Tag Archives: book

“Anne & Betty United by the Struggle”, with Ian Clayton. Published by Route.

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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. 


This book is highly recommended and is available from annescargillbettycook@gmail.com

Anne & Betty with their Daughter of Mother Jones banner at the Spirit of Mother Jones Festival in 2019. (Courtesy of Claire Stack).

Anne & betty helping striking SIPTU workers in Dublin in 2014 (Courtesy J Thomson)


“A Conspiracy of Lies” – Cork Launch of Frank Connolly’s new book

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A Conspiracy of Lies

By Frank Connolly

Published by Mercier Press.

Cork Book Launch at the Maldron Hotel at 2pm on Saturday 3rd August 2019.

Frank Connolly’s latest book is political thriller and love story and has as its dark background the horrific car bombings in Dublin on the evening 17th May 1974. Over forty five years have passed since 27 civilians were killed in a series of three bombs which exploded within five minutes of each other during evening rush hour at Talbot Street, Parnell Street and South Leinster Street in Dublin. A further seven  people were killed in Monaghan later that same day. The Ulster Volunteer Force eventually claimed responsibility. No one has been charged with the murders.

The efforts of Angie Whelan and Joe Heney, the latter just released from Mountjoy Jail and thrown together by their  traumatic experiences of the events of that day form the story of this taunt fast paced thriller to find those responsible for the explosions and the real truth behind these bombs.

The unlikely couple follow the evidence as to who and what was behind this mass murder on the streets of Dublin and Monaghan. Joe and Angie uncover and explore the layers of a frightening conspiracy which goes to the heart of the Irish and British States and may ensure silence forever. Meanwhile the victims and their relatives wait for justice.

What transpires is stranger than fiction…………. but is it fiction or the real truth?

Outlanders: Stories of the Displaced.

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Venue: Cathedral Visitors Centre

Date & Time: Wednesday afternoon July 31st at 3pm.

Séan Ó Tuathaigh is an activist and the author of Outlanders – Stories of the Displaced, his first book. He wants to use this book to highlight the plight of those often anonymous people who make the dangerous journey from their war ravaged countries to seek new lives and homes and peace in other countries.

“Ask yourself what would you do to survive? Would you cross an ocean, would you cross an armed border, walk across a desert?” Séan asks those questions of people who did just that and has published their stories.

Seán Ó Tuathaigh

“Outlanders is a collection of refugee stories, compiled from some of the people who author met while working in the US. There are stories of old people and young, recently arrived and well established, originating from Laos, Burma (2), Afghanistan (2), South Africa, Somalia, Palestine, Bosnia and Kurdistan.

The first of its kind to explore the subject from a creative perspective, this book builds on the journalistic work available on the subject. The stories are presented in a style that immerses the reader into the experiences of the refugee, to see what they saw, smell what they smelt and feel what they felt.”

Listen to Séan and you will meet ordinary people thrust into extraordinary situations, you will hear the stories of Zarhawar, Saadia, Mar Mar, Chue Vang, Hawraz, Nolwandle, Bojana, Nasruddin, Tuqa, and Azhar. No longer statistics or objects of mistrust…..these ordinary human beings tell their stories in Outlanders and humanity needs to empathise with their fear, their hopes and their courage.

Séan’s book serves as a timely echo from the seanscéal of millions of our very own Irish ancestors who fled this country to begin new lives in other places. Young Mary Harris and her family did in Famine times!

Outlanders: book cover

Seán Ó Tuathaigh was born and raised in Sligo and is a graduate of the M.Phil in Creative Writing at TCD. Before that course, he taught English in Hanoi, Vietnam. After graduation, in 2016, he moved to the USA for 18 months, where he worked as a refugee biographer in a resettlement agency and following that he wrote Outlanders.Published by Mercier Press, copies of Outlanders: Stories of the Displaced will be available at the talk at the Cathedral Visitors Centre.

Available now at Mercier Press

Free overseas delivery at Book Depository

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Follow Outlanders on Facebook

 

Séan will speak at the 2019 Spirit Of Mother Jones summer school at the Cathedral Visitor Centre at 3pm on Wednesday 31st July 2019. All welcome.

 

 

Our guest contributors – Marat Moore & Rosemary Feurer

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Profiles of two more of our guest contributors, author and former coal miner Marat Moore and film producer and author Rosemary Feurer

 

Marat Moore

 

Marat Moore book cover

Marat Moore book cover

Marat is the author of “Women in the Mines, stories of Life and Work”, former coal miner and UMWA staff member. She is a founder of the Daughters of Mother Jones, which were involved in the Pittston coal strike of 1989-90.

Marat is currently writing a novel on Mother Jones and will be doing some research while in Ireland on her roots in Cork. She is seeking information on Cork in the period 1830 to 1850, with particular emphasis on the famine period.

So would anyone who has information on Cork in this period make contact with Marat during the course of the Mother Jones festival from the 31st July to 2nd August? Marat has encouraged the Cork Mother Jones Committee from the very start and the end result is the Cork Mother Jones Festival.

 

 

 

Rosemary Feurer.

Rosemary Feurer

Rosemary Feurer

Rosemary is a historian based in Northern Illinois University. Along with Laura Vazquez, Rosemary directed a 24 minute documentary entitled Mother Jones, America’s most Dangerous Women, which was first shown in 2007.  This documentary recalls the terrible conditions and labour oppression that motivated Mother Jones to travel the country mobilizing thousands of workers to fight for justice.

It shows scenes of the 1914 Ludlow massacre in all its horror and brings to life the extraordinary brutality visited on the miners and their families during this period.

The film includes the only known footage of Mother Jones proclaiming herself to be still a radical and longing for the day “when labour will have the destination of the nation in her own hands”.

Rosemary will introduce her documentary to Ireland at the Maldron Hotel on Tuesday evening 31st July at 7pm. This will be followed by a discussion and general talk on Mother Jones. There will be further showings of the documentary during the course of the festival depending on demand.

Rosemary’s husband’s grandfather was a breaker boy in the coal mines of Pennslyvania when he met Mother Jones. Rosemary has inspired and supported our Cork Mother Jones Committee in every way to ensure this festival will be a fitting tribute.