Bernie and Jane O’Meara Sanders visit Mother Jones in Cork.

Posted on May 27, 2025 by Admin

United States senator Bernie Sanders and Jane O’Meara Sanders arrived on Shandon Street to huge applause today.

Waiting for Bernie on Shandon Street. J. Nolan.

Bernie and Jane were paying a courtesy call to the Spirit of Mother Jones HQ on Shandon Street where they met members of the Cork Mother Jones Committee and friends of our festival. James and Marie Nolan welcomed our American guests to their local butcher shop which has been on the street since the 1800s and has served as the gathering point for planning the festival which has been held annually since 2012. James is one of the founder members of the Spirit of Mother Jones Festival.

Left to Right: James Nolan, Jane O’Meara Sanders, Senator Bernie Sanders and Marie Nolan. Photo (Mary Dineen).

Bernie stepped inside the counter and admitted that this was a first for him in his career as the longest serving Independent senator in United States congressional history. He examined a wide selection of Cork products and checked out the local bodice.

Is that enough bodice for your tea? Photo: Angela Flynn.

Cork Mother Jones Committee member Ann Piggott then proceeded to make a number of presentations to the Sanders family. Among the items was a copy of the Frameworks Films produced Mother Jones and Her Children, a festival poster and Elliott J. Gorn’s biography of Mother Jones.

In addition Ann produced some Cork treats of a bottle of Tanora, chester cakes (donkeys gudge) and some Tayto crisps, as a symbol of a special Cork welcome which she presented to the Sanders and were very appreciated by Bernie and Jane.

Bernie with Mother Jones Committee at presentation. Photo (Mary Dineen).

During a brief account of the extraordinary and long life of Mother Jones by committee member Ger O’Mahony, a number of interesting connections between Bernie and the Mother Jones family were revealed. Back in May 26th 2015 Bernie Sanders made his formal announcement that he was running for president of the United States on the waterfront park on Lake Champlain in Burlington, Vermont which he had helped to create while he was the proud Mayor first elected in 1981 of his hometown. He was re-elected three times during his tenure and served until 1989 after which he was elected to Congress.

Exactly a decade after announcing his presidential run, almost to the day (27th May 2025), Bernie Sanders was standing in Shandon, the home of Mother Jones.

Amazingly it was from here in Shandon in the heart of Cork City that Richard Harris and his son Richard junior, the father and brother of Mary Harris (Mother Jones) left to go to Canada on the infamous coffin ships in the late 1840s, probably during “Black 47”. According to author Elliott Gorn, the Harris men first appeared in the 1850 US census as living in Vermont in Bernie’s own town Burlington. Boarding with a local family, they were described as Illiterate and propertyless. In an era of fluid borders, the Harris’s had initially travelled into the United States to Burlington just over the border from Canada where they spent some time after emigrating from Cork .

By the time Richard’s wife Ellen Harris along with the remaining family members including Mary arrived from Ireland in the early 1850s, the Harris family had left Burlington and moved back to Canada to Bathurst Street in Toronto, where young Mary Harris grew up and was educated.

Jane and Bernie at the Mother Jones plaque for the first time. Photo (Angela Flynn).

Everyone then strolled through the ancient and historic streets of Shandon where a young Mary Harris may have walked to assemble at the plaque of Mother Jones erected in 2012 by the Cork Mother Jones Committee.

Jane and Bernie. The famous Shandon Bells can be seen in the background. Photo by Angela Flynn.

From underneath the plaque Bernie addressed the crowd,

” Now is the time to fight for the living. Seeing massive concentrations of wealth and power of a handful of multi-billionaires who literally want to control not just the United States but the entire world, who couldn’t care less about working people……they want it all”

“It is imperative that we stand together as what we see in the United States today will be in Europe and Ireland tomorrow”.

Calling for international solidarity he continued

“We must remember our common humanity, all the children of the world have a right to live, with food and with education, security and that we must strive for a world of peace and not war. There is an enormous amount of work in front of us, Let’s stand together and let’s do it.”

Jane added

“It’s wonderful to be here to commemorate Mother Jones. What she stood for in terms of workers rights in terms of protection of the children is very much in our feeling of what are the priorities of life. Thank you for welcoming us to Cork on such an auspicious occasion”

Committee member William Hammond then sang the ballad of Joe Hill and concluded with a rendering of Salonika to rapturous applause.

And the meeting concluded with the traditional whiskey toast at the Mother Jones plaque led by Bernie and Jane.

Toast to Mother Jones at the plaque. Bernie, Jane and members of the Cork Mother Jones Committee (Photo by Andrew Desmond).

Image gallery image — Bernie Sanders at the Mother Jones plaque. Photo: Angela Flynn.

The Spirit of Mother Jones Festival takes place from Thursday 24th July until Saturday 26th July 2025.

Full programme of events will be available on this site by mid June or thereabouts.

New Mother Jones Marker at Mt Olive Cemetery Unveiled Recently.

Posted on May 21, 2025 by Admin

Recently a new marker was added to the story of Mother Jones at her burial place in Mt Olive Union Miners Cemetery in Illinois.

Dr Helaine Silverman of the Dept. of Anthropology at the University of Illinois unveiled a new marker at the location where Mother Jones was originally buried in December 1930.

Mt Oliver Marker, Dr Silverman (Photo by Whitney DeMartini).

Following her research the University of Illinois through its Mythis Mississippi Project which advocates the use of cultural heritage resources to assist community development erected the informative marker at the location with the support of the Mt Olive Perpetual Care Committee.

Original grave-site of Mother Jones. (Photo by Whitney DeMartini).

Scott Thomas, President of the UMWA Local 1613 speaking in Mt Olive Cemetery at the unveiling of the marker.

The Cork Mother Jones Committee has written to Dr. Silverman to thank her for her efforts to promote Mother Jones as part of the Mythic Mississippi Project.

The Red Flag Festival 2025.

Posted on May 13, 2025 by Admin

The Red Flag Festival takes place in County Meath from Friday 30th May to Sunday 1st June 2025. The Festival celebrates the life of Jim Connell, known as the man who wrote The Red Flag.

Jim was born in Kilskyre, County Meath in 1852. He worked as a casual docker in Dublin, however he was blacklisted due to his efforts to unionise the workers in Dublin’s docklands. Connell emigrated to London in 1875, and became a staff journalist on Keir Hardie’s newspaper, “The Labour Leader”.

Inspired by the London Dock Strike, Jim wrote the Red Flag in 1889. It quickly became an anthem of the International Labour Movement and is sung each year at the British and Irish Labour Party’s annual conferences. His life and work for trade unions and the promotion of social justice is celebrated in his home place at this festival. He is honoured at Crossakiel, Co Meath by a magnificent monument.

Jim Connell died in 1929, and he is buried in London.

A very interesting 2025 Festival programme of events takes place over the weekend and full details can be obtained at info@redflagfestival.com. All are welcome.

Celebrating Mother Jones in America.

Posted on April 26, 2025 by Admin

There are two celebrations for Mother Jones in America over the next few days. An American birthday for Mother Jones takes place in Chicago on Sunday 27th April 2025 from 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm at the Irish American Heritage Centre. A great afternoon of music, speakers and performers with Chicago’s Mother Jones, Brigid Duffy attending. Among those appearing are Beatriz Ponce de Leon, Deputy Mayor for Immigrant, Migrant and Refugee Rights, Keith Ricardson, American Postal Workers Union, and Kathy Hanshew, Chicago Worker United.

The 4th annual International Mother Jones Festival is set for Sunday, May 4, from 1 pm to 5 pm in downtown Mt. Olive, IL, and in Union Miners’ Cemetery, where Jones is buried.

Included in the event is Music by Casting Runes, Wildflower Conspiracy, and Piasa Canyon. For the young at heart, there will be a magic and medicine show by Dr. Longhair, Randy Thompson, the Macoupin County Art Collective or MAC, plus performances by Loretta Williams as Jones for the young and old alike. Williams is the only MJ actor to portray her in both the country and place of her birth, City Cork, Ireland and at her final resting place in UMC. She will have a special program in the library. In case of inclement weather, the downtown activities will move inside the City Hall and library.

On behalf of the Cork Mother Jones Committee, we wish both events every success and congratulate all the organisers.

In memory of Anne Scargill RIP.

Posted on April 11, 2025 by Admin

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 & Betty Cook sing “The Women’s Song”

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.

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.

Madre Juanita (Mother Jones) and Mexican Revolutionaries.

Posted on March 30, 2025 by Admin

While on his recent travels, James Goltz of Mt Olive visited an exhibition at the Yuma Arizona prison museum. The exhibition included a photograph of Mother Jones and information about some of the Mexican revolutionaries which she had assisted. It also mentioned that Mother Jones had addressed a meeting of socialists in the Arizona area in 1909 and had brought a sum of some $4,000 raised by the US trade unions to help defend the Mexican revolutionaries imprisoned in the United States.

Mother Jones at the Yuma Arizona Prison Exhibition, courtesy of James Goltz.

One of the constant if less well appreciated themes of the life of Mother Jones was her endless campaigning for the release of political revolutionaries especially the Mexicans imprisoned in U.S. jails. The revolutionaries opposed the anti-union authoritarian government of Mexican President Porfirio Diaz* whose autocratic regime from 1884 to 1911, promoted U.S. investment through low taxes, compliant courts, a lack of labour regulations and the banning of trade unions. These industrial ” Wall Street pirates and robber barons” as described by Mother Jones were extracting the oil and mineral wealth of Mexico using low cost labour to enrich themselves. The Cananea miners strike of 1906 had been broken by the Mexican army of Diaz in cooperation with the Arizona Rangers.

https://www.yumaprison.org/admission.html

The main Mexican opposition movement was the Partido Liberal Mexicano (PLM) , some of whose leaders such as Ricardo Magon, Antonio Villareal, Manuel Sarabia and Librado Rivera had fled to the U.S. to avoid execution and imprisonment. The PLM backed the Mexican trade unions and US trade unions including the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and the Western Federation of Miners (WFM) had found common cause with this revolutionary movement in order to prevent Mexican labour from undercutting US union workers in the mines and mills, especially in Arizona.

Mexican Revolutionaries at the Yuma Arizona Prison Courtesy of James Goltz.

Mother Jones took up the cause of the Mexicans. She organised many protests, addressed meetings raising substantial monies to pay for the defence of those who had been arrested by the US government and imprisoned for breaking America’s neutrality laws. She argued that these men fought for the cause of labour in the same way the American unions were doing and urged international labour solidarity. She even took their case to President William Howard Taft who did nothing. Interestingly, she compared the activities of the revolutionary Mexicans in America to the revolutionary Irish Fenian and republican movements of the Irish in America who were attempting to secure independence from England.

The Mexicans were eventually released from prison in Arizona in August 1910. Early in 1911, an uprising deposed President Portfirio Diaz and the new Mexican government led by Francisco Madero restored democracy and trade union rights. Mother Jones and officials from the United Mine Workers and WFM visited Mexico soon afterwards in October 1911 to congratulate the new government.

Later in 1921 she again returned twice to Mexico where she was treated as a hero ‘Madre Juanita” due to her work for democracy and trade union rights in a Mexico where competing armed factions remained volatile, She addressed the Pan-American Federation of Labor and visited friends such as Antonio Villarreal whom she had helped back in 1909 and who was now the Minister for Agriculture. Mother Jones enjoyed the adulation of Mexican workers and hospitality during her visit.

She had certainly earned the honour as a result of her endless campaigning for the rights of Mexicans imprisoned in the United States over several decades.

The following is an extract from a leaflet of a radical and a speech from 1908 about the Mexican situation which resonates politically today by Mother Jones.

(as quoted in Mother Jones Speaks by Philip S Foner.)

“Now it is the United States government seconding the murderous despotism of Russia and the irresponsible dictatorship of Mexico. The fight has become international; yet it centres in the United States. If these foreign vultures of oppression win now, then our liberty goes.

For Diaz and American capitalism are partners! Pierpont Morgan (a wealthy banker) goes to Russia and shakes hands with the czar; and now the czar comes to America demanding the surrender of political refugees. Mrs Diaz, when visiting in Texas is entertained by members of the Copper Queen syndicate, whose headquarters are at 95 John Street, New York, and Elihu Root, of New York (a Wall Street lawyer) is wined and dined by the tyrant dictator Diaz, when in New York”

Source of material.

Mother Jones: The Most Dangerous Woman in America. Elliott J.Gorn provides an account of Mother Jones efforts on behalf of the Mexicans.

Chicago honours Mother Jones for St Patrick’s Day 2025.

Posted on March 20, 2025 by Admin

The Mother Jones Heritage Project Committee and its supporters marched in the St Patrick’s Day parades 2025.

Accompanied by the enormous Mother Jones float the large contingent made a colourful display in the windy City with their banners of “Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living”. While it was balmy on Saturday, heavy snow fell on Sunday.

According to organiser Rosemary Feurer, who was delighted with the large turnout and the crowds response” It was really heartening to hear the cheers from the crowd. “I LOVE MOTHER JONES!!” and “Go, Mother!” “and this rubbed off on the enthusiastic marchers.

It was a great celebration of Cork born Mother Jones.

All photographs courtesy of Dave Adams. Our thanks to the Mother Jones Heritage Project in Chicago.

The National Monument in Cork, but where are Women Represented?

Posted on February 5, 2025 by Admin

The National Monument in Cork was erected at the junction of the South Mall and the Grand Parade (Sráid an Chapaill Bhuí)” Yellow Horse Street in 1906. It replaced the statue of King George II on horse-back, which lasted one hundred years in locations around the Grand Parade until it was finally removed in 1862. Cork’s citizens “gratitude for the many blessings that they enjoyed during his auspicious reign” had seemingly lost its ardour.

The Cork Young Ireland Society then raised the finances for a national monument and the foundation stone was eventually laid on 2nd October 1898. Almost eight years later on St Patrick’s Day 1906, the present impressive monument, designed by Dominick Coakley with figures sculptured by John Francis Davis of College Road was finally unveiled. It lists the names of some who took part in the Risings of 1798, 1803, 1848 and Fenian rebellions over the strident poses of Wolfe Tone, Michael Dwyer, Thomas Davis and Peter O’Neill Crowley on each of the corners.

Recent Gathering at the National Monument in support of the people of Gaza.

A “Mother Erin” sculpture facing north takes the central position in this very imposing edifice. Over the years it has become an assembly area for political and social gatherings especially during the War of independence and election campaigns. Recently the 2016 commemoration of the 1916 Rising was held there and currently the weekly Palestinian support groups gather nearby on the Grand Parade.

One hundred and thirty three names of individuals appear on three sides of the monument, some recognisable and some not. Other important patriots such as John Swiney, the draper of Goul Na Spurra near Shandon Street and the Cork leader of the United Irishmen along with Roger O’Connor, Tadhg O’Donovan (Tadhg an Astna), and John Griffith are not there.

However the almost total lack of women listed or referred to on the National Monument is a glaring omission. Just two women are named on the side plaques, Anne Devlin and the Marchioness of Queensberry.

Anne Devlin was extremely active in the plans for the 1803 Emmet rebellion. A very close confidant of Robert Emmet and sister-in-law of Michael Dwyer, Anne suffered in prison as she refused to testify against Emmet. She died in poverty.

Caroline Margaret Douglas (1821-1904) was born and spent time as an infant in Bantry. Later she aided the Manchester Martyrs and contributed financially to nationalist and radical causes and corresponded with James Connolly re his Workers’ Republic newspaper. One of her sons, John, was responsible for the adoption of the Queensberry rules in boxing while a grandson was Lord Alfred Douglas. Catherine is buried in Scotland.

The men listed on the National Monument are all quite laudable no doubt for their patriotic contributions to Irish freedom and each worthy of remembrance. It was erected to “perpetuate the memory of the gallant men of 1798, 1803, 1848 and 1867 who fought and died in the wars of Ireland to recover her sovereign Independence”. And it concludes with the wish that “righteous men will make our land A Nation Once Again”.

Metal plaques representing the Cork Coat of Arms and the four provinces have been added to the surrounding metal guard rails. Curiously, two oval metal plaques with the eagle and flag of the United States with the words ‘Hail Columbia’ and 1776 is attached to the northern and southern metal guards. ‘Hail Columbia’ dates from the inauguration of George Washington and was the national anthem of the USA until 1931. Today it remains the official anthem of the Vice President of the United States.

The monument also predates the 1916 Rising and the War of Independence as well as the establishment of the Republic? Recently a plaque has been added to the monument to commemorate all who served the cause of Independence 1916-1923. The recent plaque is slightly obscured by the Hail Columbia plaque.

Yet how representative is it of the real history or indeed of the complete Irish story if just over one percent of those listed on this Mother Erin or Erin monument are women and references to the contribution of women are overlooked almost entirely?

Is it time to create an additional memorial in the heart of Cork City which is more representative of Cork and the entire nation, inclusive of all women and men who contributed in any way to achieving our sovereign independence, to those who built our community and to the emigrants who impacted positively on the wider world?.

Pray for the Dead and fight like Hell for the Living

Posted on December 7, 2024 by Admin

Mother Jones is remembered for many things, for her bravery, her resilience, her support for the unionisation of all workers especially women, her leadership of the March of the Mill Children and so much more.

March of the Mill Children. Shandon 2019. Photo: Claire Stack.

And yet her enduring spirit remains relevant and very much alive across the world mainly as a result of a simple sentence addressed to poor miners standing in a dark field in West Virginia, over 120 years ago… According to her autobiography, Mother Jones went to speak one night to a mining town in the Fairmont district in West Virginia.

Daughters of Mother Jones at the Durham Gala.

Photo: Courtesy of Mother Jones Heritage Project, Chicago.

She discovered that the meeting was to be held in a church. On entering she discovered that the priest was collecting money from the union miners presumably for the rent of the church in which the meeting was taking place.

‘I reached over and took the money from the priest. Then I turned to the miners. “Boys , this is a praying institution. You should not commercialize it”

She led the union miners out to a nearby field, in front of a school and held the meeting. Pointing to the school, she advised them to hold their meetings at the school declaring

” Your organisation is not a praying institution. It’s a fighting institution. It’s an educational institution along industrial lines.

Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living!”

Source: The Autobiography of Mother Jones, Chapter V1 War in West Virginia. Charles H Kerr Publishing Company. Page 41.

Those profound words of Mother Jones at a little town in Fairmont, West Virginia in 1902 remain so powerful that over 120 years later they continue to echo through history wherever union members and people gather to fight for justice and human rights.

It’s been uttered by presidents, on banners in the US Congress, printed on posters, written on plaques and walls in union halls, quoted by trade unions across the world and by social justice and human rights organisations in countless articles….it has become a rallying call for many especially during Covid, and recently at Palestinian support demonstrations, imprinted on awards, painted on union banners at strike picket lines.

Demonstration by Jewish union members against the genocide in Gaza.

The President of Ireland, Michael D Higgins in paying tribute to the front line workers quoted it to praise and generate public support for their brave efforts to combat Covid-19 in April 2020.

Organisations from Oxfam to Greenpeace, many peace and justice organisations and the Justice for the Stardust 48 Campaign have repeated this battle-cry. Its global reach stretches from the New Zealand Professional Firefighters Union (NZPFU) to SIPTU (formerly the Irish Transport and General Workers Union of Connolly and Larkin) in Ireland and to the Washington State Nurses Union.

The New Zealand Professional Firefighters Union on International Workers Memorial Day.

The front page of the New York Times (23rd April 1972) contained the quote. when reporter George Vecsey described the pop art wall posters with a picture of Mother Jones when he visited Appalachia. A few days later a “Mother Jones Day” organised by Miners for Democracy took place in Pursglove, West Virginia. It was addressed by Kenneth “Chip” Yablonski, son of murdered union leader Jock Yablonski who urged the miners to reclaim democratic control of their union, the UMWA, in which Mother Jones was one of its first organisers under then President John Mitchell.

Variations of the cry such as “mourn the dead” or “remember the dead” rather than the original “pray for the dead ” are also used. A wonderful documentary written and performed by Kaiulani Lee called Fight Like Hell: The Testimony of Mother Jones has been produced. Controversially, the growing use of the phrase “fight like hell” by the Right has increased in recent times. We must reclaim those passionate words, which reflect the communal ideas of Mother Jones, first spoken back near Fairmont all those years ago to the union miners gathered at the dead of night in that field.

Historian Elliott Gorn in the introduction to his book, Mother Jones: The Most Dangerous Woman in America mentioned that the words “Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living” are all that most people know of Mother Jones.

As long as her words resonate as a call to action wherever in the world people struggle for social justice then Mother Jones lives on.

Historic Visit by the Lord Mayor of Cork to the future site for the Sculpture of Mother Jones in Chicago.

Posted on November 20, 2024 by Admin

On November 16th 2024, Lord Mayor of Cork, Cllr Dan Boyle visited the future site for the erection of the sculpture of Mother Jones in Chicago.

Above: Margaret Fulkerson, Brigid Duffy (members of the Chicago Mother Jones Statue Committee), Kathleen Farrell, (one of the lead sculptors along with Kathleen Scarboro), Cork Lord Mayor Dan Boyle, Rosemary Feurer, (project director) Ireland’s Consul General for Chicago and the Midwest Brian Cahalane, and Nathan Mason, Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events representative. The group is standing in front of the Water Tower and near the site of the future sculpture.
Photo courtesy of the Mother Jones Heritage Committee.

The Lord Mayor had returned to the city where he was born and he was welcomed by members of the Mother Jones Heritage Committee along with one of the sculptors, Kathleen Farrell who are in the final planning stage of erecting this landmark sculpture near the famous Chicago Water Tower.

Rosemary Feurer, project director who attended the first festival in Cork in 2012, in welcoming the Lord Mayor pointed out that the sculpture of Mother Jones project was initiated following her visit to this festival in Shandon, close to the birthplace and baptism of Mary Harris in Cork. The strong connections between the Mother Jones committees in Chicago and Cork have been strengthened over the past decade and both groups have worked to promote the story and the spirit of the inspirational Mother Jones, whose heritage we share.

The Lord Mayor of Cork, Cllr. Dan Boyle with Brigit Duffy and Ireland’s Consulate General, Brian Cahalane. Photo courtesy of the Mother Jones Heritage Committee.

The Lord Mayor expressed the view that the efforts of the Chicago Committee will also be an inspiration to the Cork City Council in relation to celebrating the spirit of Mother Jones in Cork itself. He stated that he has a portrait of Mother Jones in his office, this portrait also hangs in the Irish Consulate General’s office in Chicago which commissioned the painting from artist Lindsay Hand.

The Mother Jones Heritage Committee, through effort and commitment, is having a statue of Mother Jones erected at a key city centre location in Chicago. I was delighted to hear of the support of Chicago City Council for this project and the inspiration given to the Chicago group by the Spirit of Mother Jones Festival in Cork. Cork should be similarly inspired to further acknowledge Mary Harris/Mother Harris in her native city.

Sculptor Kathleen Farrell with the Cork City Librarian, Patricia Looney. Photo courtesy of the Mother Jones Heritage Committee.

The sculpture is expected to be erected in Chicago during 2025 and should be a fitting monument to the Cork woman who as an emigrant during the Great Hunger went on to become “the most dangerous woman in America”.