10:30 a.m. Maldron Hotel, Shandon.
Nick MacWilliam. (By Zoom.)
Justice for Colombia.
Nick spent several years working in Latin America as a freelance journalist and translator. He has written on Colombian politics and the peace process for different media outlets.
Justice for Colombia promotes links of solidarity between British and Irish trade unions and organisations in Colombia and gives a political voice internationally to Colombian civil society in its struggle for human rights, labour rights, peace and social justice by working in the British, Irish and EU Parliaments.
11:30 a.m. Maldron Hotel, Shandon.
Iron Ladies
This is a new documentary about the role of women during the 1984/85 Miners’ Strike in Britain. It features interviews with some of the women such as Betty Cook, Rose Hunter, Liz French, Sally Higgins, Kay Case and many more who held the communities and families together and who worked behind the scenes to support their husbands, brothers, sons and neighbours throughout the long strike and the bitter winter of 1984.
Shut out the Light Films was founded in Liverpool in 2014 by Christie Allanson and Daniel Draper.
Directed by Daniel Draper
Produced by Christie Allanson
Shut out the Light Films www.shutoutthelight.co.uk
We remember our inspirational friend Anne Scargill who attended, spoke and sang at the our festivals in 2014 and 2019.
Anne Scargill born 11th October 1941, died 10th April 2025. A true Daughter of Mother Jones, Rest in peace!.
1:00 p.m. Maldron Hotel Bar.
Jimmy Crowley and Eve Telford.
Jimmy has featured every year at the Spirit of Mother Jones Festivals since its beginnings. He performed his many Cork ballads and folks songs to an appreciative audience of locals and visitors to the festival.
His collaboration with Eve Telford has now added a wider international and reflective dimension to their vast repertoire of songs and stories. Alongside the new material, the concert will feature some of Jimmy’s most popular ballads also. This is one of the musical highlights of the festival.
2:30 p.m. Dance Cork Firkin Crane.
Mick Lynch
Former General Secretary of the RMT Trade Union.
Mick Lynch returns to the Spirit of Mother Jones Festival after his previous visit in 2023. His father, Jackie Lynch emigrated from Warren’s Lane off the Bandon Road to London at the beginning of the Second World War. Mick’s mother was Ellen “Nellie” Morris, who left Crossmaglen in South Armagh to go to London during the Blitz.
Mick recently retired as General Secretary from the Rail Maritime & Transport Workers Union RMT after four years. An electrician Mick had joined the union in 1993 and served in a range of positions. He became the public face of the trade union fight in Britain for fair wages and work conditions as a result of his reasonable and cogent defence of union workers in the media. You can listen to his interview with Emma Bowell during his last visit to this festival.
4:00 p.m. Dance Cork Firkin Crane.
President Cecil E. Roberts of the United Mine Workers Union of America (UMWA) (By ZOOM)
The United Mine Workers Union of America was founded in 1890. It is a legendary union having participated in all the key union battles in America during its 135 year long history. The union under John Mitchel employed Mother Jones as a union organiser in 1890, one of the very first women organisers where the Cork woman’s fearsome reputation for organising workers was born. The union is led today by President Cecil Roberts who was elected in 1995 and who has served as President for 30 years. He has announced that he retire in October. We are honoured that President Roberts will join us by Zoom to discuss his life and career in the union and his family connections with Mother Jones. President Roberts is the great grandson of Sarah Blizzard a friend of Mother Jones and a grand nephew of Bill Blizzard, the union leader involved in the Battle of Blair Mountain in 1921.
Note: We wish to record our thanks to James Goltz of Mt Olive for his assistance in establishing this connection with the UMWA.
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.
7:00 p.m. Dance Cork Firkin Crane
James Connolly
A documentary by Alan Gilsenan
Presented by Ethel Buckley, Assistant General Secretary of SIPTU
About Yellow Asylum Films, Alan Gilsenan’s production company:
They have just completed a feature documentary, We Only Want The Earth. The film aims to reclaim James Connolly’s story as well as invoking his important social vision – with a clear eye on how it resonates in our contemporary time – an era when even democracy itself appears under threat.
Panel discussion afterwards.
9:30 p.m. Maldron Hotel, Shandon
John Nyhan and friends.
John Nyhan is well known in Cork music circles and has spent a lifetime bringing music and songs to all corners of Cork and beyond. He has played at every Spirit of Mother Jones Festival and his Friday night at this festival has been a highlight for many years. His versatile guitar playing and his vast repertoire of songs of all genres makes him a fountain of knowledge and experience. Many people will recall his concerts with North Cork folk singing legend Mick Treacy where they sang the songs of Pete Seeger, Joe Hill, Woodie Guthrie and Ewan MacColl. His son Gearoid will accompany him.
Introducing union singer George Mann.
George 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. George tours widely and performs at hundreds of concerts each year’.
In 2016, he produced “Until You Come Home: Songs to Heal the Wounds of War,” a CD focusing on post-traumatic stress disorder and the human cost of war. The CD features songs by such artists as Utah Phillips and Ani DiFranco, Magpie, Roy Zimmerman, Joe Crookston, Joe Jencks, and John Gorka.
George released his CD “This Chain” in October 2023, and in September 2024 he released a CD of Si Kahn’s songs, “Labor Day,” to honour Si on his 80th birthday. Si featured at the Spirit of Mother Jones Festival in 2014 where he sang alongside the late Anne Feeney. He is producing a new album with Mick Coates for September 2025 release, “Ghosts of the Old West,” and will be featuring songs from this album on his 2025 tours. George will play at the Tolpuddle Martyrs Festival (UK) and Spirit of Mother Jones Festival (Cork, Ireland) in July and will then tour Australia starting in October, including the 50th anniversary of the Maldon Folk Festival.
Websites: http://www.georgemannmusic.com http://www.untilyoucomehome.com