All events take place today at the Maldron Hotel, Shandon.
10:00 a.m. The Big Meeting. A documentary about the annual Durham Miners’ Gala, the largest trade union and community gathering in the UK. Directed by Daniel Draper.
11:30 a.m. Bernardo Guanche Hernandez, Ambassador of the Republic of Cuba to Ireland. Life in Cuba
1: 00 p.m. Club Ceoil Ballyphehane Ballad Group.
2:15 p.m. Grace O’ Sullivan. “Taking Action for the Planet: Life on the High Seas”. In memory of Fernando Pereira (1950-1985)
3:45 p.m. Tadhg Hickey: Writer, film maker, comedian and political activist.
5: 00 p.m. GAZA (2019):
A film by Garry Keane and Andrew McConnell. Portrait of a people and a place prior to the Genocide.
7:30 p.m. “This Land is Our Land: Confronting Extremism and Reclaiming Democracy” Panel discussion: speakers, John Donoghue, Associate Professor of History, Loyola University, Chicago Gema Kloppe-Santamaria, Lecturer, School of Society, Politics and Ethics, UCC. Tom Boland, Lecturer in Sociology in UCC. Moderator: John Barimo.
9:30 p.m. John Nyhan and Friends David King and Friends: Songs of Struggle, Songs of Hope.
Children of GazaArctic SunriseGemma Kloppe-SantamariaGrace O’SullivanJohn DonoghueTadhg HickeyTom BolandClub Ceoil BallyphehaneJohn Nyhan and James NolanDavid King and FriendsCuban Ambassador to Ireland, Bernardo Guanche HernandezDurham Miners Gala
The Kalyna Ukrainian Choir with the then Lord Mayor of Cork, Cllr. Fergal Dennehy.
We are very proud of the fact that this choir has appeared in every festival since 2023 and has become a firm favourite across Cork in recent years. It comprises women and men who are now living in Cork following the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the ongoing attacks on their country. In spite of the ongoing war and the personal toll on members the Choir represents Ukraine with pride and distinction. Winners of the Lord Mayors top community prize at Cork City Hall in 2024, this choir perform traditional songs from the Ukraine and their wonderful renderings of the Irish National Anthem “Amhrán Na bhFiann” and “You Raised Me Up” are inspiring.
Kalyna Ukrainian Community Choir should not be missed and their harmonious performances against a background of the war on their people and homeland provide an example of hope for the human spirit to overcome adversity. We look forward to welcoming them back to perform for the fourth time at the opening of the Spirit of Mother Jones Festival, on Thursday 23rd July at 1:00 pm at the Maldron Hotel. All are welcome.
Svitlava Deikun & Victoria Tymoshehuk with the Lord Mayor of Cork, Cllr Dan Boyle.
The Cork Singers’ Club.
Thursday 23rd July 2026 at 9.30 p.m.
Established in 1993, the Cork Singers’ Club has uniquely featured in every Mother Jones festival since the opening night on 31st July 2012. Eagerly awaited each year, the Cork Singers’ Club will present an evening of songs. It has ensured that the tradition of singing remains alive in Cork, no instruments are allowed. For locals and visitors this is an opportunity to hear songs being sung in a pure manner in front of an attentive audience and an opportunity to sing a song themselves. Club members also gather each Sunday night at An Spailpín Fánach to hone their remarkable art.
Cork Singers Club on Tour. Photo courtesy of William Hammond.
Under the Fear An Tí Jim Walsh, the Cork Singers’ Club represents the unique singing heritage of the people of Cork. Their efforts at this festival to sing songs influenced by Mother Jones is deeply appreciated and songs of trade unions, of working class people and social justice, the well springs of folk and traditional songs are celebrated. Come along and sing your song!
Friday 24th July at 1:00 p.m.
Club Ceoil Ballyphehane Ballad Group
Club Ceoil Ballyphehane, a volunteer-run, non-profit traditional Irish music organization in Cork. Founded in 2008 by Maurice Dineen, the club welcomes participants of all ages and abilities, offering affordable classes on various instruments and group singing. The Club Ceoil Ballad Group consists of local singers and instrumentalists playing guitar, banjo, bodhrán, fiddle, and tin whistle.
Club Ceoil Ballyphehane
Notable highlights from the group include performing “The Hegartys of The Laurels” at Cork City Hall alongside composer John Murphy, as well as frequent performances for local charities like Feed Cork and community gatherings. Club Ceoil runs classes on a Monday night in Coláiste Éamann Rís and on a Tuesday evening in Presentation Secondary School, Ballyphehane. Their performance should not be missed and their first visit to the festival since 2019 is bound to be a memorable one.
Friday 24th July at 9.30 p.m.
John Nyhan and friendsand introducing David King and friends
What can one say about the legendary John Nyhan…? John is a highly versatile musician and singer who has been associated with the Spirit of Mother Jones festival since its beginning.
His contributions to the folk revival, country music and bluegrass music in Ireland has been immense over the years and he is a familiar sight at festivals in the north Cork area. He attends the Willie Clancy Summer School each year. His knowledge of music and those who play and sing is almost encyclopedic. His renderings of ‘Universal Soldier’ andWhere HaveAll the Flowers Gone’ are without parallel in the genre of anti-war songs and John sings them with a rare passion. He is very much at home with folk and protest songs from the 60s and 70s and as this year’s theme is ‘Songs of Struggle, Songs of Hope’ John will be at his best.
John Nyhan. Photo: Claire Stack.
John will introduce a relatively new band from the south side of the city led by American exile David King and his Irish Friends present an uplifting collection of songs of labour and wider struggles, inspired by the likes of Pete Seeger, Luke Kelly, Joan Baez and Woody Guthrie. This largely acoustic set includes some recent works and a fresh take on familiar standards. And maybe a few jigs, and a cowboy song or two. Perfect for celebrating the life and legacy of Mother Jones., the band will perform a wide selection of the songs of protest and struggle. A great evening’s music is assured.
Dave King and Friends.
Saturday 25th July at 6.30p.m. Approx. (At the Mother Jones Plaque on John Redmond Street)
Martin Leahy will again perform his song about homelessness “Everyone Should Have a Home” at the Plaque. He has performed this each Thursday outside Dail Eireann for the past two years and recently declared that he felt he had made his point. His dedication in travelling each week to perform outside the Dail highlighted the great failure of many recent Irish governments. Last year we were honoured that Martin released his new song called ‘Mother Jones’ at the festival. It is available online.
Martin Leahy at the plaque with the late Joan Goggin.
His song “Where We Lay our Bodies Down” remains a fitting tribute to the late Ann Lovett while “Snowflakes“relates to the online attacks on people. Martin sings and plays in the tradition of Woody Guthrie and like woody abhors injustice. He writes his songs with that theme central to words and music. Martin has been very active in exposing the genocide in Gaza and regularly sings also on Saturdays at the Palestinian marches in Cork City.
This year we miss Jimmy Crowley from the Spirit of Mother Jones Festival line up. Jimmy was delighted to play at the Spirit of Mother Jones festival in the early days and has played at all of the Festivals to date. He made the festival Friday lunchtime concert all his own as he returned year after year to play his favourite songs of Cork before appreciative audiences. Many eagerly looked forward to Jimmy’s appearances, year after year.
This year he is recovering back home in Cobh from a very serious illness. On behalf of everyone at the festival, we wish him well and hope to see himself and Eve Telford back at the festival again.
Jimmy Crowley with his book, Songs from the Beautiful City.
All events take place at the Maldron Hotel, Shandon.
Thursday 24th July 2025 at 1.00 p.m.
Choir Kalyna.
Winners of the Lord Mayors top community prize at Cork City Hall in 2024, this choir has become a huge favourite across Cork in recent years. It comprises women and men who are now living in Cork following the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the ongoing attacks on their country. The choir perform traditional songs from the Ukraine and their wonderful renderings of “You Raised Me Up” are inspiring for all who have been present at their performances.
Choir Kalyna should not be missed and their creative performances against a background of the assault on their homeland provide an example of hope for the human spirit to overcome adversity. We look forward to welcoming them back to perform at the opening of the Spirit of Mother Jones Festival.
Choir Kalyna with Viktoria.
The Cork Singers’ Club.
Thursday 9.30 p.m.
Established in 1993, the Cork Singers’ Club has uniquely featured in every Mother Jones festival since the opening night on 31st July 2012. Eagerly awaited each year, the Cork Singers’ Club will present an evening of songs. It has ensured that the tradition of singing remains alive in Cork, no instruments are allowed. For locals and visitors this is an opportunity to hear songs being sung in a pure manner in front of an attentive audience. Club members also gather each Sunday night at An Spailpín Fánach to hone their remarkable art. Under the Fear An Tí Jim Walsh, the Cork Singers’ Club is a gem of the singing heritage of the people of Cork. A special effort is made by the singers each year to honour Mother Jones with songs of unions, of working class people and social justice. Go along!
Cork Singers Club.Cobh Animation. Claire Stack.Lord Mayor of Cork singing Fulsome Prison Blues.
Friday 25th July at 1:00 p.m.
Maldron Hotel Bar.
Jimmy Crowley accompanied by Eve Telford.
Legendary Cork ballad and folk singer Jimmy Crowley accompanied by Eve Telford will perform at lunch time on Friday. Jimmy has created and played on the folk music scene in Ireland and across the world for over 60 years now. He established one of the first folk clubs in Cork in Douglas in the late 70s and early 80s. His band Stokers Lodge was very popular for a number of years.
From his song-writing to his solo albums to his Opus Mór; Songs From a Beautiful City(The Free State Press 2014), Jimmy has made an enormous contribution to preserving Irish ballads. He submits songs weekly to the Cork Evening Echo with a note dealing with its background and his contribution has now exceeded a thousand songs. He has appeared at the Spirit of Mother Jones festival since its very beginnings and holds the woman in very high esteem.
Eve Telford sings traditional folk songs from Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales. Born in Australia, her original songs are inspired by the wellsprings of world mythologies, indigenous rights, the natural world and political protest. Their concerts now embrace a wide variety of songs, old and new, traditional and modern.
Jimmy Crowley with Songs from a Beautiful City.Eve Telford and Jimmy Crowley singing at the Palestinian meeting on the Grand Parade.
Friday 25th July at 6.30pm. At the Shandon Plaza.
The Mexican Community Choir.
Cecila Gamez and her dancers representing the Mexican Community in Cork will perform close by the Dance Cork Firkin Crane on Friday evening. Their performance in traditional attire along with striking sombreros will add a riot of colour to the festival and will honour the connections Mother Jones made with the Mexican revolutionaries in the early 1900. Mother Jones campaigned for the release of many of the Mexican leaders who were imprisoned in the US and was honoured as Madre Juanita in Mexico in 1921.
Friday 25th July at 9.30 p.m.
Maldron Hotel Bar.
John Nyhan and Gearoid Nyhan and friends and introducing US labour singer George Mann.
George Mann is a former union organiser and now a singer of American Labour songs. Based in Ithaca New York, he is interested in labour and working class history and sings the songs of the labour and social justice movements of the 20th Century. He has toured widely and performs at hundreds of concerts each year. In 2013 he produced the “Almanac Trail” with Rik Palieri, which is a tribute to the famous Almanac Singers. Along with Si Kahn he recently released an album of Labour Songs. He is joining us here in Cork directly from singing at the Tolpuddle Martyrs Festival in Dorset. This is George’s first visit to Ireland and we are eagerly looking forward to his performance at the festival.
(At the Mother Jones Plaque on John Redmond Street)
Martin Leahy will again perform his song about homelessness “Everyone Should Have a Home” at the Plaque. He has performed this each Thursday outside Dail Eireann for the past two years and in doing so highlights the great failure of many recent Irish governments. His song “Where We Lay our Bodies Down” remains a tribute to Ann Lovett while “Snowflakes” relates to the online attacks on people. Martin hates injustice and he has been very active in exposing the genocide in Gaza and regularly sings also on Saturdays at the Palestinian marches in Cork City and in Bandon.
Martin Leahy with Mother Jones.
Dee Power is a music and drama educator, teaching piano, vocals, speech and dramas and coaching choirs in a variety of schools in the city and county. She plays in two Cork bands, Cork Floyd and Silvertone and plays a variety of sessions in music haunts around the city. She is outspoken re inequality and social injustices and you can regularly hear her using her voice to protest social injustices. She is delighted to be singing at the Mother Jones annual celebration and is much looking forward to setting with the esteemed Martin Leahy
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”
Norman O’Rourke, Cork’s favourite piper, will again lead in the Lord Mayor of Cork to formally open the 13th Spirit of Mother Jones Festival. Norman recently received a Lord Mayor’s Award for his contribution to the community in Cork. In recent years a giant banner featuring Norman and his bagpipes overlook the Grand Parade in the City Centre.
Norman O’Rourke with Richard T. Cooke.
Kalyna Ukrainian Community Choir.
Recent winners of the Lord Mayors top community prize at Cork City Hall, this choir has become a huge favourite across Cork in recent years. It comprises women and men who are now living in Cork following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. At the recent Festival launch, their rendering of Amhrán Na bhFiann was a highlight. “You Raised Me Up” is another firm favourite. A performance by the colourful and very impressive Kalyna should not be missed.
Kalyna Ukrainian Community Choir.
Thursday 25th July at 9.30.
Cork Singers’ Club.
This unique club of unaccompanied singers has performed at the opening night of the festival since the festival began in 2012. Jim Walsh is Fear An Ti for this year’s session and the night will hear songs of trade unions, workers’ lives, social justice, human rights and many other topics. Singers are welcome to participate and if anyone wishes to contribute a song, just put your name down on the list. The Cork Singers’ Club holds regular sessions at the Spailpín Fánach Bar on South Main Street on Sunday nights and is a must see for anyone with an interest in singing..
It can be contacted through its Facebook page.
Jim Walsh, Cork Singers Club
Friday 26th July at 1pm.
Legendary Cork ballad and folk singer Jimmy Crowley accompanied by Eve Telford will perform at lunch time. Jimmy has created and played on the folk music scene in Ireland and across the world for over 60 years now. He established one of the first folk clubs in Cork in Douglas in the late 70s and early 80s. His band Stokers Lodge was very popular for a number of years. From his song-writing to his solo albums to his Opus Mór; Songs From a Beautiful City (The Free State Press 2014), Jimmy has made an enormous contribution to preserving Irish ballads, which would have been lost without his intervention. Each week since 2002 he submits songs weekly to the Cork Evening Echo with a note dealing with its background and his contribution has now exceeded a thousand songs. .
Eve Telford sings traditional folk songs from Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales. Born in Australia, her original songs are inspired by the wellsprings of world mythologies, indigenous rights, the natural world and political protest.
Ann Piggott with Jimmy Crowley and Eve Telford
Friday 26h July at 9pm.
John Nyhan and friends, and introducing Carla Gover and the CornMaize Stringband.
John Nyhan. Photo: Claire Stack
Following an invitation to play at a festival in Mexico, which went so well Carla and her friends dubbed themselves CornMaize (the words for corn in English and Spanish). The band draws heavily on the fiddle and banjo music of Eastern Kentucky where the band members are from but also includes some bluesy influences. “There’s a lot of fun and a lot of love in our performances and we hope you feel it as you listen and (hopefully) dance along”. Members of the band include Arlo Barnette, Zoey Barrett, Yani Vozos and Carla Gover.
Carla Gover and John Nyhan in Cork.
Corn Maiz String BandCover of Corn Maiz Album.
Saturday 27th July at 6pm (at the Mother Jones Plaque on John Redmond Street)
Martin Leahy will sing a number of songs including his song about homelessness which he has performed each Thursday outside Dail Eireann for the past two years. Martin sings also on Saturdays at the Palestinian marches in Cork City.
Martin Leahy singing at a Palestine support march in Cork City
Mick Treacy of Ballybeg, Mitchelstown, passed away on 27 May 2024, just five days short of his 86th birthday.
Mick Treacy at the Cork Butter Market August 2021.
Mick, his friend and fellow musician John Nyhan have sang at the Spirit of Mother Jones festivals from 2016 onwards. Many people have mentioned these unforgettable singing sessions at the Maldron Hotel when Mick and John performed the songs of Pete Seeger, Joe Hill, Ewan MacColl, mining songs, and the songs of the Spanish Civil War with power and passion in front of packed and appreciative audiences.
What some people present did not realise was that Mick, who was in his 80s, was regarded as a legend in folk circles in Britain and Ireland back in the 1960s. He sang and performed with many of the greats of the folk revival in that period. This unassuming singer remained deeply passionate about social justice and labour and campaigned actively for nuclear disarmament in Britain during that time.
Mick came to folk music by listening to The Weavers, Delia Murphy, Joe Lynch, Connie Foley, and Cork woman Margaret Barry in the fifties, and then the Skiffle movement in Britain, which Ken Colyer spearheaded. The revival of interest in folk song and music resulted in the growth of informal folk clubs in many large cities and towns across Britain and Ireland. Young aspiring ‘folkies’ flocked to hear singers and musicians who had been playing folk for a while as many Skiffle groups had embraced this new scene.
Mick went to England in late 1960 and became part of the whole folk revival, first listening to and then learning from Ewan McColl, Bob Davenport, Alex Campbell, Ramblin’ Jack Elliot and many more. By 1964, he was singing in Birmingham Town Hall in a fundraising concert for the West Midlands Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and later joined an Irish Group called ‘The Munstermen‘. This group comprised Mick Treacy, Mick Hipliss, Mick Lillis, Gerry Norris and Eamon Lowe.
Mick Treacy speaking at a CND rally at the Bullring (courtesy of Cherry Gilchrist).
This led, in turn, to the founding of the legendary Holy Ground Folk Club at the Cambridge Inn in Birmingham in April 1965. Over the next three years of its operation, weekly sessions attracted huge crowds excited at the prospect of hearing the performances of many of the great singers, such as Ewan MacColl and Joe Heaney. “The Munstermen” played and sang almost weekly at this club.
In 1967, Mick came to Dublin and sang in most of the great venues of the day, such as the Embankment, the Castle Inn, the Old Sheiling, and many of the local Folk Clubs, before returning to his native Mitchelstown, where he settled down, worked in the Dairygold creamery, and married Maura Haran, raised a family of three daughters, Róisín, Jennifer, and Carolyn, and contributed so much on a voluntary basis to his local community.
He has always been interested in the songs of working people, collecting many over the years. With the assistance of Brian O’Reilly in Studio Fiona in Fermoy and his many friends, he released “A Folk Anthology” in 1997, in which he sang and played the accordion and flute. He also released several CDs, including “At the Holy Ground Once More” and “The Road to Bandon.”
“Mick Treacy was a man of great knowledge of folk music and politics and possessed a tremendous intellect and made a huge contribution to the Spirit of Mother Jones festival”, stated his friend and fellow musician John Nyhan
John Nyhan and Mick Treacy at the Butter Market, Shandon, Cork, in August 2021.
Mick himself acknowledged that he felt “privileged to have shared the platform and stage with many pacifist and socialist poets, writers, singers and performers who shared his dreams.”. All involved with the Spirit of Mother Jones Festival feel very privileged to have heard Mick Treacy sing the songs of justice and freedom that were important to him and us.
Mick Treacy with his daughter Jennifer at the 2018 Spirit of Mother Jones Festival.
To Maura and his daughters, Roisin, Jennifer, and Carolyn, everyone associated with the Spirit of Mother Jones Festival offers our sympathy. Ní bheidh a leithéid ann arís.
Thanks go to author Cherry Gilchrist of Cherry’s Cache, who wrote about her visits to The Holy Ground affectionately and supplied two photographs of Mick Treacy.
Tribute Concert online to Si Kahn on Sunday 14th April 2024.
It will feature over a dozen artists, including Billy Bragg, Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer, Tom Chapin, Jane Sapp, Holly Near and Kathy Mattea who will be chiming in with tales about Si and singing some of his classic songs.
According to his friend John McCutcheon….
“This will be an incredible evening and a chance to not only hear some great music, but honor the guy I declared, “The best damn songwriter in the South….in his spare time !” back in 1975.”
Si Kahn and Elizabeth Minnich visited Cork city to take part in the 2014 Spirit of Mother Jones festival.
In a memorable performance at the Firkin Theatre in Shandon, Si and the folk singer/activist Anne Feeney joined forces to perform what has become a legendary concert to a packed auditorium and appreciative audience.
Si Kahn and the late Anne Feeney Concert at the 2014 Spirit of Mother Jones Festival.
Si Kahn was born in 1944 and was greatly influenced by the Civil Rights movement. During the 1970’s, he worked with the United Mine Workers of America in the Brookside Strike in Harlan County, Kentucky, and was an area director of the J.P. Stevens campaign for the ACTWU in Roanoke Rapids in North Carolina. These historic labour struggles are portrayed in the movies Harlan County USA and Norma Rae.
Aragon Mill
In the early 70’s Si spent a few days in Aragon, Georgia where a textile mill had closed down putting about 700 people out of work. He wrote the folk classic Aragon Mill which is a haunting song of quiet despair after the closure of the local mill.
Aragon Mill was included in “New Wood”, Si’s first album. It has been recorded by Planxty, Hazel Dickens, Hans Theessink and many others. The Furey Brothers recorded it as Belfast Mill and there is a version called Douglas Mill.
Si’s songs have been recorded by many artists including Dolores Keane, Eleanor Shanley, Dick Gaughan, June Tabor, Peggy Seeger, the Dublin City Ramblers and Kathy Mattea. He has toured all over Europe, Canada and North America and released many albums of original songs, including a CD of original songs for children, “Good Times and Bedtimes”: a collection of traditional labour, civil rights and women’s songs recorded with Pete Seeger and Jane Sapp.
In 1980, Si founded Grassroots Leadership, a Southern-based national progressive organisation, and he served as its Executive Director for 30 years, retiring on May Day 2010. For the past 13 years, Grassroots Leadership has worked to oppose privatisation and to defend the public sector.
He spent many years actively involved with a campaign to stop what would be the world’s largest open pit mine in Alaska and by doing so to save Bristol Bay, one of the greatest remaining wild fisheries in the world. He released an album in 2013 entitled “Bristol Bay” and is active with Musicians United to Protect Bristol Bay. He also campaigned against mountaintop removal in West Virginia.
Si wrote “Creative Community Organising: A guide for Rabble-Rousers, Activists and Quiet Lovers of Justice (Berrett-Koehler 2010).
An earlier book in 2006 “The Fox in the Henhouse: How Privatisation Threatens Democracy” was co-authored with feminist philosopher Elizabeth Minnich, his long term partner and spouse. Two earlier organising handbooks, “How People Get Power” and “Organising: A Guide for Grassroots Leaders”, have been extremely popular.
Pete Seeger:
“Si Kahn is one of the best………………..a solid thinker who is able to humanize the political……Ihope he lives to be 120” .
Rosanne Cash:
“I put Si in the same category as Woody Guthrie, as Pete Seeger and in a strange way my Dad, who shared his righteous sense of humanity and his love of the meek who he truly believed would inherit the earth.”
Si has completed a musical about Mother Jones, “Mother Jones in Heaven” and we still hope it can be performed some day in Cork.
Si Kahn and Elizabeth in County Cork in 2014.
Read a wonderful tribute to Si Kahn from Saul Schniderman on his weekly Friday Labor Folklore.
The Spirit of Mother Jones festival and summer school contains challenging and relevant talks and interesting discussions but it also includes singing, music, poetry and some walking.
The Cork Ukrainian Choir will perform at the opening by the Lord Mayor of Cork. After their stunning performance at the Festival launch earlier in the month……..do not miss them!
Cork Ukrainian Choir.
The 2023 festival again features the Cork Singers’ Club whose unique tradition of singing songs without musical accompaniment has ensured that singing songs for enjoyment to an appreciative audience remains a living cultural idiom of communities all over Cork. Come and enjoy this unique experience in the company of the Cork Singers’ Club which has rendered songs of unions, workers’ lives, freedom and social justice at the opening night of the Spirit of Mother Jones festival for the past 12 years.
Therese and Sean MacCarthaigh of the Cork Singers’ Club.
Legendary Cork ballad and folk singer Jimmy Crowley accompanied by Eve Telford will perform at lunch time on Friday 28th. Jimmy has been involved with folk music in Ireland and abroad for six decades and has released many important folk albums. From his time on the Cork folk club scene to Stokers Lodge, his song-writing to his solo albums to his Opus Mór; Songs From a Beautiful City (The Free State Press 2014), Jimmy has made an enormous contribution to preserving Irish ballads. He has submitted well over 1000 songs to the Songs of Cork column which appears each week in the Evening Echo since 2002. Eve Telford sings traditional folk songs from Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales. Born in Australia, her original songs are inspired by the wellsprings of world mythologies, indigenous rights, the natural world and political protest.
Eve Telford and Jimmy Crowley.
Friday evening sees a Cork tribute to Chilean folk singer, guitar player and socialist, Victor Jara who was murdered by the Chilean military dictatorship, some fifty years ago on 16th September 1973. The tribute is organised by John Nyhan, a versatile musician and singer who has been associated with the Spirit of Mother Jones festivals and has spent many years in the folk and bluegrass music worlds.
John Nyhan with Arlo Guthrie.
John and his friends will continue later with the theme of the evening and play a selection of the songs of protest associated with the Folk Music revival. A memorable evening of music and songs is awaited.
Traditionally, each festival concludes with a toast to Mother Jones at the plaque. This year we will be joined by Cork singer songwriter, Martin Leahy whose song “Everyone Should Have a Home’ has become the theme track of the current housing crisis in Ireland. Each week for a year to May 2023, Martin travelled to Dublin to sing this song outside Dail Eireann to remind the politicians entrusted with solving this human tragedy of their responsibilities to enable people seeking a place to call home are facilitated to do so.
Martin Leahy, Photo by Michael Meade.
“It’s a basic human right to have a dignified place to call your own”
Victor Jara Martinez was a singer and songwriter, a poet, and a political activist. He was active in Chilean theatre as well as international folk music circles.
Victor Jara (Wikipedia)
Jara supported Salvador Allende who was a popular socialist unity candidate of the Left in a bitterly divided Chile in the early 70s. Along with his wife Joan, they supported the elected Allende government elected in September 1970 by organizing cultural and music events.
The Chilean army generals, with the support of the United States began a violent coup on 11th September 1973 against this elected government and appointed General Augusto Pinochet as dictator.
The army proceeded to conduct a reign of terror against people identified as Allende supporters. Victor Jara was kidnapped and locked up in the Estadio Chile. Jara, who was well known to the army was tortured and murdered on 16th September 1973, at the age of just 40.
The sports stadium in Santiago is now called Victor Jara Stadium.
During Pinochet’s first three years, approx. 130,000 people were arrested, many were tortured and some 6,000 people were murdered or disappeared.
A house belonging to Irish missionaries in Chile was attacked in 1975 and their housekeeper Henriquetta Reyes was murdered. As late as 1983, two Irish Columban Father priests, Fr. Forde and Fr. McGillicuddy were expelled as a result of their human rights work in Chile. Dr. Sheila Cassidy who worked with the poor was imprisoned and tortured.
These two priests as well as Fr Holohan, another Irish priest. were recently honoured in June 2023 by the Chilean government for their work and by President Michael D Higgins at a ceremony in the Chilean embassy in Dublin. The President of Ireland is due to travel to Chile in September 2023 on the fiftieth anniversary of the military coup.
The memory of Victor Jara lives on among those who fight for social justice across the world. It is appropriate as we approach the fiftieth anniversary of his murder that we pause and think of this warm hearted guitar player who wrote songs and sang about freedom.
A tribute to Victor Jara from some of Cork’s musicians will take place on Friday 28th July 2023 at 9:00 pm at the Maldron Hotel.
Woody Guthrie (1912-1967) highlighted the suffering of the rural poor and dispossessed in depression and dust storm America of the 1930s.
His many songs provide the backdrop for many of the reality of ordinary American life outside of the glamour of Hollywood and big City dreams.
Guthrie openly supported the trade union movement and promoted left-wing causes for several decades and campaigned on social justice issues while his battered guitar proudly displayed the message “This Machine Kills Fascists”.
During the 50s he along with thousands of others experienced the cancelation culture of the communist witch hunts of Joe McCarthy. (McCarthy of Tipperary and Galway heritage was publicly praised by some Catholic bishops in Ireland.)
Travelling incessantly when younger, his songs chart the daily lives of a hidden class of drifting migrant labourers and poor farmers driven from their lands and jobs by exploitation and natural disasters and faced with poverty, hunger and death.
His autobiography, ‘Bound For Glory’ published in 1943, which has sold millions of copies, brought his life’s work and ideas to a wide audience.
Woody played and sang with many of the great artists such as Sonny Terry, Cisco Houston, Leadbelly and Pete Seeger.
The song collector Alan Lomax also recorded Woody for the Library of Congress.
Many regard his composition ‘This Land Is Your Land’ as the alternative anthem of North America.
There is some debate about the words of two of the original seven verses which were critical of the political situation and are rarely sung these days but may still be just as relevant.
As I went walking I saw a sign there And on the sign it said “No Trespassing”. But on the other side it didn’t say nothing, That side was made for you and me.
In the squares of the City, In the shadow of a steeple; Near the relief office, I’ve seen my people. As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking, Is this land made for you and me?
His many songs include ‘Ye Shall Be Free”, ‘John Henry’, ‘Tom Joad’, ‘Pastures of Plenty’, ‘So Long It’s been Good to Know Yah’, ‘Vigilante Man’, ‘ I Ain’t Got No Home’, while the Dust Bowl Ballads contains some of his finest work. He died after contracting Huntington’s Chorea, a degenerative disease.
Poster from Kilworth, Co. Cork gig in 2012.
His son Arlo Guthrie with Marjorie Greenblatt (Mazia), is a well known folk singer and has visited and played gigs in Ireland and in Cork many times.
John Nyhan with Arlo Guthrie
The story and songs of Woody Gurthrie will be told by John Nyhan, Mick Treacy and friends at the Maldron Hotel, Shandon on Friday night 29th July from 9.30, all welcome. Not to be missed.
