conspiracy sang the Children of MotherJones written and first performed by the late Cork singer/songwriter Pete Duffy at the 2014 Cork festival.
Wildflower Conspiracy: Erin O’Toole. Photo: Mike Matejka.
“Those in power showed her no sympathy In her fight to set the children free.
She lies in Mount Olive Illinois But Mother Jones’ true spirit never dies.”
Cecil Roberts, Dale Hawkins and Loretta Williams then honoured the miners of Virden by placing a wreath on the Virden miners grave.
Gathering at the Grave of Mother Jones, Sunday October 13th 2024. Photo: Mike Matejka.
The Cork Mother Jones committee wishes to thank Mike Matejka of the Illinois Labor History Society for permission to use some of his photographs. Our gratitude also to James Goltz of Mt Olive, a regular visitor to Cork, for all his assistance. We send our good wishes to Nelson Grman who has been involved with the Union Miners Cemetery Perpetual Care Committee for many decades.
Lord Mayor of Cork, Cllr. Dan Boyle with the Cork Mother Jones Committee 2024 and friends.
2024 Festival, some memories. Solidarity is referred to regularly in trade union circles, even the Ralph Chaplin romantic song Solidarity Forever, forged in the bloody union war tent colonies of the bleak Kanawha hills of West Virginia in the winter of 1913/14 remains a favourite at Trade Union conferences. Yet the opening event of the 2024 Spirit of Mother Jones Festival demonstrated to the audience what real worker solidarity is and what it can achieve.
Director Felipe Bustos Sierra with the Scottish workers.
Nae Pasaran is a triumph of all that is human and powerful in trade union solidarity. It focuses on a small band of Scottish workers including Bob Fulton, John Keenan, Robert Somerville and Stuart Barrie who blocked the refurbishing of Hawker Hunter jet engines from the Chilean Airforce which had been delivered from Chile to their Rolls Royce factory in Kilbride for maintenance. Those planes had earlier attacked the Palacio de la Moneda where Salvador Allende died during the Pinochet coup of September 11th 1973. The Scottish workers had effectively grounded the Chilean junta’s air force. Director Filipe Bustos Sierra who joined us on Zoom has created a stunning masterpiece of the impact of union solidarity.
Owen Reidy, General Secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions.
Later Irish union officials Owen Reidy, general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) and Adrian Kane of SIPTU spoke at the festival where they offered a realistic analysis of the Irish trade union movement, detailed its challenges such as the right to collective bargaining and suggested ways to attract young people. They both offered a progressive vision of the role of unions in the future world of work. Nae Pasaran should be on the agenda of every trade union ADC in the coming years!
Fight Like Hell-The Testimony of Mother Jones, a film written and acted by Kaiulani Lee, portrayed a passionate and reflective older Mother Jones. The fire still burned in Jones in 1921 and her tales of 40 years of organising workers raised hairs in their telling. But the tales of action were tempered by the wisdom she had earned and the experiences acquired. Kaiulani Lee joined the audience on Zoom and discussed her own experiences while she travelled in some coal mining areas prior to the making of the film, One wondered if indeed much had changed since the days when Mother Jones tramped those hills. And one was left very much in awe of Mother Jones and how she survived four decades of union organising in such locations? The film is a must see and represents a history long neglected.
Later that evening social historians, Liz Gillis and Anne Twomey considered what became of the women revolutionaries of the War of Independence after 1923. For some reason the Decade of Centenaries pitched tents in 2023, but few have asked about what became of the many hundreds of women of the invisible army who populated the Civil War prisons in 1923. Amazingly enough the British were often reluctant to jail women, however the new native government jailed their erstwhile female comrades with extraordinary relish and brutality. As Liz documented the sad litany of repressive legislation discriminating against women, it became obvious that many women were driven to lives of silent acquiesce, of living with the trauma and violence endured during incarceration, some decided to emigrate and a few remained to do what they could to improve social conditions in the shadows of history.
Pictured: Liz Gillis, James Nolan and Anne Twomey.
Minister for Justice Kevin O’Higgins had a particular obsession with removing the “hysterical young women” from jury service and from other organs of the new State. Ironically, although a devout married Catholic it seems that O’Higgins was conducting an affair in the early days of his ministerial duties. Later Taoiseach Eamon De Valera and Archbishop John Charles McQuaid renewed their Blackrock College “old boy” connections in the early 1930s and along with their disciples erected further fences of exclusion for women from Irish political life for another four decades.
Historian Anne Twomey discussed how one local woman, Margaret Goulding Buckley of Winters Hill and Maddens Buildings, worked all her life in the shadows and beyond to stand up for women workers and bring about change.
John Barry of Dublin and Queen’s University calls capitalism “a death cult” and his dissection of the predictable outcome of its activities for all life on Earth suggests that indeed the end result will be a dead planet. He asks why is the voluntary and community work of countless millions of people who contribute to social good and wellbeing of society excluded from the capitalist measurements in economics and financial balance sheets. Simultaneously, the useless financial trading and gambling in futures and shares, currencies and commodities and paper by millions of stockbrokers and attendant retinues of white collar legal and financial elites which control governments contributing little to the common good are counted in the figures? Why indeed?
Speaker: John Barry with John Barimo.
By way of contrast, the documentary ‘field’, the story of biodiversity on an old dump on the Northside of Cork City was a gem of a production. Remarkable in its zen-like simple walk through the waste ground. As the headlong rush to eliminate truly “wild” areas gathers pace in Cork city urban areas to create a controlled concrete landscape with amenities and Victoriana biodiversity, this film was a breath of fresh air. A story of a neglected ground, which surprisingly yielded the blue remains of the infamous southside Douglas tower, held the large attendance captivated. Alas it emerged in the Q&A that the land is privately owned and development will inevitably replace the sturdy resilient biodiversity so ably brought to life in this wonderful film..
field: The blue tower.
The Environmental Round Table led by John Barimo introduced us to the next generation of environmental experts and activists in Claudia Hihetah, Dearbhla Richardson and Niamh Guiry. Let’s hope they can influence government policy and are listened to!
Pictured: Niamh Guiry, Dearbhla Richardson, Claudia Hihetah and John Barimo.
The music and songs of Jimmy Crowley and Eve Telford before an appreciative audience were like balm to the soul. These two musicians just get better and better with a wide range of singing material. Eve read some of her poems, ‘Waterplace’ an ode to Cobh, ‘Lighthouses’ in tribute to Caoimhe Butterly and her work for the Palestinians, where the womb of humanity will last longer than the wounds.
Eve Telford.
She concluded with ‘Curlews in Cork Harbour’ in praise of our beautiful harbour. Jimmy announced that his 2014 publication “Songs From The Beautiful City: The Cork Urban Ballads” has been reprinted. And followed it up by singing John Fitzgerald’s ‘The Green Hills of Cork’ better known as ‘Beautiful City’. It helped to restore the downcast Corkonian hurling supporters present and perhaps 2025 will be our year!
Jimmy Crowley. (Emma).
Tears of sadness, shards of anger and rays of hope were present for the 2024 Spirit of Mother Jones award. It felt so futile to give people the Children of Lir themed award, when those people are being bombed daily, need a ceasefire now, along with food and practical assistance, as well as freedom. Speakers Walaa Sabah, Fiona O’Rourke, Dr Nick Maynard told us the “Stories of Palestine”. The Firkin remained silent throughout as one tried to imagine the daily hell on earth that is Gaza. Ms Zeina Alazzeh accepted the Award from James Nolan on behalf of the Embassy in Ireland of the State of Palestine.
Pictured: Fiona O’Rourke, Walaa Sabaa and Dr. Nick Maynard. Photo (@sweeneynmedia)
Maybe one day the Spirit of Mother Jones award will mean something to a free people!
Ms. Zeina Alazzeh representing the Palestinian Ambassador to Ireland with the Spirit of Mother Jones Award 2024. Photo @sweenynmedia:)
If you want to learn about the history of Cork, visit the Cork Butter Museum and listen to curator Peter Foynes on his walking trip around his native place elucidate why Shandon looks like it did once and explain why it looks like it does today. Question: is Skiddy’s Apartments now the oldest public housing scheme in Ireland after 300 years of providing homes for Corkonians?
Jack Lane receiving a presentation from Ann Piggott.
Indeed, historian Jack Lane in his revealing account of the All For Ireland League and the Irish Land & Labour Association confirmed that the 50,000 cottages with an attached acre which were built in Munster, mainly in Cork represented the first major public housing scheme in Western Europe. Championed by D.D.Sheehan MP, those houses accommodated hundreds of thousands of people. The blueprint for the solution of homelessness nearly 120 years ago. Julianna Minihan earlier discussed the provision of a public water supply to the poor people of Cork, some 50,000 of whom had no fresh water prior to the Great Hunger. Gerard O’Rourke author of Land War to Civil War 1900-1924 provided an enlightening account of the perseverance of the people of Donoughmore to the fight for Irish Independence.
Lord Mayor of Cork, Cllr. Dan Boyle with Svitlava Deikun and Victoria Tymoshehuk.
Kalyna Ukrainian Community Choir again performed in the presence of the Lord Mayor, Cllr. Dan Boyle. Their colourful and joyous singing, in spite of personal and political worries about the war in their homeland, displayed the true resilience of the Ukrainian people. Cork Singers’ Club on opening night provided a public platform for the singers of songs in Cork and beyond, it is a unique treasure!
Carla Gover, and CornMaiz of Zoey Barrett, Arlo Barnette and Yani Vozos provided a striking contrast on the following evening when they entertained a large crowd with fiddles, banjo and guitar music from Kentucky. Introduced by Johnny Nyhan it became a memorable night of music and Appalachian culture. Thanks Carla for coming all this way to Shandon!
Carla Gover and CornMaiz in full swing.
Before a huge attendance which had been joined by those who arrived from the Feminist Walk from U.C.C at the Mother Jones Plaque, singer songwriter Martin Leahy unveiled his new composition ‘Mother Jones”.
Martin Leahy.
Taken from the words of Mother Jones it certainly left an impression on those present who accompanied Martin in the final choruses.
” We need you in our hearts more than ever today
The rich still burn the earth and the poor still pay”
Rory McCarthy added a song and Cork’s Mother Jones (Joan Goggin) sang a lusty version of “The Half Door”. John and Gearoid Nyhan accompanied by everyone present closed out 2024 with Foster and Kristofferson’s “Me And Bobby MaGee”. Yes indeed, Mother Jones after her early life tragedies knew that “Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose”. Therein lies the source of her resilience and inspiration!
Pictured: John and Gearoid Nyhan.
The slanting evening sun from the west which had earlier draped the Mother Jones plaque in a warm glow gradually slipped behind the Butter Market and signalled the end of festivities. Its warm rays recreated the memory of other pleasant evenings with friends and absent friends on John Redmond Street.
The Evening Sun on the Mother Jones Plaque.
The Spirit of Mother Jones Meitheal for 2024 was over. Over one hundred people, speakers, singers, musicians and performers had participated in the actual festival over the three days, while several dozen had worked behind the scenes to ensure the thirty events took place. We thank the many hundreds of people who attended those events along with our sponsors in the trade union movement, the Shandon Community, the local business community, and the Cork City Council as well as the Dance Cork Firkin Crane and the Maldron Hotel, Shandon.
The Presentation of the Spirit of Mother Jones Award 2024. Front row: Fiona O’Rourke, speaker, Zeina Alazzeh, Embassy of the State of Palestine, Walaa Sabah, speaker and Dr. Nick Maynard. Back row: John Barimo, James Nolan, Ann Rea, Ger O’Mahony, Ann Piggott and Dominic O’Callaghan, members of the Cork Mother Jones Committee.
Carla Gover and CornMaiz from Kentucky playing at the Maldron Hotel, Shandon.
Maggie O’Neill speaking at the Cork Feminist Walk.
Jennifer Ahern, Artist and Environmental Anthropologist and Dervla Baker, Director of the documentary, field.
Cork singer-songwriter performed his new song Mother Jones at the Mother Jones plaque on John Redmond Street in the Shandon Historic Quarter on the final day of the Spirit of Mother Jones Festival 2024 to great acclaim from the large gathering.
The sun shines on the Mother Jones plaque behind Martin Leahy.
You can listen to Martin Leahy’s wonderful new Mother Jones song on the link below.
Martin Leahy – “Mother Jones” – Copyright: Martin Leahy
(Words and music used by kind permission of Martin Leahy)
“Walking boldly in her black shoes
Not a saviour from outside not a saviour from above
She was of and she came from the wounds
Of the working class people the people she loved
Shining through the darkened back roads
A star that lit the way for the ages yet to be
Organizing in the shadows
Freedom for all people in the land of the free
To the struggle where the workers and their families rights were abandoned
From the alleyways the streets and the lanes by the bells of Shandon
Out of Famine out of fever
Out of fire out of grief out on her own
Out of a wounded Mary Harris
Came the healing burning blood of Mother Jones
Striking out across the nation
In the white heat with the strikers side by side
Striking fear into the bosses
They were powerless to stop a revolutions rising tide
Close to the workers and the movements right at the root
Spinning yarns and shaping myths in the service of a bigger truth
We need you in our hearts more than ever today
The rich still burn the earth and the poor still pay
We can hear you in our heads when the spirit won’t give in
Pray for the dead but fight like hell for the living
Across the lines of all religion
Across the lines of race we’ll hold her name
Across the women men and children
The iron heel on all flesh feels the same
Marching to the city with the little ones broken and bruised
To the mansions of wealth built on the crushed bones of youth”
Some of the huge crowd who attended the Mother Jones Toast at the Plaque at the concluding event of the 2024 Spirit of Mother Jones Festival.
Owen Reidy, General Secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) receiving a presentation of a portrait of Mother Jones from Ann Piggott of the Cork Mother Jones Committee. The original painting is by Lindsay Hand and the original is the Irish Embassy in Washington.
The Feminist Walk arriving at the Butter Market in Shandon on Saturday evening. The walk was organised and led by Maggie O’Neill and Conach Gibson-Feinblum and had come from University College Cork.
The panellists who participated at the Environmental Roundtable, “Climate Change and Taking Action.” Left to Right: Niamh Guiry, Dearbhla Richardson and Claudia Hihetah.
