2024 Festival, some memories.  Solidarity is referred to regularly in trade union circles, even the Ralph Chaplin romantic song Solidarity Forever, forged in the bloody union war tent colonies of the bleak Kanawha hills of West Virginia in the winter of 1913/14 remains a favourite at Trade Union conferences. Yet the opening event of the 2024 Spirit of Mother Jones Festival demonstrated to the audience what real worker solidarity is and what it can achieve.

Nae Pasaran is a triumph of all that is human and powerful in trade union solidarity. It focuses on a small band of Scottish workers including Bob Fulton, John Keenan, Robert Somerville and Stuart Barrie who blocked the refurbishing of Hawker Hunter jet engines from the Chilean Airforce which had been delivered from Chile to their Rolls Royce factory in Kilbride for maintenance. Those planes had earlier attacked the Palacio de la Moneda where Salvador Allende died during the Pinochet coup of September 11th 1973. The Scottish workers had effectively grounded the Chilean junta’s air force. Director Filipe Bustos Sierra who joined us on Zoom has created a stunning masterpiece of the impact of union solidarity.

Later Irish union officials Owen Reidy, general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) and Adrian Kane of SIPTU spoke at the festival where they offered a realistic analysis of the Irish trade union movement, detailed its challenges such as the right to collective bargaining and suggested ways to attract young people. They both offered a progressive vision of the role of unions in the future world of work.  Nae Pasaran should be on the agenda of every trade union ADC in the coming years!

Fight Like Hell-The Testimony of Mother Jones, a film written and acted by Kaiulani Lee, portrayed a passionate and reflective older Mother Jones. The fire still burned in Jones in 1921 and her tales of 40 years of organising workers raised hairs in their telling. But the tales of action were tempered by the wisdom she had earned and the experiences acquired. Kaiulani Lee joined the audience on Zoom and discussed her own experiences while she travelled in some coal mining areas prior to the making of the film, One wondered if indeed much had changed since the days when Mother Jones tramped those hills. And one was left very much in awe of Mother Jones and how she survived four decades of union organising in such locations? The film is a must see and represents a history long neglected. 

Later that evening social historians, Liz Gillis and Anne Twomey considered what became of the women revolutionaries of the War of Independence after 1923. For some reason the Decade of Centenaries pitched tents in 2023, but few have asked about what became of the many hundreds of women of the invisible army who populated the Civil War prisons in 1923. Amazingly enough the British were often reluctant to jail women, however the new native government jailed their erstwhile female comrades with extraordinary relish and brutality. As Liz documented the sad litany of repressive legislation discriminating against women, it became obvious that many women were driven to lives of silent acquiesce, of living with the trauma and violence endured during incarceration, some decided to emigrate and a few remained to do what they could to improve social conditions in the shadows of history. 

Minister for Justice Kevin O’Higgins had a particular obsession with removing the “hysterical young women” from jury service and from other organs of the new State. Ironically, although a devout married Catholic it seems that O’Higgins was conducting an affair in the early days of his ministerial duties. Later Taoiseach Eamon De Valera and Archbishop John Charles McQuaid renewed their Blackrock College “old boy” connections in the early 1930s and along with their disciples erected further fences of exclusion for women from Irish political life for another four decades. 

Historian Anne Twomey discussed how one local woman, Margaret Goulding Buckley of Winters Hill and Maddens Buildings, worked all her life in the shadows and beyond to stand up for women workers and bring about change.

John Barry of Dublin and Queen’s University calls capitalism “a death cult” and his dissection of the predictable outcome of its activities for all life on Earth suggests that indeed the end result will be a dead planet.  He asks why is the voluntary and community work of countless millions of people who contribute to social good and wellbeing of society excluded from the capitalist measurements in economics and financial balance sheets. Simultaneously, the useless financial trading and gambling in futures and shares, currencies and commodities and paper by millions of stockbrokers and attendant retinues of white collar legal and financial elites which control governments contributing little to the common good are counted in the figures? Why indeed?

By way of contrast, the documentary ‘field’, the story of biodiversity on an old dump on the Northside of Cork City was a gem of a production. Remarkable in its zen-like simple walk through the waste ground. As the headlong rush to eliminate truly “wild” areas gathers pace in Cork city urban areas to create a controlled concrete landscape with amenities and Victoriana biodiversity, this film was a breath of fresh air.  A story of a neglected ground, which surprisingly yielded the blue remains of the infamous southside Douglas tower, held the large attendance captivated. Alas it emerged in the Q&A that the land is privately owned and development will inevitably replace the sturdy resilient biodiversity so ably brought to life in this wonderful film.. 

The Environmental Round Table led by John Barimo introduced us to the next generation of environmental experts and activists in Claudia Hihetah, Dearbhla Richardson and Niamh Guiry. Let’s hope they can influence government policy and are listened to! 

The music and songs of Jimmy Crowley and Eve Telford before an appreciative audience were like balm to the soul. These two musicians just get better and better with a wide range of singing material.  Eve read some of her poems, ‘Waterplace’ an ode to Cobh, ‘Lighthouses’ in tribute to Caoimhe Butterly and her work for the Palestinians, where the womb of humanity will last longer than the wounds.

She concluded with ‘Curlews in Cork Harbour’ in praise of our beautiful harbour. Jimmy announced that his 2014 publication “Songs From The Beautiful City: The Cork Urban Ballads” has been reprinted. And followed it up by singing John Fitzgerald’s ‘The Green Hills of Cork’ better known as ‘Beautiful City’. It helped to restore the downcast Corkonian hurling supporters present and perhaps 2025 will be our year!

Tears of sadness, shards of anger and rays of hope were present for the 2024 Spirit of Mother Jones award. It felt so futile to give people the Children of Lir themed award, when those people are being bombed daily, need a ceasefire now, along with food and practical assistance, as well as freedom. Speakers Walaa Sabah, Fiona O’Rourke, Dr Nick Maynard told us the “Stories of Palestine”. The Firkin remained silent throughout as one tried to imagine the daily hell on earth that is Gaza. Ms Zeina Alazzeh accepted the Award from James Nolan on behalf of the Embassy in Ireland of the State of Palestine. 

Maybe one day the Spirit of Mother Jones award will mean something to a free people!

If you want to learn about the history of Cork, visit the Cork Butter Museum and listen to curator Peter Foynes on his walking trip around his native place elucidate why Shandon looks like it did once and explain why it looks like it does today. Question: is Skiddy’s Apartments now the oldest public housing scheme in Ireland after 300 years of providing homes for Corkonians? 

Indeed, historian Jack Lane in his revealing account of the All For Ireland League and the Irish Land & Labour Association confirmed that the 50,000 cottages with an attached acre which were built in Munster, mainly in Cork represented the first major public housing scheme in Western Europe. Championed by D.D.Sheehan MP, those houses accommodated hundreds of thousands of people. The blueprint for the solution of homelessness nearly 120 years ago. Julianna Minihan earlier discussed the provision of a public water supply to the poor people of Cork, some 50,000 of whom had no fresh water prior to the Great Hunger. Gerard O’Rourke author of Land War to Civil War 1900-1924 provided an enlightening account of the perseverance of the people of Donoughmore to the fight for Irish Independence. 

Kalyna Ukrainian Community Choir again performed in the presence of the Lord Mayor, Cllr. Dan Boyle. Their colourful and joyous singing, in spite of personal and political worries about the war in their homeland, displayed the true resilience of the Ukrainian people. Cork Singers’ Club on opening night provided a public platform for the singers of songs in Cork and beyond, it is a unique treasure! 

Carla Gover, and CornMaiz of Zoey Barrett, Arlo Barnette and Yani Vozos provided a striking contrast on the following evening when they entertained a large crowd with fiddles, banjo and guitar music from Kentucky. Introduced by Johnny Nyhan it became a memorable night of music and Appalachian culture. Thanks Carla for coming all this way to Shandon!

Before a huge attendance which had been joined by those who arrived from the Feminist Walk from U.C.C  at the Mother Jones Plaque, singer songwriter Martin Leahy unveiled his new composition ‘Mother Jones”.

Taken from the words of Mother Jones it certainly left an impression on those present who accompanied Martin in the final choruses.

” We need you in our hearts more than ever today

  The rich still burn the earth and the poor still pay”

Rory McCarthy added a song and Cork’s Mother Jones (Joan Goggin) sang a lusty version of “The Half Door”. John and Gearoid Nyhan accompanied by everyone present closed out 2024 with Foster and Kristofferson’s  “Me And Bobby MaGee”. Yes indeed, Mother Jones after her early life tragedies knew that “Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose”. Therein lies the source of her resilience and inspiration! 

The slanting evening sun from the west  which had earlier draped the Mother Jones plaque in a warm glow gradually slipped behind the Butter Market and signalled the end of festivities. Its warm rays recreated the memory of other pleasant evenings with friends and absent friends on John Redmond Street.

The Spirit of Mother Jones Meitheal for 2024 was over.  Over one hundred people, speakers, singers, musicians and performers had participated in the actual festival over the three days, while several dozen had worked behind the scenes to ensure the thirty events took place. We thank the many hundreds of people who attended those events along with our sponsors in the trade union movement, the Shandon Community, the local business community, and the Cork City Council as well as the Dance Cork Firkin Crane and the Maldron Hotel, Shandon.