Antoinette Keegan received the following goodwill message from Charlie Bird on the occasion of her visit to the Spirit of Mother Jones Festival 2022 in Cork.
Charlie Bird message to Antoinette Keegan (by permission of Antoinette).
The Award for 2020 which was to have been presented to Christine Keegan of the Stardust Justice Campaign was presented to her daughter Antoinette on Friday 29th July 2022 at the Firkin Crane, by James Nolan on behalf of the Cork Mother Jones Committee..
James Nolan presents the Spirit of Mother Jones Award 2020 to Antoinette Keegan.
Sadly Christine passed away in July 2020. Antoinette was accompanied by her sisters Lorraine and Suzanne and uncle Frank and Phyllis and Maurice McHugh who lost their only daughter Caroline in the Stardust Fire on Valentine Day 1981.
Suzanne, Antoinette and Lorraine Keegan.
The Citation reads as follows:
“The Spirit of Mother Jones Award is awarded this year to Ms. Antoinette Keegan of the Stardust Victims Committee for her determination, resilience and longstanding efforts to pursue truth, accountability and justice for the Stardust victims and their families over almost 40 years.
Antoinette and her late mother Christine and father John have pursued answers to what happened at the Stardust fire on 14th February 1981, where 48 young people lost their lives, including Antoinette’s sisters Mary and Martina.
In spite of her own injuries, the loss of her sisters, and the failure of the Public Authorities to provide answers, Antoinette has continued to actively campaign to uncover the full truth of the events of that night. She is an inspiration to so many!
For her bravery, courage and commitment, Antoinette Keegan is a very worthy recipient of the 2020 Spirit of Mother Jones Award.”
CORK mOTHER jONES committee for antoinette keegan.
The Keegan and McHugh families with the Cork Mother Jones Committee.
We imagine if Mother Jones visited Shandon, before Christmas 1920. During this time Ireland’s War of Independence was raging, and much of Patrick’s Street in Cork had been recently burned down by the Auxiliaries. The funeral of Terence McSwiney, Lord Mayor of Cork, who died after a 74 day hunger strike in Brixton prison had taken place through the streets of Cork, a few weeks earlier. Mother Jones, (Joan Goggin) visits her former home near Shandon and walks around the deserted streets, where she played as a child (Aoife Delaney). She recalls her childhood memories where she, her mother (Eadaoin Delaney) and her family had once been happy prior to the Great Famine and the emigration of her family to Canada.
90 years ago on Monday 8th December 1930 at 10am, Mother Jones was buried at the Union Cemetery, Mount Olive, Illinois.
Earlier on Sunday afternoon Father John Maguire in his funeral oration at the funeral of Mother Jones.
“Today in gorgeous mahogany furnished and carefully guarded offices in distant capitals, wealthy mine owners and capitalists are breathing sighs of relief. Today among the plains of Illinois, the hillsides and valleys of Pennsylvania and West Virginia, In California, Colorado and British Columbia, strong men and toil worn women are weeping tears of bitter grief. The reason for this contrasting relief and sorrow is the same. Mother Jones is dead!”
Father John Maguire
St. Gabriel’s Catholic Church in Washington. Among those included at the casket of Mother Jones is William Doak, US Secretary of Labour.
Mother Jones Funeral
Mother Jones Grave: Mount Olive, Illinois
The photos above from the Illinois Labour History Society give an indication of the impressive burial ceremony .
They show the scene outside St. Gabriel’s Catholic Church in Washington. Among those included at the casket of Mother Jones is William Doak, US Secretary of Labour.
Other photos show the massed ranks of organised labour honouring Mother Jones at Mount Olive
The President of Ireland, Michael D Higgins in a recent letter to the Cork Mother Jones Committee sends his best wishes to all involved in organising the 2020 Spirit of Mother Jones Festival. He praises Mother Jones as a catalyst for change and an emancipatory figure to whom we all owe a great deal of gratitude.
On the eve of first conference of the festival, entitled The Dynamic Role of theLabour Unions in the wake of Covid-19 and the Safe-keeping of Front LineWorkers in partnership with University College Cork Civic Engagement, President Higgins in his message to the organisers expresses his solidarity with all those workers whose contribution is so vital during the current Covid-19 pandemic.
President Higgins expresses the hope that their protection, job security and decent working conditions will prevail and that work as an enriching human activity will be the version of work that prevails.
Welcoming the President’s letter of support for the 2020 Spirit of Mother Jones Festival, James Nolan of the Cork Mother Jones Committee stated
“We are delighted with this very positive message from President Higgins to the organisers of the festival and for his warm tribute to the powerful, gritty and sustained contribution of Cork born Mother Jones to the labour movement in the United States.
The President’s visionary call for this Covid-19 crisis to provide an opportunity to rethink the connections between climate neutrality, a sustainable economy, social welfare and labour itself is very welcome.
The ninth Spirit of Mother Jones festival opens online on Friday 27th November at 3pm with University College Cork hosting a webinar with a number of trade union speakers participating. Among those taking part are Phil Ni Sheaghdha, General Secretary of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, Ann Piggott, President of the Association of Secondary Teachers of Ireland and Edward Lahiff of the Irish Federation of University Teachers. (Click to register this event only)
He expresses solidarity and support for the thousands of front-line workers who continue to put their lives at risk for the benefit of fellow citizens and calls on people to commemorate the thousands of workers throughout the world who in the service of others have already lost their lives. ”
Cork Singer Club on Sunday 8.30pm live on the Cork Singers’ Club Facebook page.
May I send my best wishes to all those involved in organising the 2020 ‘Spirit of Mother Jones Festival’, as well as all those attending the event. This year we gather together virtually with our fellow workers across the globe to mark the 90th anniversary of Cork-born Mary Harris’s death on 30th November 1930.
In the great, significant moments of the labour movement, we can identify moments when a single individual becomes a catalyst for positive change. Mary ‘Mother’ Jones is one such figure, among those emancipatory figures, to whom we all owe a great deal of gratitude. A survivor of the Great Famine, the Yellow Fever Epidemic of Memphis and the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, which robbed her of her home, family and livelihood, as well as the so-called ‘Spanish Flu’ Pandemic of 1918/19, Mother Jones was a woman of enormous grit and vigour. Yet, despite the toll of such personal struggle and tragedy, she found and mustered the resolve that enabled her to contribute so much to the labour movement in the United States over a period of several decades.
We gather together at a time of unprecedented risk for those who work tirelessly and selflessly in our health services, and those who ensure the continued delivery of essential services and utilities on which our citizens depend. Your conference is taking place as we face the challenge of dealing with a pandemic that is having such devastating personal, social and economic consequences.
However, out of such a crisis we are presented with perhaps a once-in-a-generation opportunity to do things better, to embrace and bring to fruition a new paradigm of existence with each other, in relation to work and living, and with the world itself; a renewed and healthier symbiosis of society, economy and ecology. The pandemic provides an opportunity to rethink the connections between climate neutrality, a sustainable economy, social welfare and labour itself.
The appropriate role Mother Jones would seek for trade unions, the labour movement and egalitarians of every hue is working together to give a lead. Work, above all else, is a human activity and given that in its form, conditions and purpose must have the participation, thought, design and sense of collectivity that comes from being a trade union member and activist.
Today let us commemorate the many thousands around the world who have, through their generous and willing efforts in the service of others, lost their own lives to COVID19, giving their lives for others with whom they shared the public world. Let us remember and celebrate also the many thousands more who continue to put their lives at risk in order to continue their important work, work that is for the benefit of their fellow citizens.
To all those workers who have responded to the Coronavirus crisis with such a generous spirit of solidarity, we owe an enormous debt of gratitude. However, gratitude, whose expression is so important, cannot be, and must never be, perceived as any adequate substitute for the dignity, well-being, and security of employment which is the right of all workers in any fair and inclusive society for which Mother Jones fought tirelessly.
As we navigate our way towards a shared and better future, we must resolve to build a lasting memorial to those brave and selfless workers who have been too easily left out of the pages of history. Let it be our battle cry, too, that battle cry of Mary ‘Mother’ Jones, and the motto that lies at the heart of this important day: “Remember the dead, fight like hell for the living”.
Today, as we reflect on the dynamic role of trade unions in the wake of the pandemic and the safe-keeping of our front-line workers, let us all commit to continuing our appreciation by standing in solidarity with all those whose contribution is so vital during this difficult time, recognising and enabling their right to protection, to be represented, to participate, to job security and decent working conditions now and into the future, where work will, in an enduring way, be recognised for the enriching human activity that it can be, and must in post-pandemic society be the version of work that prevails.
The full Spirit of Mother Jones Festival 2020 programme from Friday 27th November 2020 to Monday 30th November 2020 is now available. All events are free to view on Cork Community TV and everybody is welcome over the course of the weekend. We hope that you enjoy the 2020 programme.
Friday 27th November
3:00 p.m. The Dynamic Role of Labour Unions in the Wake of Covid-19 and the Safe Keeping of Front-Line Workers” A Partner Event with University College Cork Civic Engagement and the Spirit of Mother Jones Festival Speakers: Phil Ní Sheaghdha (INMO), Ann Piggott (ASTI), Dr Edward Lahiff (IFUT) Co-ordinated by Dr John Barimo. Click Here for direct webinar access at the time of the event. 7.30 p.m. Introduction by Cllr Joe Kavanagh, Lord Mayor of Cork “What Did the Women Do Anyway?” A discussion with Anne Twomey of the Shandon Area History Group
Saturday 28th November
11.00 a.m. Tadhg Barry Remembered Documentary film by Frameworks Films in collaboration with the Cork Council of Trade Unions. 2:30 p.m. “Ahawadda to Dáil Eireann: the amazing story of Sean Dunne, union organiser” Discussion with historian Diarmuid Kingston 3:30 p.m. “And the World Turns Away” Discussion with Peadar King 7:00 p.m. “Cork Burning” A power point presentation by Michael Lenihan 8:00 p.m. An evening with Jimmy Crowley at the Firkin Theatre Sunday 29th November Mother Jones Festival Archives 11:00 a.m. 2:30 p.m. 4:00 p.m. 8:10 p.m. “The story of Hillsborough” with Margaret Aspinall (2013) “Error of Judgement” with Chris Mullin (2015) “One Woman’s Fight for Justice” with Louise O’Keeffe (2018)
Sunday evening with the Cork Singers’ Club
(Zoom and live on Cork Singers’ Club Facebook page) If anyone wishes to participate email John Murphy dublinhill6@gmail.com
Monday 30th November Mother Jones Commemoration Day: 90th Anniversary 3:00 p.m. 4:00 p.m. 7.00 p.m. 8:00 p.m. “Ellen Cotter and Inchigeela in the 1800s” by Joe Creedon (2019) “The story of Mother Jones” by Professor Elliott J Gorn (2019) Mother Jones and her Children Documentary by Frameworks Films “Shandon in the time of Mother Jones” Narrated by Kieran McCarthy 8:30 p.m. Mother Jones: America’s Most Dangerous Woman By Rosemary Feurer 8:45 p.m. “Mother Jones visits Shandon in 1920” With Joan Goggin 9:00 p.m. The legacy of Mother Jones. Tributes to Mother Jones Times and Link at http://www.corkcommunitytv.ie or Virgin Media 803 on the box. Check the schedule on Cork Community TV for final times and repeats.
We are at critical juncture for trade unions and worker’s rights during this period of economic stress, joblessness, and wealth concentration. Education and healthcare professions are among those front-line workers who now face increased health and safety risks. Join Dr Edward Lahiff (IFUT National Executive) in conversation with Ms. Ann Piggott, President of the Association of Secondary Teachers, Ireland (ASTI) and Ms. Phil Ni Sheaghdha, General Secretary of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) on the role of Unions in leading the way forward.
With both health and education sectors providing vital services to society, panellists consider how the global pandemic will reframe issues of labour rights and workplace safety over the next decade.
To Register: (see below)
This event will be hosted live and broadcast using Microsoft Teams.
SPEAKERS:
· Dr. Edward Lahiff (moderator), Branch Chair of the Irish Federation of University Teachers (IFUT) at University College Cork.
· Ms. Phil Ni Sheaghdha, General Secretary of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO);
· Ms. Ann Piggott, President of the Association of Secondary Teachers, Ireland (ASTI);
Organised by Dr. John Barimo in partnership with University College Cork Civic & Community Engagement.
There will be a couple of ways for people to register and attend the Live Event webinar.
1. You can pre-register with Eventbrite. Eventbrite is programmed to send email reminders 24-hours and 1-hour before the event, so less likely to forget. Click Here to Register
2. Click Here for direct webinar access at the time of the event.
IMPORTANT: This event will be broadcast on Microsoft Teams. If you have not used Microsoft Teams in the past, please allow yourself a few extra moments before the event. *You do not need to download the MS Teams app. When you click the link to join simply (1) select option ‘Join on Web Instead’. (2) On next screen select ‘Join Anonymously’.
Photos: Phil Ni Sheaghdha, Ann Piggott, Dr. Edward Lahiff, Dr. John Barimo.
The late Christine Keegan and her daughter Antoinette. Photo courtesy of Sam Boal
The Cork Mother Jones Committee is proud to announce that the 2020 Spirit of Mother Jones Award will be presented to Antoinette Keegan of the Stardust Victims Committee.
Antoinette and her mother Christine Keegan were due to speak in Cork at this year’s Spirit of Mother Jones Summer school. Sadly, Christine passed away in July after a lifetime of fighting for justice for the Stardust victims.
The Keegan family have been central to the efforts for the past 40 years to investigate the causes of the fire. The recent announcement of a new inquest into the victims of the Stardust Fire is testament to the determination of Antoinette and her family and the Stardust Victims committee to pursue the truth of the night of the 13/14th February in 1981.
“The Spirit of Mother Jones Award is awarded this year to Ms. Antoinette Keegan of the Stardust Victims Committee for her determination, resilience and longstanding efforts to pursue truth, accountability and justice for the Stardust victims and their families over almost 40 years.
Antoinette and her late mother Christine and father John have pursued answers to what happened at the Stardust fire on 14th February 1981, where 48 young people lost their lives, including Antoinette’s sisters Mary and Martina.
In spite of her own injuries, the loss of her sisters, and the failure of the Authorities to provide answers, Antoinette has continued to actively campaign to uncover the full truth of the events of that night. She is an inspiration to so many!
For her bravery, courage and commitment, Antoinette Keegan is a very worthy recipient of the 2020 Spirit of Mother Jones Award.”
The Cork Mother Jones Committee
The award has been presented each year since 2013 by this committee to the person we feel most represents the fighting spirit of Mother Jones, who was born Mary Harris here in Cork in July 1837 and went on to become known throughout the world as Mother Jones. She fought for the rights of workers and the trade union movement and was involved in numerous campaigns
We will arrange to present the award representing The Children of Lir to Antoinette as soon as it becomes safe to do so in view of the current Covid-19 situation. It is hoped Antoinette will be able to come to Cork to speak at the Spirit of Mother Jones summer school in 2021.
The Revolutionary period and the subsequent creation of the Irish Free State and later the Republic has given rise to some amazing family stories. Very few can surpass the story of Sean Dunne, a Trade Union organiser, mentored by Jim Larkin and later Labour Party TD.
Filmed in West Cork, this discussion with local historian and author Diarmuid Kingston reveals the account of the Ahawadda Ambush (located on the road to Ring outside Timoleague) on 10th May1920, in which three Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) lost their lives in an ambush. This was the greatest loss of life of old RIC members in a single ambush in West Cork during the War of Independence.
Among them was Constable Edward Dunne from Co Laois. He was 32 years old, married to Bridget Coppinger, a school teacher with two children. Their young son Sean, was born in December 1918 in Timoleague. Constable Edward Dunne was buried quietly in Raheen in Co Laois.
Sean grew up in Waterford and Wicklow and in the late 30s was arrested and served time in the Curragh Internment Camp for Republican activities. He came under the influence of Jim Larkin and the Workers’ Union of Ireland and became one of the most effective union organisers in rural Ireland in the 1940s, founding the Federation of Rural Workers (FRW), which had up to 20,000 members at its height.
As its General Secretary, he organised countless strikes among rural workers and was instrumental in campaigning for and obtaining the weekly half day for his members in the early 1950s.
Later he was elected a TD for the Labour Party, when he was just 28 years old, and became one of the most colourful elected public representatives in the Dail. He had the record of being ejected from two parliaments, Dail Eireann and Stormont, as well as British Labour Party conferences.. Once labelled “an extreme communist” by Sean MacEntee,
Sean Dunne was described by one political correspondent as being “in daily conflict with Authority on cases of social justice, on the side of the lost nobodies of the world”.
His famous Leabhar Ballyfermot which he always carried contained the details of his constituents’ problems. Trade union organiser, writer, playwright, orator, Irish speaker and campaigner for social justice, this west Cork born politician died suddenly following the General Election in 1969.
His funeral at the Pro-Cathedral was attended by President Eamonn De Valera, Taoiseach Jack Lynch, Fine Gael Leader Liam Cosgrave and the Cabinet and thousands of workers.
He had travelled a very long road in life and his virtual State funeral was in stark contrast to that of his father who was buried quietly in a graveyard in Co Laois almost 50 years earlier.
In this film documentary discussion with Diarmuid Kingston, we look at the Ahawadda Ambush and we examine the subsequent life of Sean Dunne T.D, a remarkable trade union organiser.
Diarmuid is the author of Beleaguered (A History of the RIC in West Cork during the War of Independence) and has written extensively on the period.
The film will be shown during the forthcoming Spirit of Mother Jones festival and forms part of our contribution to Cork Commemoration 1920-23.
Update: On Saturday August 13th 2022, relatives of the three RIC men killed at the Ahawadda Cross ambush of May10th 1920 unveiled a memorial to remember the events outside Timoleague on that Monday afternoon.
Originally postponed due to Covid-19, the dignified ceremony took place in the presence of a gathering representing families on both sides of the ambush. Following a blessing of the monument, local historian Diarmuid Kingston gave an account of what took place on the nearby road.
Constable Edward Dunne, the father of labour and union activist Sean is listed among those who died on that day.
Historian, Diarmuid Kingston alongside the plaque.The large attendance present.Site of the Ahawadda Ambush.
Peadar King is a journalist and documentary film maker and is well known as the producer of the documentary series for RTE “What in the World”. His latest book published recently by Liffey Press, War, Suffering and the Struggle for Human Rightsis a powerful indictment of war and chronicles human rights abuses in times of conflict. Peadar interviews people from war zones whose descriptions of the impact of war and the horrible devastation which follows are heart breaking.
He states that “all wars are based on lies” and uses the Irish phrase “Chroi Bhriste” to describe the unspeakable horror endured by those who suffer.
The very human accounts in this book of the results of war are taken from interviews with the ordinary people and they paint in graphic detail the indiscriminate destruction of bombs on people and their communities.
Have we become inured to war? We can now watch versions of wars on our TVs and computers, but to many it’s more virtual clickbait with neither the impacts, the questions, context nor explanation sought nor provided.
Yet, Europe, the UK, the USA, Russia and China supply 75% of all weapons used in these wars which are fought over power, resources and oil and in the near future…. fresh water supplies!
“And The World Turns Away” features a discussion with Peadar King and will be shown during the Spirit of Mother Jones Festival.
The Cork Mother Jones Committee will show a short film of Mother Jones visiting Cork 100 years ago in December 1920 at the Spirit of Mother Jones Virtual festival (Friday Nov 27thto Monday Nov 30th).
There is no evidence that Mary Harris/Mother Jones ever did return to Cork city where she was born in 1837 and left after the Great Hunger in the 1840s.
However for the purposes of the imagination, we imagine Mother Jones visiting her childhood home and streets in Shandon just before Christmas 1920 after the burning of Cork City.
Taking the lead role is actress Joan Goggin know to all as Cork’s own Mother Jones. Joan’s family, especially her Dad had an involvement in the labour/trade union movement for many years and the famous union leader Jim Larkin sometimes stayed in their house when visiting Cork.
The film also features a series of flashbacks to the 1840s where Joan is joined by her daughter Eadaoin Delaney who plays the role of Ellen Cotter, Mary Harris’s mother. Joan’s granddaughter Aoife plays a young Mary Harris skipping on the streets of Shandon.
In a remarkable twist of faith, in her soliloquy at Shandon, Mother Jones recalls her only son named Terence who was born in 1865, but who tragically died in the Memphis yellow fever epidemic in October 1867 and acknowledges Cork’s Lord Mayor Terence MacSwiney who had died a few weeks earlier in October 1920.
This short film entitled Mother Jones Returns to Shandonwas filmed in andaround the Streets of Shandon by Frameworks Films.
All events will be streamed by Frameworks Films for the Spirit of Mother Jones Festival 2020 and will be freely available to view by all.
Full programme of events will appear here and the Mother Jones Cork Facebook by mid-November.
Joan Goggin (Courtesy of Andy Jay)Joan in Shandon Joan with Lord Mayor John Sheehan at the March of the Mill Children 2019Joan at the March of the Mill Children 2019.
The Spirit of Mother Jones Festival 