The former President of the Services Industrial Professional and Technical Union (SIPTU), Des Geraghty will speak at the forthcoming Spirit of Mother Jones festival on Thursday 23rd July 2026.
The title of the talk is “An Injury to One is the Concern of All”.
The title is a slogan of the US Knights of Labor, coined by Uriah S Stephens in 1869 and popularised by Irish trade union leader, Jim Larkin forms the basis for a talk by Des Geraghty at this year’s festival. The Knights, forerunners of the American trade union movement did not admit women until the 1880s when Mary Harris joined and where she formed a strong friendship with Terence Powderly, whose people were from Co Meath.
Des Geraghty has spent a long and varied career immersed in the SIPTU Trade Union and in Left wing party politics in Ireland, yet he has also found time to be a writer, a singer and a musician. In 1984 he stood unsuccessfully for the Workers’ Party in the European elections, but became a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) in 1992 when he replaced Proinsias De Rossa who had became leader of the Democratic Left.
Des served as Vice-President of SIPTU 1997-1999, and then as President from 1999 to 2003.
Although very active in union politics, social partnership and labour disputes over many decades, Dublin born Liberties man, Des was active on many social justice issues, sang songs, played the flute and wrote a book about his friend Luke Kelly.
He is chairman of the Clé Club, a traditional music and song club at Liberty Hall.
Des produced a documentary film about his hero James Connolly, “We Only Want the Earth” which was shown at the 2025 Spirit of Mother Jones Festival to a large audience. The documentary was written and directed by acclaimed film-maker Alan Gilsenan.
“We Only Want the Earth” challenged the viewers to look in a wider perspective at the icon that is James Connolly. It portrayed the ordinary human Connolly, which lies behind the martyr of 1916. All the while tracing the real spirit of the man and of the legacy and vision he left behind after his execution in 1916 in the form of present day activists campaigning for social and labour justice.
Des was quoted as saying at the time that he was “more interested in his life than in his death” and that certainly is achieved through this powerful documentary. Mother Jones, a contemporary of Connolly in her time always referred to unions being “the family of labour”, since unions looked after communities and not just individuals. James Connolly would have endorsed this approach.
Des Geraghty will speak at 5:00 pm on Thursday 23rd July at the Maldron Hotel Shandon. All are welcome.
