Supporters of Labour and union activist Mother Jones are presently celebrating her “American birthday”, which Mother herself claimed was on 1st May. 

This coincides with May Day which is celebrated as workers day across the world and is based on the campaign for an eight hour day by labour unions in America in 1886. 

While the Haymarket incident took place on the 4th May, the subsequent execution of four innocent workers for the deaths of the policemen after a union meeting in Haymarket Square has been commemorated for the past 140 years.

Deeply influenced by the events at the Haymarket, Mary Harris repeatedly refers to the labour martyrs for the eight hour day in her writings and appears to have said later in her life that she was born on 1st May 1830 as part of her Mother Jones persona. 

However records at the North Cathedral in Cork show that she was baptised on the first day of August 1837. So she was probably born on the 31st July as children in Ireland were baptised as early as possible after birth. Church records state that Mary Harris was baptised by Fr. John O’Mahony, her parents were Richard Harris and Mary Cotter and her sponsors were James Hennessy and Ellen Leary.

Of interest is that the baptism font used that morning almost 190 years ago still remains in use today in the Cathedral.   

So the annual Spirit of Mother Jones festival takes place in the Shandon Historic Quarter in late July to honour Mother Jones’s annual Irish birthday. All are welcome to the events and to attend the annual toast to Mother Jones using the best Irish whiskey at her Plaque in Shandon thus completing the second annual birthday celebrations of this remarkable woman. 

In 2026 the dates of the Spirit of Mother Jones festival and summer school are from Thursday 23rd July until Saturday 25th July.

Slainte agus beatha Mother Jones go deo.

Our thanks to Saul Schniderman