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.
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.
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.
The Spirit of Mother Jones Festival 