Today is the 3rd day of the 2016 Spirit of Mother Jones festival in Cork. The first two days have been most interesting and have attracted large crowds including a number of international guests.
Today’s events begin at 11.30am with local historian Luke Dineen who will talk about the 1922 Post Office strike which was the first major industrial dispute in the history of the state.
At 2.30pm we have Anne Twomey of Blackpool Historical Society who will tell the story of the Wallace Sisters.
At 4.00pm we will show Yvette Vanson’s documentary The Battle for Orgreave which deals with the disturbing events at Orgreave during the UK Miner’s Strike. Pat Egan of Unite, the Union, himself a former miner will talk about the events. We will include here a tribute to Dave Hopper, General Secretary of the Durham Miner’s Association who was due to speak again at this year’s festival but died suddenly earlier this month.
At 7.00pm Randall MacLowry’s film The Mine Wars will be shown. This tells the story of the West Virginia mine wars of the early years of the 20th century in which Mother Jones herself championed the rights of the miners and their.
To finish off the day, at 9.00pm a musical treat is in store with John Nyhan, Mick Treacy and Friends who will perform and sing “Songs of the Mining Tradition.
The festival continues until Monday evening, 1st August – Mother Jones Day.
Mrs. Catherine McGuinness is indisposed and unable to travel to Cork on Friday 29th July. All at the Cork Mother Jones Committee send our best wishes to Catherine for a speedy return to good health. Once recovered, she has promised to come to Cork to address this issue.
The meeting in relation to Direct Provision will go ahead at the Firkin Crane on Friday evening at 7.30. Ms, Fiona Finn, CEO of NASC, the Irish Immigrant Support Centre, will speak in relation to the operation of Direct Provision in Ireland. Everyone with an interest in this topic is very welcome to come along to her talk and discussion.
We wish to thank Fiona for agreeing to speak on this important issue.
About Fiona Finn
Fiona holds a Bachelor of Law degree (BCL) and a Master of Law (LLM) from University College Cork. She has a particular interest in International Human Rights Law and Public International Law.
Fiona Finn
Fiona has over eighteen years of experience in the fields of social justice, human rights, asylum and immigration. Fiona joined Nasc in 2008 and became CEO in 2010. Prior to that she worked for fifteen years in London, initially with a homeless charity and latterly as a senior officer with in the London Borough of Camden. During her time with the Borough, Fiona worked at a senior level across a number of departments including the Welfare Rights Section and at an Independent Law Centre, dealing with access to social protection for asylum-seekers and refugees. She also headed up a policy unit working to promote social inclusion policies for Irish emigrants in the Borough. Fiona also holds a Diploma in Business Studies and Marketing and is a graduate of the Marketing Institute of Ireland.
The Cork Mother Jones Committee is pleased to announce that Fergal Keane has agreed to speak to the topic “Human Rights in a Divided World”.
Fergal Keane (Photo: Limerick Leader)
He will appear on Sunday evening 31st July at the Maldron Hotel at 7.30pm.
Born in London to his parents, Maura Hassett was from Cork city and Eamonn Keane from Listowel. Both were actors, who had met in Cork and had been married in Ballyphehane church, Cork City. The family also lived in Dublin for some, before Fergal moved to Cork to live with May Hassett, his grandmother.
Keane spent much of his youth in Cork, attending St Joseph’s National School on the Mardyke. Later at the Presentation Brothers College nearby, he came under the influence of Brother Jerome Kelly, “a man who would change my life”. In 1972, Brother Kelly, had founded SHARE – Schoolboys Harness Aid for Relief of the Elderly which was set up to assist the elderly in Cork to obtain a home. This charity continues to work in Cork City to this day.
He says of Cork
“More than any other place I have lived, it is Cork I regard as my home.”
He became a reporter with the Limerick Leader and later went to Dublin where he worked in The Irish Press. Moving to RTE he gained experience as a foreign correspondent especially in Africa, before joining the BBC.
In his memoir All of these People published in 2005, Fergal describes, while reporting on the Eritrean war, seeing a badly wounded boy Ande Mikail lying in a tent covered in a foil blanket after being wounded from an Ethiopian MiG fighter…
“That moment on the Eritrean hillside was a point of departure for me. I had seen news photographs of war victims and I’d watched documentaries. But they didn’t smell the way that tent did, and the eyes of the dying on the screenhad never caught me the way Ande Mikail’s had. Having looked into the eyes of this child of war I could not look away again.”
Fergal Keane
Now one of the BBC’s most distinguished foreign correspondents, Fergal is a multi-award winning journalist and author. Having travelled widely, he has reported and borne witness from many of the world’s trouble spots such South Africa, Rwanda, Iraq, the Balkans and Northern Ireland. His descriptions of the horrific conflicts around him are grounded from the perspectives of the ordinary people and children who are suffering and dying in circumstances over which they have no control or say. The recipient of a BAFTA, he has won the George Orwell prize for literature, as well as being named Amnesty International’s Human Rights reporter of the Year in 1993.
Fergal has made several documentaries such as Forgotten Britain for the BBC and The Story of Ireland (RTE and BBC Northern Ireland)
He is the author of many books including The Bondage of Fear, Road of Bones,and Season of Blood Rwandan Journey, Letter to Daniel and All of These People…a memoir.
Fergal loves to potter by the sea shore at Ardmore in West Waterford.
Luke Dineen has been a regular contributor to the Mother Jones summer school and we are delighted to welcome him back in 2016. He will address the significance of the Postal Strike of 1922 at the Maldron Hotel on Saturday 30th July at 11.30.
J.J. Walsh with Countess Markievicz
”The Postal Strike of 1922 was the first major industrial dispute the new government of the Irish Free State faced and it occurred right in the middle of the Civil War.
When the dispute began, the government refused to concede the right of public servants to strike. The postal workers were condemned for taking industrial action against wage reductions because, as members of the public service, they enjoyed permanent, pensionable positions.
The government’s handling of the postal strike challenges the narrative that the establishment of the Free State represented the triumph of democracy. Rather, it shows an authoritarian government that was intolerant of dissent and willing to use harsh measures to suppress it.”
(Extract from Cathal Brennan in online article in The Irish Story).
The Cork postal workers had earlier voted to strike in February 1922 due to threatened pay cuts, but action was postponed as a result of union intervention whereby an independent commission was established to examine the issues in relation to pay.
Cork historian Luke Dineen
The Postmaster General during the strike was James Joseph Walsh, known as J.J., a TD from Cork. Born near Bandon, Walsh was a former postal worker himself, an active trade unionist and member of Sinn Féin. He had taken part in the 1916 Rising in the GPO and received a ten year sentence.Described by Marcus De Burca author of The GAA…a History as “a dominating Cork personality”, he had also been Chairman (President) of the Cork County Board of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA). His Departmental Secretary in 1922 was P. S. O’Hegarty, another Corkman and a former post office worker in London who was friendly with Michael Collins.
The events during this strike in September 1922 and the government’s brutal reaction form a surprising if largely forgotten portrait of the new Irish State at the time and raise a fundamental question….…was the labour movement the biggest casualty of the Irish Civil War and its aftermath?
Luke Dineen will tell the story of the events surrounding this strike on Saturday morning 30th July at 11.30 am. Luke is currently writing his PhD Thesis at University College Cork.
Cork Mother Jones Committee is pleased to confirm that retired judge Mrs Catherine McGuinness will speak at the 2016 Spirit of Mother Jones summer school. She will speak to the topic “Direct Provision – Not the solution!” at the Firkin Crane Theatre on Friday 29th July at 7.30 pm.
Catherine McGuinness
Catherine McGuinness was born in Belfast in 1934. A barrister, she was appointed as a judge in the Circuit Court in 1994, later she served in the High Court and was appointed to the Supreme Court in 2000, where she served until 2006. Elected a senator in the Dublin University constituency in 1979 Senator McGuinness remained in Seanad Éireann (Ireland’s Senate) until 1987. She has been appointed to the Council of State twice, initially by President Hillery and more recently in 2012 by President Higgins.
Mrs McGuinness was President of the Law Reform Commission from 2005 until 2011 and has served on various Boards and other organisations over many years giving freely of her time and experience. She received a 2010 “People of the Year Award” for her pioneering service and vast contribution to Irish life.In June 2011 she became a patron of the Irish Refugee Council and has consistently campaigned for Children’s Rights.
A Direct Provision centre near Athlone
Direct Provision is the term given to the system for dealing with asylum seekers in Ireland. Initially established as an emergency measure in 1999, it commenced in 2000 and it quickly became permanent with over 30 establishments around the country. While asylum seekers receive full board accommodation, some access to the health and education systems, criticism has grown. Many thousands have been held in the system for years, some for over 5 years. Asylum seekers receive just €19.10 per week, children €9.60. There was a recent increase in the payment for children to €15.60 per week. At the end of April 2016, over 4000 people, including over a thousand children were still living in Direct Provision.
Complaints about lack of privacy, unnecessary restrictions, lack of cooking facilities, long stays, lack of independent complaints procedure, sheer boredom leading to mental health issues have been raised over a long period. NASC, the Irish Immigrant Support Centre had published a damning critique of the system in Cork called “Hidden Cork”.
Children protest at the Kinsale Road Direct Provision Centre in Cork in 2014.
The Irish Refugee Council launched a national campaign “End Institutional Living” in 2013. An Independent Working Group under Dr Bryan McMahon was established in October 2014 to report to the Government in relation to improving the position. It reported in June 2015 with a series of recommendations.
Mrs Catherine McGuinness will speak on “Direct Provision – Not a Solution!” at the Firkin Crane Theatre on Friday evening 29th July at 7.30. It will be followed by a discussion and all are welcome to come along and participate.
The story of extraordinary Wallace Sisters will be told by Anne Twomey of the Shandon Area History Group on Saturday 30th July at 2.30pm at the Maldron Hotel.
Background to the role of the Wallace sisters.
Now a lifeless vehicular short cut, St. Augustine Street in Cork City is barely noticed by many people these days. A bleak, undistinguished street, it has in recent years become an alleyway located between the Queens Old Castle and McHugh House linking the Grand Parade to South Main Street. It was formerly known as Brunswick Street, which appears on the old street nameplate on the western side.
The street’s current dilapidated condition is in stark contrast to its busy nature in the early years of 1900s. In 1911, some ten shops, stores and houses and the back entrance to St Augustine’s Church lined the street.
Six of those houses were inhabited by a total of twenty seven people on census night 1911. Over at no 4, St Augustine Street, Sheila (Julia) Wallace then aged twenty one was described as “Head of Family”, while her sisters Hannah (29) and Norah (15) also occupied the upper rooms where a young seventeen year old lodger Norah Crean also resided.
Daughters of Jeremiah, an agricultural labourer and Mary Wallace of Barrahaurin, Donoughmore and from a family of eight children, the sisters had moved to the city at a young age and opened their little newspaper and cigarette business. The family had been evicted in the late 1800s and now lived in a small two roomed house on the farm of James Twomey, a local farmer in Barrahaurin. This eviction and the resulting traumatic impact on the large Wallace family being dumped on the side of the road, and its implications for the family must have contributed to the radical political views of Norah and Sheila Wallace, which later lead them to embrace the aims of the Irish Citizen Army.
One might be surprised to learn that many of the most famous names in the revolutionary Ireland 1915 to 1922 came and went with regularity through this street. For at number 13 Brunswick St (later 4 St. Augustine St.) was located the small shop of Sheila and Nora Wallace.
During the War of Independence these firm and engaging sisters went about their day to day shop keeping business as normal which provided a perfect cover for what became a vast beehive of revolutionary activity taking place in their shop.
No.4 St. Augustine’s Street, Cork shortly before its demolition in the 1970s.
Located behind their small traditionally fronted tobacconist and newspaper shop with holy pictures and statues in the window and labour pamphlets on the shelves lay nothing less than the Head Quarters of the Cork No 1 Brigade of the Irish Republican Army (IRA). It was effectively the intelligence centre of the IRA where messages were efficiently received and delivered by a huge network of women and men…..in effect an IRA intelligence General Post Office!
Even more amazing is that this simple shop was located just 250 metres from the Royal Irish Constabulary barracks at Tuckey St and the second barracks at the Bridewell on the Coal Quay and yet remained undetected by the Crown forces for a long time.
James Connolly visited the Wallace sisters on his trip to Cork in January 1916, where he spoke later about military tactics at a meeting organised by Tadhg Barry over in the Grianán building in nearby Queens Street, now Fr. Mathew Street. Sheila and Nora were friendly with Constance Markievicz of the Irish Citizen Army (I.C.A) and both the sisters were active members of the Cork Branch of the I.C.A, which as the War of Independence gathered momentum gradually became absorbed into the I.R.A. The Cork Branch members used to meet in the Transport Workers Room in Merchants Quay where a rifle range had been established for practice by the Citizen Army.
An Grianán in Fr. Mathew Street, once the nerve centre of the revolutionary movement in Cork, today lies abandoned. James Connolly addressed a meeting here in January 1916.
University College Cork (UCC) historian and author John Borgonovo has recounted how the Wallace sisters organised a youth and women’s Citizen Army in Cork which lasted until 1921 and which took part in local parades involving the labour movement during the period. Labour organiser and socialist Cathal O’Shannon also took lodgings over their shop for a period while he worked in Cork.
One of the last actions of the Lord Mayor of Cork, Tomás MacCurtain was to visit the Wallace shop late on Friday night 19th March 1920. Florence O’ Donoghue, then head of intelligence in the I.R.A, later recounted how Tomás left the shop with the recently elected Alderman, Tadhg Barry about 11:00 pm that night on what was his final journey. Just a few hours later the Lord Mayor of Cork was murdered in his bed by the Royal Irish Constabulary (R.I.C) in the family quarters overhead his own shop at 40 Thomas Davis Street in Blackpool.
There is a family account how MacCurtain’s successor as the Lord Mayor of Cork, Terence MacSwiney, who was also a regular caller to the Wallace’s shop, went behind the counter and even sold a newspaper and a packet of cigarettes to a customer shortly before his arrest in August 1920. The Wallace sisters were busy at the particular time, taking dispatches around the city. Muriel MacSwiney, his wife, in her December 1951 deposition to the Bureau of Military History mentions how early on she became aware of “a little newspaper shop kept by the Misses Wallace, who were later connected to The Citizen Army”.
Sheila and Nora both worked in the shop and lived overhead at the time and the room to the rear of the shop was regularly used for Irish Volunteer and I.R.A. Brigade meetings. Sheila held the formal rank of Staff Officer as Brigade Communications officer, this was quite unique and she was possibly the only female officer of rank in the I.R.A.
She was awarded a pension of £55-16-8 under the Military Pension Act from October 1934 and her rank was confirmed. This rank is also inscribed on her gravestone in St. Finbarr’s Cemetery. Later on the shop was raided several times and was finally closed by order of the British Military dated 14th May 1921 and the sisters were ordered to be expelled from Cork City.
It reopened immediately after the Truce, indeed Liam Deasy then Adjutant of the First Southern Division recalled a jovial meeting at the premises on 12th July 1921 with the officers of the First Cork Brigade and Tom Barry. As the sisters took the anti-treaty side in the Civil war, it was raided regularly by the Free State forces. Later on the sisters lived on the Old Youghal Road in Teach Shíle.
Historian Anne Twomey who will talk about the Wallace Sisters on 30th July.
The years of “working in impossible conditions”, carrying despatches in all weathers and the associated stress took a heavy toll on the sisters. This was recorded in their military service pension applications in 1934. Sheila died on 14th April 1944, on the Friday of Easter week. It was acknowledged by the Pensions Board that Nora who had developed tuberculosis in the 20s and spent some time in Switzerland, acquired her illness due to her exposure to all conditions of weather, wet and cold due to her intense activities, while acting as an intelligence agent. Nora traded on her own at the shop until 1960 and passed away on 17th September 1970.
The premises was later used as a bookmakers shop and afterwards as a dressmakers. The shop portrayed on a drawing by artist Brian Lawlor* in his book “Cork” appears to have been demolished sometime in the 1970s, during the clearance of the area for the reconstruction of the Queens Old Castle complex.
Anne Twomey of the Shandon Area History group will give an account of the story of the Wallace Sisters on Saturday afternoon 30th July at 2.30 in the Maldron Hotel. All welcome to attend and participate in the discussion afterwards.
The Shandon Area History group organised an unique exhibition entitled “Ordinary Women in Extraordinary Times” featuring remarkable women from the area and their contribution to the War of Independence at the St. Peter’s Church in North Main Street. in June 2016.
* Cork. Drawings by Brian Lawlor. Poems by Eiléan Ní Chuilleanán. Gallery Press, Dublin, Ireland 1977.
Update: October 2023:
A memorial plaque to Sheila and Nora Wallace was unveiled by their niece Bernadette Wallace at the national monument in Stuake, Donoughmore on Sunday 24th September 2023. The plaque and events were organised by the Donoughmore Historical Society and it included a talk by Anne Twomey of the Shandon Area History Group in the nearby community hall afterwards. There was a fine attendance in spite of heavy rain.
Monument to the Wallace Sisters.
The Wallace sisters were natives of Kilcullen South in Donoughmore and when the family were evicted in the 1890s they had to move to the nearby townland of Barrachaurin. Later, the sisters moved to the nearby Cork City where they opened their small shop. The plaque commemorates the very vital role Sheila and Nora played during the War of Independence.
Tish Gibbons works as a researcher with SIPTU’s Strategic Organising Department and leads up its innovative Educate to Organise programme.
She was a union organiser with SIPTU from 1997 to 2008 and will address the above topic at this year’s summer school.
Tish has worked in the Irish trade union movement for 30 years starting in a clerical capacity with the FWUI before becoming a union organiser with SIPTU in 1997. A constant part-time student, She holds a Diploma in Industrial Relations and a BA in English & Politics from UCG; a Post-graduate Diploma in Social Research Methods (OU) and MA Industrial Relations (Keele). After studying for four years at the Working Lives Research Institute in the London Metropolitan University, she was awarded a professional doctorate for her thesis on union recognition and organising.
She is a board member of the Irish Centre for the Histories of Labour and Class and has published in labour law, industrial relations and labour history journals. Earlier this year she addressed the annual Jim Connell commemoration weekend at Crossakiel, Co Meath.
Tish has spent many years as a union organiser on the ground, as did Mother Jones in the USA. The Cork Mother Jones Committee is delighted that she has agreed to bring her experiences and her views on organising workers to the 2016 Spirit of Mother Jones Summer School.
Ms. Gibbons will speak on Organising in the Shadow of the Law at 4.30 on Friday 30th July at the summer school. All welcome.
The Cork Mother Jones Committee is pleased to announce that the Cork Mother Jones Lecture 2016 will be delivered by Mr Jack O’Connor, General President of SIPTU.
Jack O’Connor
The 5th annual lecture will take place at the Firkin Crane Theatre on Thursday 28th July at 8pm, following the 2016 festival and Summer School opening ceremony at the Mother Jones plaque in Shandon.
Jack O’Connor is probably the most recognised and best known trade union leader in Ireland. A Dubliner, Jack was originally a trade union activist before working for the Federated Workers’ Union of Ireland. When the Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union and the Federated Workers’ Union of Ireland (both founded by “Big” Jim Larkin) merged in 1990 to form SIPTU, he became regional organiser for SIPTU.
He was appointed General President of SIPTU in 2003. Jack was also President of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) from July 2009 to July 2011. His declared priorities are combating worker exploitation, promoting people’s rights to participate in collective bargaining. He promotes the principle of “Fairness at Work and Justice in Society. He refuses to serve on any State Board while in his present role in SIPTU. Jack is a member of the Labour Party.
The future of the organised labour and the trade union movement in Ireland and indeed across Europe is being faced with a concerted move by governments in the public sector and multinationals in the private sector to enforce changes in work patterns, forced self-employment, zero hours contracts, reduced pay and conditions and more productivity. Hostile opposition by employers to trade union organising in workplaces has grown. Many young people joining the workforces of multinationals and other enterprises are not allowed the opportunity to become union members. The huge achievements of the trade union movement over the past century, achievements, which many people today take for granted, are under sustained threat.
Jack O’Connor, General President of SIPTU
These issues require a serious and well thought out response from the organised labour movement. Jack O’Connor has a contribution to make.
He will discuss his views for the future responses of the labour movement to the changing organised labour environment at the Firkin Crane Theatre on Thursday evening 28th July at 8pm in a talk entitled “Organising to win – what is to be done!”
Justine McCarthy will address the above topic at the Spirit of Mother Jones summer school on Monday August 1st August 2016.
Justine is from Bandon, Co Cork and was educated at the Ursuline convent in Blackrock. Her father and grand-father were councillors and her immersion in a political family has stood to her as a commentator on contemporary politics and Irish life.
Justine McCarthy was chief features writer and columnist with the Irish Independent from 1984. She is now a columnist and reporter with The Sunday Times.
Ms McCarthy worked with Aspect and Village magazine and her articles have appeared in newspapers such as the Guardian, Observer and Washington Post.
Deep Deception (book cover)
She is the author of Mary McAleese: The Outsider and Deep Deception: Ireland’s Swimming Scandals.Justine has won more than a dozen journalism awards, including the Journalists’ Journalists features writer award. Kevin Myers once described one of her columns as “the very quintessence of the feminist narrative” which, she was surprised to read on Wikipedia, was intended as criticism. She considered it a compliment!
She is a regular broadcaster and appears frequently on Tonight with Vincent Browne where her forthright comments usually ensure respectful silence from Mr Browne. Ms McCarthy is an adjunct professor of journalism at the University of Limerick.
Justine McCarthy’s biography of Mary McAleese
Her commitment to the truth in her writing along with her absolute determination to expose cant, hypocrisy and injustice in the Irish political system stand out. She is a strong and committed defender of those seeking justice in Ireland and her opinions on issues which matter are expressed cogently and fearlessly.
Justine McCarthy will speak to the topic “Greed is Good for Nothing” at the Spirit of Mother Jones summer school on Monday evening 1st August at 7.30 pm at the Maldron Hotel.
Laurence Fenton will present Frederick Douglass in Cork…the Black O’Connell during the Spirit of Mother Jones summer school. He will speak at the Maldron Hotel on Friday morning 29th July at 11.30 am.
Frederick Douglass
Frederick Bailey, known to the world as Frederick Douglass was born into slavery in Maryland in February 1818, and spent his entire life seeking the abolition of slavery. In 1845 he published the “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American slave”, which was widely read.
While on a tour of Ireland and Britain, he arrived in Cork on Friday 10th October 1845 under the auspices of the Cork Anti-Slavery Society (founded in 1826) and stayed at the home of businessman and philanthropist Thomas Jennings on Brown Street. (The Paul Street car park now stands on the site of the Jennings house).
Douglass was helped in Cork by Isabel Jennings, daughter of Thomas and co-secretary of the Cork Ladies Anti-Slavery Society, while the then Lord Mayor Richard Dowden supported and accompanied Frederick to every meeting. He also met the well known temperance campaigner Fr Mathew during his visit.
During his three week visit Douglass gave a series of a dozen lectures on various topics in locations throughout Cork City to packed audiences. A very forceful and charismatic orator, he gave a two hour graphic account at Cork Court House on the injustice of slavery on Tuesday 14th October. He was particularly critical of the failure of some sections of religion in America to oppose slavery.Douglass later spoke at the Wesleyan Church in Patrick’s Street on Friday 17th October. His lecture on 23rd October in the Imperial Hotel is commemorated by a plaque within the hotel erected in August 2012.
Frederick Douglass in Ireland (Book)
His final speech at the Independent Chapel on 3rd November was also well received. During his travels in Ireland the poverty and penury afflicting the great majority of people made an impression on him and even as the first reports of potato crop failures circulated in the media, Douglass’s writings began to reflect his fight against slavery as being part of a larger global battle against social injustice. He spoke many times in support of women’s rights and suffrage over the years.
Frederick Douglass died on 20th February 1895 and is buried in Mount Hope Cemetery, in Rochester, New York.
Laurence Fenton is the author of Frederick Douglass in Ireland ‘The Black O’Connell’ published in 2014 by Collins Press.Laurence will discuss the impact of the Douglass visit to Cork on Friday morning 29th July at the Maldron Hotel as part of the Mother Jones summer school programme.
