“The Organised Society and Role of the Labour Movement.”
The former General Secretary of the National Union of Rail,Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) Union, Mick Lynch returned to Cork to speak at the Spirit of Mother Jones festival 2025.
He spoke about the role of the Labour Movement in society.
Mick Lynch. Photo: Emma Bowell.
Thanks to JASE Media Services and after receiving many inquiries we are showing his entire talk which took place at the Dance Cork Firkin Crane.
Relevant, interesting and challenging are the criteria for presentations and lectures at the Spirit of Mother Jones Festival. Mick Lynch certainly delivered in this talk. We hope you will watch the video and listen to his ideas.
Mick Lynch: Photo: Angela Flynn.Joan Goggin and Ann Piggott with Mick Lynch. Photo: Emma Bowell.
Des Geraghty, Karan Casey, Mick Lynch and Ethel Buckley at the Cork Butter Exchange in Shandon.
Mick Lynch speaking at the weekly Gaza March in Cork City. Photo: Angela Flynn.Mick Lynch at the Mother Jones plaque.Mick Lynch with the Mexican Community Dance Group.
The Cork Mother Jones Committee is sad to announce the passing on Thursday 10th April 2025 of our great friend Anne Scargill following a long illness with Alzheimer’s disease.
Anne was a lifelong community activist in the North of England.
She was a co-founder of the Women Against Pit Closures (WAPC) who took a key part in the struggle in defence of their mining communities during the Miners Strike in 1984/85. Later she remained active on social justice issues alongside her great friend Betty Cook for over 40 years and took part in the occupation of the Parkside coal mine over the Easter weekend in April 1993. This underground sit-in required extraordinary courage, made international news and highlighted the dreadful treatment of the mining communities after the strike was long over.
Anne Harper was born on the 12th October 1941. Her background was totally connected to coal mining.
“I was brought up in the heart of the Barnsley coalfield with my mam, dad and sister Joan in a terraced row in Barugh Green. There was a pub called the Phoenix at one end of the row and a Co-op at the other. My dad was Elliott Harper, a coal miner from a big family of colliers in Gawber. My mother was Harriet Hardy from Skelmanthorpe near Huddersfield.”
From Anne & Betty United by the Struggle. 2020
Anne Harper met a young trade union and political activist Arthur Scargill in Barnsley when she was 18 when he visited her father who was also a trade union man. They married in 1961. In their book with Ian Clayton, Anne describes their life and adventures as the union activist Arthur rose in the ranks of the National Union of Miners (NUM) to eventually become the president of the powerful NUM. She traveled extensively and experienced life in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. She attended the World Social Forum in Mumbai, traveled to Australia and visited Cuba where she encountered Fidel Castro. She met Hortensia Bussi, the widow of Salvador Allende in Cuba also.
Anne second from left supporting the Greyhound Bin workers strike in Dublin in 2014. Courtesy of J Thomson.
She remained very proud of the way, her then husband, Arthur led the miners and proud of the women who joined in at the pickets, at the food kitchens and the marches. She also noted that as the men marched back to work at the end of the strike, many women had been changed by their activism during the strike. Anne began to spend time with women’s activist groups. Taking inspiration from the Greenham Common women, the WAPC organised several pit camps outside mines to highlight the mine closures by the Tory government, Anne spent a year in the Grimethorpe pit-camp. She even sat in a camp outside the Tory party offices and the Department of Trade in London. And like Mother Jones, she was arrested on several occasions, once placed in a van prison cage and strip searched! She became even more determined to continue picketing and did so up and down the country wherever she was needed..
Anne and Betty at the County Hotel balcony, Durham Miners Gala 2014.
In recent times Anne accompanied by her friend Betty Cook, she visited the Spirit of Mother Jones Festival in Cork in 2014 and 2015 and returned in 2019 to take part in the March of the Mill Children recreated in Shandon that year.
Anne and Betty with their Daughters of Mother Jones banner at the March of the Mill Children in Shandon in 2019. Courtesy of Claire Stack.Left to Right:. Anne Scargill, Spirit of Mother Jones Award recipient 2019 Louise O’Keeffe and Betty Cook.
Anne and Betty spoke at the festivals and sang Mal Finch’s great anthem ‘Women of the Working Class’. She enjoyed signing the visitors book in the Cork City Mayoral Office in the presence of the Lord Mayor of Cork, Chris O’Leary in 2014.
Anne Scargill signs the visitors book, at Cork City Hall in the Lord Mayors Office in 2014. Cllr Chris O’Leary, Lord Mayor of Cork and Betty Cook look on. Courtesy of J. Thomson.
The women marched each year in the huge Durham Gala and proudly carried their ‘Daughters of Mother Jones’ banner along the parade route. Anne was just so happy to be amongst mining community friends. She also visited Jonesborough in the Appalachian mountains to meet up with the Daughters of Mother Jones colleagues such as Marat Moore and Libby Lindsay.
Durham Gala.
With a glint in her eye, Anne loved to tell funny and hair raising stories about her activities. Laced with wit and shrewd and perceptive observations,she certainly did not stand on ceremony in the presence of the famous or those charged with upholding the law if she felt she was right. Her humour was ever present and her positive energy radiated through her activism. She always knew which side she was on and followed passionately in the footsteps of her hero, Mother Jones!
Ní bheidh a leithéid ann arís.
To Anne’s daughter Margaret and family we extend our sympathy and also to Betty Cook, her great friend and colleague in activism, and to her many comrades. May she rest in peace.
This will be shown on Saturday 27th July at 3.30 pm at the Maldron Hotel, Shandon during the Spirit of Mother Jones Festival.
What happened at Orgreave?
Forty years ago on 18th June 1984, at Orgreave coking works near Rotherham in the north of England, the National Union of Miners (NUM) organised a mass picket of the miners in an attempt to stop production.
The Miners national strike had been underway for several months at this stage and there had been some minor confrontations between pickets and the police.
However on this occasion the police, adopting military style tactics, attacked the miners, they charged the miners on horses, used dogs to attack individual miners and savagely beat many with batons. Many miners were injured and dozens were arrested. The brutality displayed by the police was quite shocking. It was not a battle, it was a riot by the police. Dozens of miners were seriously injured and many still suffer effects to this day. Over 90 were arrested, however when an initial 15 were put on trial for rioting and unlawful assembly, the trial collapsed due to issues with statements from the South Yorkshire police ( who were also involved in the Hillsborough Disaster just over five years later.) Repeated calls for a public inquiry into the violence of the police on that day, some 40 years ago have been largely ignored by the British establishment.
The events at Orgreave left a very bitter legacy in miners communities and many commentators have since stated that something changed forever in Britain on that morning, in many ways it represented a display of the iron fist of Thatcherism. The miners strike lasted a year and resulted in defeat for the NUM and the end of the coal industry and their communities.
Photographer John Harris’s stark image of the policeman on his horse attacking Lesley Boulton as he swung a long truncheon at her head leaves an indelible memory in many people. She had earlier shouted at a policeman to get an ambulance for an injured miner, the policeman swung round his horse and charged at her. Luckily a miner behind Lesley pulled her back by her belt and the blow missed. (See top right photo on the 30th Anniversary banner below.)
For up to date news on Orgreave and the calls for a public Inquiry visit the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign at www.otjc.org.uk
The Cork Mother Jones Committee showed this film with the permission of Yvette Vanson at the 2014 Spirit of Mother Jones Festival, and again at the 2015 festival when General Secretary of the Durham Miners Association, the late Dave Hopper, who was present at the “battle” gave an eye witness account of the events.
The Cork Mother Jones Committee is pleased to announce the recipient of the 2023 Spirit of Mother Jones Award.
It has been awarded to UK Trade Union leader Mick Lynch and the RMT.
The award will be presented to Mr. Lynch at a meeting at the Dance Cork Firkin Crane on Thursday 27th July at 4:00 pm as part of the Spirit of Mother Jones Festival.
Mick Lynch with strong Cork roots was appointed General Secretary of the National Union of Railway, Transport and Marine workers, (RMT) in 2021 and has led the fight to defend his members’ working conditions and pay as well as trying to protect the public and community services.
Mick Lynch and his wife Mary at the Durham Miners Gala in 2022. Courtesy of Chronicle Live.
James Nolan spokesperson for the Cork Mother Jones Committee stated
“We believe that Mick Lynch by his direct action, solid analysis, straight talking and plain speaking in defence of workers and union rights, has won him widespread support and respect among working people.
His precise fact based arguments and his eloquence in his media performances in the face of Tory Party opposition in the UK in relation to the support for public services such as the Railways, the National Health Service and public services, has ensured admiration and support from among many people as they recognise the validity of his comments.
With Cork roots in the city centre, Mick Lynch continues to represent the fighting rebel spirit and tradition of his fellow Cork emigrant, Mary Harris, known as Mother Jones, who in earlier generations fought for social and trade union justice.
The Cork Mother Jones Committee is proud to honour the Cork diaspora which leads the fight for the living”
This is the eleventh Spirit of Mother Jones award, the last British trade union leader to receive it was the late Dave Hopper of the Durham Miners Association who did so in 2016.
Previous recipients include Gareth Peirce, Ken Fleming, Mary Manning, Fr Peter Mc Verry, Louise O’Keeffe, Antoinette Keegan, Catherine Coffey O’Brien, Ann O’Gorman, Maureen Considine and Don O’Leary.
Mick Lynch is the General Secretary of the National Union of Rail, Maritime & Transport Workers (RMT) since May 2021.
Among his predecessors at the RMT were Bob Crow, who was a regular visitor to Ireland and Mick Cash who had Irish roots.
Mick and the RMT have been to the forefront of the defence of workers’ pay and conditions in the UK privatised rail sector. The union has also organised the opposition to the closure of tickets offices at railway stations justifiably arguing that this discriminates against the older, weaker and non tech savvy people.
Over the past few years Mick’s appearances on television have guaranteed enormous media interest as he systematically and forensically destroyed the arguments of political commentators, the right wing press and Tory MPs who argued against workers’ pay increases.
The YouTube clips of these debates are widely viewed by many.
Mick Lynch with his wife Mary enjoying the Durham Gala in 2022. Courtesy of Chronicle Live.
All the while he exposes the large payments to company directors and investors of dividends/profits from the privatised railroads instead of these monies being invested in modernising the rail infrastructure. He talks of the poor treatment of workers, bad working conditions and safety issues and the poor quality service endured by the travelling public.
His straight talking approach and his grasp of the relevant facts has gained him huge support.
Mick argues that there should be no divisions in the working class and attempts to pitch groups of workers against each other must not be tolerated.
He argues that it is “this broader umbrella of class politics inclusive of workers of all kinds, that best deprives the political right the opportunity to pit working class people against one another”. In this Mick echoes the views of Mother Jones who stated that “We must stand together; if we don’t there will be no victory for any of us.”
James Connolly is his political hero. US Senator, Bernie Sanders came to London recently to support the RMT.
At the Durham Miners Gala in July 2022 where Mick was a key speaker at the Big Meeting, he announced to the large gathering,
“We’re back. The working class is back. We refuse to be meek, we refuse to be humble and we refuse to be poor anymore”
Durham Miners Gala Parade.
Gathering at the Big Meeting in Durham.
Jackie Lynch, Mick’s dad was born in Cork city centre in 1922, and the Lynch family lived on Cork’s Bandon Road near Warrens Lane. He emigrated to London in 1941. His mother, Ellen Morris was from Crossmaglen, Co. Armagh. Mick, one of five children, was born in 1962 in Paddington, London and trained as an electrician. When back in Cork, he calls to Turners Cross, to support Cork City.
Mick Lynch is scheduled to speak on Thursday afternoon at 4:00 pm at the Dance Cork Firkin Crane.
Please note in view of capacity issues, it is first come, first seated.
The annual Durham Gala will take place on Saturday 9th July 2022 following a break of two years due to Covid-19. The Gala this year is “dedicated to the key workers”, who provided essential services in the UK during the recent pandemic.
Outside the County Hotel in Durham.A view of the Gala.
The Cork Mother Jones Committee extend warm congratulations and solidarity to the Durham Miners Association and wish the DMA well for a fantastic parade and Big Meeting.
The parade itself features thousands of people of all ages from former mining communities across the north of England marching behind their colourful banners and colliery bands.
Dave Hopper on the left of this banner.Mother Jones BannerBlackhall Lodge Banner.Fishburn Lodge Banner.Quarrington Hill Lodge Banner.Fishburn Lodge Banner
Dave Hopper, a former General Secretary of the DMA along with his committee were regular attenders at the Spirit of Mother Festivals. Dave spoke at the 2014 and 2015 Festivals, and he provided a first hand account of events at the battle of Orgreave as well as contributing to the general discussions.
The Late Davy Hopper in Cork.
He was awarded the 2016 Spirit of Mother Jones Award posthumously after his sudden death a few weeks before the festival in 2016.
The Durham Miner’s Association is based at Red Hills in Durham, which was opened in 1915.
View of Red Hills, home of the Durham Miners Association.
The Red Hills contains the Miners Parliament where representatives of each of the lodges of county Durham once met to decide on union matters.
Imposing entrance featuring Alexander McDonald, William Crawford, William Patterson and John Forman, early leaders of the DMA.Miners ParliamentSculpture at Red Hills.Wall mural at Red Hills.Painting at Red HillsPainting at Red Hills.
Mick Lynch, General Secretary of the RMT Union will speak at the Big Meeting on Saturday 9th July 2022. Mick, whose father was from Cork has led the recent rail strikes in Britain.
It is a huge honour to speak at the Big Meeting. This year is the 75th Anniversary of the death of Irish trade union leader, Jim Larkin, a founder of the ITGWU, (now SIPTU) and the Irish Citizen Army. In 1914, a few months after the end of the Dublin Lockout, Jim Larkin spoke at the Durham Gala and on the day argued for one union,
” if one section is out, you should be ready to bring out everyone of you”
As the miners’ banners were carried from the field in Durham on that day in July 1914, they were not to return for five years………….. just ten days later Britain was at war with Germany.
This publication is a rarity. Working-class women who fight for social justice seldom get an opportunity to tell their own story in their own voices. Social, trade union and labour history is sometimes interpreted by those far removed from the day-to-day lives and experience of those directly involved. The contributions of working class women remains unacknowledged and invisible when it comes to the absence of their names and images on the public monuments and street names of our cities and towns.
Anne Scargill and Betty Cook did not come together until the beginning of the British Miners’ Strike in 1984/85 when they both joined “The Women Against Pit Closures Movement”. What followed was a roller coaster of practical action including feeding their striking neighbours and taking direct action to protect their communities.
However, it also led to a personal journey for each of them. Both were married with families at the beginning of the strike but through the tumult of the mining war in the North of England, alongside a passion to stand against exploitation of people, they achieved their own personal independence and freedom in spite of the disastrous outcome of the Miners’ Strike. In the midst of defeat, Anne and Betty emerged with the power to act as they had discovered their own voices.
The accounts of their early lives in Barnsley and Brick Lane are told in raw unvarnished personal accounts, without self pity, without preaching or seeking acceptance…… life was tough in the coal fields. Yet they tell their stories with gritty humour, compassion and fierce direct humanity in spite of personal tragedy and upheaval in their lives. The chapter: “Rent A Mob, Rent a Gob” leaves one angry and yet uplifted.
Today they look back on a life of standing firm against the exploitation of workers and they do so with a sense of pride. Both remain committed to the struggle. Betty recently retired from a call-centre at the age of 81, however, she is worried that ” a lot of working-class people are against one another”, while Anne says that “anybody who needs help on a picket line only has to pick up the phone and I’ll be there”.
Their trip to the women miners reunion in Appalachia 2013, organised by Marat Moore (friend of the Spirit of Mother Jones Festival, Guest Speaker at 2012 Festival) led to the founding of The Daughters of Mother Jones group in the UK and inspired their interest in Mother Jones. Few will forget Anne and Betty’s powerful rendition of Mal Finch’s song “Women of the Working Class” at the Cork Spirit of Mother Jones festival in 2014.
In these dark times for working people with ongoing political upheaval and Covid-19 lockdowns, “Anne & Betty United by the Struggle” illuminates and shines warmly through adversity, hard times and the necessity to keep fighting against injustice.
