“The Organised Society and Role of the Labour Movement.”
The former General Secretary of the National Union of Rail,Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) Union, Mick Lynch returned to Cork to speak at the Spirit of Mother Jones festival 2025.
He spoke about the role of the Labour Movement in society.
Mick Lynch. Photo: Emma Bowell.
Thanks to JASE Media Services and after receiving many inquiries we are showing his entire talk which took place at the Dance Cork Firkin Crane.
Relevant, interesting and challenging are the criteria for presentations and lectures at the Spirit of Mother Jones Festival. Mick Lynch certainly delivered in this talk. We hope you will watch the video and listen to his ideas.
Mick Lynch: Photo: Angela Flynn.Joan Goggin and Ann Piggott with Mick Lynch. Photo: Emma Bowell.
Des Geraghty, Karan Casey, Mick Lynch and Ethel Buckley at the Cork Butter Exchange in Shandon.
Mick Lynch speaking at the weekly Gaza March in Cork City. Photo: Angela Flynn.Mick Lynch at the Mother Jones plaque.Mick Lynch with the Mexican Community Dance Group.
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.
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!.
Betty Cook and Anne Scargill at the March of the Mill Children in Shandon in 2019. Photo by Claire Stack,
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.
Photo: William Hammond, Jimmy Crowley, Eve Telford and Richard T. Cooke.
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 Lynch with Joan Goggin (Mother Jones) in 2023,
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.
President Cecil E. Roberts of the United Mineworkers of America. (Courtesy of UMWA)
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.
Members of the Mexican Community Choir. Photo: Claire Stack.
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.
John Nyhan. Photo: Claire Stack.
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’.
George Mann. Photo by Frank Maldon.
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.
Mother Jones (Joan Goggin) meeting with Mick Lynch, General Secretary of the RMT Union at the 2023 Spirit of Mother Jones Festival.
Mother Jones with Mick Lynch.
Joan’s dad, Bill Martin was a branch secretary of the ITGWU for several years. When Jim Larkin visited Cork, he usually called to the Martin family home on Bandon Road for a meal and a chat.
Just a short distance down Bandon Road near Warren’s Lane was the family home of the Lynch family. Mick Lynch’s dad, Jackie Lynch emigrated from 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. Her brother, Mickey still runs the farm in the area.
Labour history resonates among neighbour’s children.
Watch interview between Emma Bowell of Frameworks Films with Mick Lynch at the 2023 Spirit of Mother Jones Festival.
Updated 10th January 2025:
Mick Lynch has announced that he retire as General Secretary of the RMT Union in May 2025. After four years of General Secretary of the RMT and thirty years involved in the union, he has decided to step down. Mick became the public face of the trade union movement from 2022 to 2024 during the rail strikes in Britain, a period in which he articulated in a straight forward manner the socialist perspective of his working class members. In many interviews, he destroyed a series of right wing interviewers and media outlets inhabited by Tory commentators who sought to disparage his unionised train drivers who were on strike. The Cork Mother Jones Committee wishes Mick Lynch a happy retirement and congratulates him again on being selected to receive the Mother Jones Award for 2023.
The 2023 Spirit of Mother Jones Award was presented yesterday to Mick Lynch by James Nolan at the Spirit of Mother Jones Festival in Shandon in front of a capacity at the Dance Cork Firkin Crane.
Mick Lynch at the Butter Market in Shandon with the Spirit of Mother Jones Award.
Jim Nolan presenting the award to Mick Lynch.A packed auditorium.
The Cork Mother Jones Committee is pleased to announce the recipient of the 2023 Spirit of Mother Jones Award.
It has been awarded to UK Trade Union leader Mick Lynch and the RMT.
The award will be presented to Mr. Lynch at a meeting at the Dance Cork Firkin Crane on Thursday 27th July at 4:00 pm as part of the Spirit of Mother Jones Festival.
Mick Lynch with strong Cork roots was appointed General Secretary of the National Union of Railway, Transport and Marine workers, (RMT) in 2021 and has led the fight to defend his members’ working conditions and pay as well as trying to protect the public and community services.
Mick Lynch and his wife Mary at the Durham Miners Gala in 2022. Courtesy of Chronicle Live.
James Nolan spokesperson for the Cork Mother Jones Committee stated
“We believe that Mick Lynch by his direct action, solid analysis, straight talking and plain speaking in defence of workers and union rights, has won him widespread support and respect among working people.
His precise fact based arguments and his eloquence in his media performances in the face of Tory Party opposition in the UK in relation to the support for public services such as the Railways, the National Health Service and public services, has ensured admiration and support from among many people as they recognise the validity of his comments.
With Cork roots in the city centre, Mick Lynch continues to represent the fighting rebel spirit and tradition of his fellow Cork emigrant, Mary Harris, known as Mother Jones, who in earlier generations fought for social and trade union justice.
The Cork Mother Jones Committee is proud to honour the Cork diaspora which leads the fight for the living”
This is the eleventh Spirit of Mother Jones award, the last British trade union leader to receive it was the late Dave Hopper of the Durham Miners Association who did so in 2016.
Previous recipients include Gareth Peirce, Ken Fleming, Mary Manning, Fr Peter Mc Verry, Louise O’Keeffe, Antoinette Keegan, Catherine Coffey O’Brien, Ann O’Gorman, Maureen Considine and Don O’Leary.
Mick Lynch is the General Secretary of the National Union of Rail, Maritime & Transport Workers (RMT) since May 2021.
Among his predecessors at the RMT were Bob Crow, who was a regular visitor to Ireland and Mick Cash who had Irish roots.
Mick and the RMT have been to the forefront of the defence of workers’ pay and conditions in the UK privatised rail sector. The union has also organised the opposition to the closure of tickets offices at railway stations justifiably arguing that this discriminates against the older, weaker and non tech savvy people.
Over the past few years Mick’s appearances on television have guaranteed enormous media interest as he systematically and forensically destroyed the arguments of political commentators, the right wing press and Tory MPs who argued against workers’ pay increases.
The YouTube clips of these debates are widely viewed by many.
Mick Lynch with his wife Mary enjoying the Durham Gala in 2022. Courtesy of Chronicle Live.
All the while he exposes the large payments to company directors and investors of dividends/profits from the privatised railroads instead of these monies being invested in modernising the rail infrastructure. He talks of the poor treatment of workers, bad working conditions and safety issues and the poor quality service endured by the travelling public.
His straight talking approach and his grasp of the relevant facts has gained him huge support.
Mick argues that there should be no divisions in the working class and attempts to pitch groups of workers against each other must not be tolerated.
He argues that it is “this broader umbrella of class politics inclusive of workers of all kinds, that best deprives the political right the opportunity to pit working class people against one another”. In this Mick echoes the views of Mother Jones who stated that “We must stand together; if we don’t there will be no victory for any of us.”
James Connolly is his political hero. US Senator, Bernie Sanders came to London recently to support the RMT.
At the Durham Miners Gala in July 2022 where Mick was a key speaker at the Big Meeting, he announced to the large gathering,
“We’re back. The working class is back. We refuse to be meek, we refuse to be humble and we refuse to be poor anymore”
Durham Miners Gala Parade.
Gathering at the Big Meeting in Durham.
Jackie Lynch, Mick’s dad was born in Cork city centre in 1922, and the Lynch family lived on Cork’s Bandon Road near Warrens Lane. He emigrated to London in 1941. His mother, Ellen Morris was from Crossmaglen, Co. Armagh. Mick, one of five children, was born in 1962 in Paddington, London and trained as an electrician. When back in Cork, he calls to Turners Cross, to support Cork City.
Mick Lynch is scheduled to speak on Thursday afternoon at 4:00 pm at the Dance Cork Firkin Crane.
Please note in view of capacity issues, it is first come, first seated.
The annual Durham Gala will take place on Saturday 9th July 2022 following a break of two years due to Covid-19. The Gala this year is “dedicated to the key workers”, who provided essential services in the UK during the recent pandemic.
Outside the County Hotel in Durham.A view of the Gala.
The Cork Mother Jones Committee extend warm congratulations and solidarity to the Durham Miners Association and wish the DMA well for a fantastic parade and Big Meeting.
The parade itself features thousands of people of all ages from former mining communities across the north of England marching behind their colourful banners and colliery bands.
Dave Hopper on the left of this banner.Mother Jones BannerBlackhall Lodge Banner.Fishburn Lodge Banner.Quarrington Hill Lodge Banner.Fishburn Lodge Banner
Dave Hopper, a former General Secretary of the DMA along with his committee were regular attenders at the Spirit of Mother Festivals. Dave spoke at the 2014 and 2015 Festivals, and he provided a first hand account of events at the battle of Orgreave as well as contributing to the general discussions.
The Late Davy Hopper in Cork.
He was awarded the 2016 Spirit of Mother Jones Award posthumously after his sudden death a few weeks before the festival in 2016.
The Durham Miner’s Association is based at Red Hills in Durham, which was opened in 1915.
View of Red Hills, home of the Durham Miners Association.
The Red Hills contains the Miners Parliament where representatives of each of the lodges of county Durham once met to decide on union matters.
Imposing entrance featuring Alexander McDonald, William Crawford, William Patterson and John Forman, early leaders of the DMA.Miners ParliamentSculpture at Red Hills.Wall mural at Red Hills.Painting at Red HillsPainting at Red Hills.
Mick Lynch, General Secretary of the RMT Union will speak at the Big Meeting on Saturday 9th July 2022. Mick, whose father was from Cork has led the recent rail strikes in Britain.
It is a huge honour to speak at the Big Meeting. This year is the 75th Anniversary of the death of Irish trade union leader, Jim Larkin, a founder of the ITGWU, (now SIPTU) and the Irish Citizen Army. In 1914, a few months after the end of the Dublin Lockout, Jim Larkin spoke at the Durham Gala and on the day argued for one union,
” if one section is out, you should be ready to bring out everyone of you”
As the miners’ banners were carried from the field in Durham on that day in July 1914, they were not to return for five years………….. just ten days later Britain was at war with Germany.
