Phil Ní Sheaghdha to Speak at the Spirit of Mother Jones Festival 2026.

PHIL Ní SHEAGHDHA, President of the Irish Congress of Trade Union (ICTU)  will speak at the forthcoming Spirit of Mother Jones Festival.

Phil Ní Sheaghdha. Photo by INMO.

She will address the topic

“Democratic Trade Unions matter because they strengthen Democracy.”

Phil was born and raised in the West Kerry Gaeltacht and is a proud advocate for the Irish language. She trained as a general nurse at Jervis Street Hospital in Dublin and later completed a postgraduate specialisation in intensive care nursing at Kingston Hospital in London.

Phil has extensive international experience, having worked as an ICU nurse in Ireland, Australia, the UK, and at Memorial Sloan Kettering in New York.

She joined the Irish Nurses & Midwives Organisation (INMO), in 1998 and went on to further her education, completing a Master’s degree in Industrial Relations, a Higher Diploma in Employment Law, and a qualification in Economics. Phil served as the INMO’s Director of Industrial Relations from 2008 to 2018, before being appointed General Secretary in 2018. 

She is a strong and resilient advocate for her members. Phil has become one of the best known trade union spoke persons due to her regular media appearances and her cogent and factually informative arguments for her members who work in the front lines of the Health system in Ireland.    

She is currently President of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU), Ireland’s national trade union federation, and serves as one of two Vice-Chairs of the ICTU Public Services Committee.

Phil will speak on Thursday 23rd July at the Maldron Hotel Shandon at 2.30 pm. All are welcome. 

Owen Reidy, General Secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Union to speak at the Spirit of Mother Jones Festival 2024.

 Topic. The Future World of Work and the place of Trade Unions.

Speaker. A talk by Owen Reidy General Secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU).

Saturday morning 27th July 2024, 11:30 am at the Shandon Maldron Hotel, Cork.

Owen Reidy, the General Secretary of the ICTU has agreed to speak at the forthcoming Spirit of Mother Jones Summer School.

Owen is from Donegal and spent 18 years with SIPTU where he organised workers in the aviation, finance, contract cleaning and security services sections of industry. 

Owen Reidy General Secretary of ICTU

He was involved in several industrial disputes including the Greyhound Lockout, the Luas dispute and disputes in CIE.

Prior to being appointed General Secretary of the ICTU in October 2022, he had responsibility for Northern Ireland as Assistant General Secretary since 2016.

According to James Nolan spokesperson for the Cork Mother Jones Committee

“We are so pleased that Owen Reidy, General Secretary of the ICTU has accepted our invitation to speak at the thirteenth Spirit of Mother Jones Festival. It is the first time the ICTU leader will address those attending the festival and it is a great honour for us to have the leader of the Irish Congress here in Shandon.

It just goes to show how important  union woman Mother Jones, born in this very community has become to the Irish Trade Union movement”

Owen Reidy will speak on the topic  “The Future World of Work and the place of Trade Unions”  at the Summer School on Saturday morning 27th July at 11.30am. This will be of interest to all union members, union activists and workers generally. All are welcome.