Monthly Archives: October 2026

“We Shall Rise”: Mother Jones to Rise Over Chicago.

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Full Report of the Ground breaking ceremony in Chicago on the site of the Mother Jones Statue from the Mother Jones Heritage Project Website Link with Thanks from Everyone on the Project Team.

https://www.motherjonesmuseum.org/post/groundbreaking-mother-jones-we-shall-rise-monument-at-mother-jones-plaza

Megan Grealy, Public Diplomacy Officer Consul General of Ireland in Chicago, speaks. Behind Grealy, you can see the Heald Square Monument depicting George Washington which is directly across Wacker from this site. Photo Credit: Rick Leschina. Courtesy of Mother Jones Heritage Project.

On Wednesday October 28th the Mother Jones Heritage Project will hold an official ceremony to break ground at the site of the memorial to Cork born, Mary Harris known to the world as Mother Jones. This ceremony will be held at East Wacker Drive & North Wabash Avenue in Chicago at 11:00 am and will be performed by Mayor Brandon Johnson. Also in attendance will be representatives of the Chicago Department of Cultural and Special Events (DCASE) and Chicago Federation of Labour along with Ireland’s Chicago Consulate and Alderman Brendan Reiilly.

Rosemary Feurer of the Mother Jones Heritage Project who has championed a statue to Mother Jones for many years. Photo taken on top of the Shandon Bells in Cork during the Spirit of Mother Jones Festival 2012.


The memorial will consist of a bronze statue depicting iconic Labour activist Mother Jones in a pose which echoes the March of the Mill Children in July 1903 in which she highlighted the exploitation of young children working in the mines, mills and factories of America. Her efforts on this march made national headlines across America and exposed the abuse of young girls and boys who worked in often appalling conditions when they should have been in school and receiving an education.

Gathering at the Baptism Font at the North Cathedral in Cork where Mary Harris was baptised on the 1st August 1837. Left to Right: Elliott Gorn, Kailuani Lee, Marat Moore, and Rosemary Feurer with Festival organisers and supporters at the Spirit of Mother Jones Festival taken on the 1st August 2012 (175 years after her baptism).


Actress Brigid Duffy and Logan James Cervantes of Chicago World Language Academy, the model for the sculpture will re-enact the striking pose of the statue’s figures entitled “We Shall Rise” which will soon be erected on the site near the Chicago Riverwalk, which will be renamed the Mother Jones Plaza.

March of the Mill Children 2019 which includes the Lord Mayor of Cork, Cllr. Dr. John Sheehan.


“We Shall Rise” and the Mother Jones Plaza will come to represent a fitting tribute to this Cork woman and to the generations of working people of every nationality and their unions whose labour and resilience helped to shape Chicago itself.


The design team of Kathleen Farrell, Kathleen Scarboro and Dante Di Bartolomo have sent the sculpture to the foundry. On behalf of the Cork Mother Jones Committee we wish to congratulate all involved in the Mother Jones Heritage Project for their massive effort in bringing this landmark project to fruition and look forward eagerly to the day when Mother Jones rises over the great city of Chicago.

Honouring Mother Jones in Chicago on St. Patrick’s Day. Photo: Dave Adams, Bricklayers Union, Chicago.

The formal ground breaking for the statue was performed by the Mayor of Chicago, Brandon Johnson.

See press release below from the Mayor’s Office.

https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/mayor/press_room/press_releases/2026/october/mother-jones-monument.html

Megan Grealy of the Irish Consulate in Chicago speaking at the ground breaking event. Introduced by Rosemary Feurer of the Mother Jones Heritage Project,

Which Side Are You On? The Story of the Song.

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One of the great anthems of the international Labour Movement was written in a matter of hours on the back of an old calendar. Florence Reece, wife of miners union leader Sam Reece was so angry one evening after the local sheriff  J.H. Blair and his deputies had raided their home looking for her husband, she sat down and wrote Which Side Are You On? in response.

1932 saw a bitter miners strike take place in Harlan County in Kentucky, when the mine operators refused to allow the miners to join the union. The coal operators instigated a campaign of terror to prevent the union getting a foothold in Kentucky and upwards of a dozen miners had been murdered by deputies in the pay of the mine owners. The miners were subject to intimidation and  constant raids on their homes.

Sam Reece had been warned that the sheriff was coming for him and he had escaped into the mountains. His home was wrecked by the deputies and his wife and two daughters present were terrorised. Florence’s response was to write this song which her daughters later sang at the local union hall. 

From such a beginning, the song has traveled worldwide.Pete Seeger popularised it along with the Almanac Singers in the 40s and 50s. It was embraced by the Civil Rights movement in the 60s and 70s. Various verses have been changed but its impact on an audience is immediate.

“My daddy was a miner; he’s now in the air and sun

He’ll be with you, fellow workers, until this battle’s won”

Being in the air and sun meant Sam was blacklisted. He died from Black Lung in 1978.

Florence Reece, labour and civil rights activist passed away suddenly from a heart attack on August 3rd 1986. 

“Florence symbolizes that ordinary people out of their own life experiences can capture in simple words and feelings the idea of struggle”  (William Serrin in the New York Times, March 18th 1984)

Thanks to Friday’s Labor folklore available from fridaysfolklore@gmail.com . Our thanks to Saul Schniderman for permission to use the following link to read the story of which side are you on and to listen to some of the singers of that famous Labour ballad.

https://conta.cc/4iQVTVX