A festival and summer school dedicated to the memoryof Mary Harris/Mother Jones and to inspirationalpeople everywhere who fight for social justice.

Cork Mother Jones Committee & Shandon Street Festival

www.motherjonescork.com

2019

Luke Dineen is a regular contributor to the Spiritof Mother Jones Summer School. He has an interestin labour issues. He completed his PhD in the Schoolof History at UCC. He highlights the vast contributionof the trade union movement to Irish society and haspublished on the history of trade unions.

John Barimo is an educator, coastal ecologist,writer, advocate of social justice, and adventurer.He earned a doctorate in Marine Biology andsubsequently lectured at socially disadvantagedthird level institutions in the US Virgin Islands andMiami. He currently resides in Cork City wherehe writes and is actively working with local environmental groups.

Séan Ó Tuathaigh was born in Sligo. He isa Trinity graduate in creative writing. Havingtaught English in Hanoi, Vietnam, in 2016 hemoved to the US for 18 months, where he workedas a refugee biographer in a resettlement agency.His experiences there have resulted in his firstbook Outlanders – Stories of the Displaced. Seanwill tell the incredible human stories of the

refugees he met. www.facebook.com/OutlandersBook

Lorraine Starsky is a public health nurseand a member of the Pennsylvania NursesAssociation Local 802. In the 70s she becameinvolved in the women’s rights movement, theVietnam War, trade union issues and tacklingracism. Lorraine has Irish roots and a special

interest in Mother Jones and American labour struggles.

Kieran Groeger is a retired teacher, cyclistand avid Francophile. His books include The Trialand Execution of James Cotter, The Little Book ofYoughal and now his most recent publication Themuch-maligned Mary Pike. He writes on localissues and reveals the truth beneath the layers ofhistory.

Michael Kingston is a respectedinternational maritime lawyer from West Cork.His father Tim died in the Whiddy Islanddisaster of January 7th/8th 1979 where 50seafarers and workers died. Michael highlightsthe ongoing injustice for families of victims by campaigning forimprovements in regulations in maritime industries and theintroduction of the legal offence of corporate manslaughter. Heis Vice President of the French-Irish Association of Relatives andFriends of the Betelgeuse.

Briege Voyle is the daughter of Joan Connolly.Joan was shot dead by the British Army inBallymurphy in Belfast on Monday August 9th

1971, the day internment without trial wasintroduced in Northern Ireland. Joan had rushed toassist 19 year old Noel Phillips who lay wounded.Briege has campaigned for decades for the full truth

behind the Ballymurphy Massacre.

Taking Part

Saturday3rd August

Wednesday31st July

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Anne Twomey is a teacher and member of theShandon Area History Group. She is a regularspeaker on local history topics. Her vivid accountsof women from Cork has led to a growingrecognition of their vital role in the history of Cork.The Group’s 2016 exhibition Ordinary Womenin Extraordinary Times has contributed toincreased interest and research in this subject.

Tom MacSweeney worked with The IrishPress/Examiner/Evening Echo/Southern Star andRTE in Dublin, Belfast and Cork. He was RTE’s firstregional correspondent and marine correspondent.He currently presents This Island Nation maritimeprogramme on radio, is deputy editor of TheMarine Times and columnist with The Echo and

Afloat. He challenges State attitudes to Ireland’s maritime sector.

Joe Creedon from Inchigeelagh in Uibh Laoireis immersed in local history and heritage issues. Heis organiser of the annual Daniel Corkery SummerSchool in July each year. An accomplished painter,a wonderful story teller, he often breaks into songand verse when mere words fail to describe hisancestors, community and life.

Elliott J Gorn teaches history at LoyolaUniversity in Chicago and is the author ofMother Jones - The Most Dangerous Woman inAmerica (Hill and Wang 2001). He haswritten several books on American historyincluding Let the People See: The Story ofEmmett Till (Oxford University Press 2018).Elliott attended the initial Cork Mother Jones festival in 2012.

Frameworks Films is an independentCork based film production company run byEmma Bowell and Eddie Noonan. Workingin collaboration with local communities andgroups, they seek to tell their stories bycreating film documentaries, some of which have been shownat the Spirit of Mother Jones festival. Documentaries include TheLimerick Soviet, Fords – Memories of the Line and Mother Jonesand her Children. www.frameworksfilms.com

ANNUAL FESTIVAL

ShandonCork

Message from the Cork MotherJones Committee

Welcome to the 8th annual Spirit of Mother Jones Festivaland Summer School. Over 30 events will take place overfour days and nights in the Shandon Historic Quarter.All events are free, thanks to the support of our sponsors.The aim of this independent voluntary committee is tohonour Cork’s Rebel daughter, Mary Harris, known asMother Jones. The Spirit of Mother Jones Festival is a community basedhappening. We seek to hold events which are relevant,interesting and challenging and active participation isencouraged. Enjoy the 2019 festival!

March of the Mill Children Pageantat Shandon Plaza

This pageant will be performed on Wednesday 31st Julyat 12:30 p.m. with the assistance of Cork CommunityArt Link and Foróige Group Blarney Street to celebratethe historic March of the Mill Children. Organised byMother Jones, it began on 7th July 1903 fromPhiladelphia to New York City and lasted over 3 weeks.It sought to highlight and to abolish the exploitation ofyoung children in the mills, mines and factories acrossAmerica. This may be the first re-enactment outside ofthe USA.

Mother Jones - “I’m a HELLRAISER!“Mary Harris was born in Cork city in July 1837 and wasbaptised at the North Cathedral on 1st August. After theGreat Famine, the Harris family emigrated to Canada.Mary qualified as a teacher and a seamstress. Shemarried a union man, George Jones, in 1861. She losther husband and four young children in the 1867 yellowfever epidemic in Memphis.

Mary became a labour and union activist from the1890s onwards. She was one of the toughestorganisers for the United Mine Workers of America.She also organised the March of the Mill Children in1903 to highlight the exploitation of young children inmines and factories. Then known as Mother Jones, sheattended the first meeting of the IWW in 1905 and knewJames Connolly.

Best known as a hellraiser for her fiery speeches againstthe exploitation of miners, she was described as “themost dangerous woman in America”. Mary’s exploits inthe mining wars of West Virginia and Colorado, whereshe was regularly imprisoned, made her a feared andadmired figure.

Her cry of “Pray for the dead and fight like hell for theliving” still reverberates through history. Herautobiography was published in 1925. She died in 1930and is buried at Mount Olive Union Cemetery in Illinois.Her spirit is alive and well wherever in the world there isa fight for justice. The Cork City Council recognisesAugust 1st as “Mother Jones Day”. Mother Jones wasinducted into the Irish American Hall of Fame in 2014.A museum has been opened in Mount Olive.

A plaque by visual artistMick Wilkins tocommemorate the 175th

anniversary of her birth waserected in 2012 in Shandon.This festival celebrates therebel Spirit of Mother Jonesin the streets of her childhood.

The Spirit of Mother Jones Festivalwww.motherjonescork.com

Tel: 086 3196063 086 1651356 087 9031282

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The 2019 Spirit of Mother Jones Awardwill be announced at the Festival

Friday 2nd August"I am not unaware that leaders betray,

and sell out, and play false"

Saturday 3rd August"I laid out the dead,

the martyrs of the strike"

Wednesday 31st July"Little girls and boys, barefooted, walked up and

down between the endless rows of spindles"

Thursday 1st August"I nursed men back to sanity who

were driven to despair"

All speakers and musicians are committed toattending the festival. The Cork Mother Jones

Committee reserves the right to vary the schedule.

Check on www.motherjonescork.comFollowus

The Cork Mother Jones Committee wish to thank our sponsors for 2019

Cork City Council Heritage Dept., SIPTU at Liberty Hall,ASTI, ASTI Cork South Paddy Mulcahy Branch, ASTI CarberyBranch, Cathedral Credit Union, The CommunicationWorkers’ Union, UNISON, Mandate Trade Union, INTO,NIPSA, Cllr Ted Tynan and CCTU.

We also wish to thank Frameworks Films, Cork CommunityArt Link, Firkin Crane Theatre, AZ Printers, Cathedral VisitorCentre, Maldron Hotel (Shandon), Shandon Area RenewalAssociation (SARA), Foróige Group Blarney Street and manyothers who have provided assistance on a voluntarybasis.We are indebted to all the speakers, film makers,musicians, singers, poets and volunteers who work togetherto make this a unique, inspirational community event.

Extra EventsFirkin Crane Theatre - all weekWomen of the Factories by Megan Kennedy and Jessica KennedyExhibition of photographs taken 1915 - 1956 documentingCork female factory workers. Images of Thompsons,Sunbeam and other local factories.

Maldron Hotel - all weekMother Jones Pictoral Exhibition designed by JimFitzpatrick, was displayed at the first festival in 2012 andat many Mother Jones events in America. Thanks to BrianMcGee of the Cork City Archives.

Thursday 1st August Myo Café, Pope’s Quay 8 p.m.Filí Na Réabhlóide (Poets of the Revolution)Readings from poets of social change. Tel: 083 0425942

Saturday 3rd August Maldron Hotel 2 p.m.Author and journalist Frank Connolly launches his novel A Conspiracy of Lies, Mercier Press.

Saturday 3rd August Maureen’s, John RedmondStreet 5.30 p.m. Conal Creedon reads from his newnovel Begotten Not Made.

Sunday 4th August Maureen’s, John Redmond Street8.30 p.m. In the Round with Stan Notte. Music andspoken word.

Music at the FestivalSincere thanks to the following singers and musicians: CorkSingers’ Club, Richard T Cooke, Joan Goggin,Eadaoin Delaney, Aoife Delaney, WilliamHammond, Club Ceoil Ballyphehane Ballad Groupled by Stephen O’Dea and Abbey Ní Loingsigh,Jimmy Crowley, John Nyhan, Mick Treacy, RoryMcCarthy and Vocalic (Deirdre Moriarty, NorahConnell and Alf Wade).

10:30 a.m. F A film by Rosemary FeurerMother Jones: America’s Most Dangerous WomanCathedral Visitor Centre

11:00 a.m. F Frameworks FilmsMother Jones and Her ChildrenCathedral Visitor Centre

12: 30 a.m. The March of the Mill Children Pageant with the assistance of Foróige Group Blarney Street andCork Community Art LinkShandon Plaza

1:30 p.m. Official festival opening by the Lord Mayor of CorkMaldron Hotel

3:00 p.m. L Séan Ó Tuathaigh “Outlanders: Stories of the Displaced” Cathedral Visitor Centre

7: 00 p.m. L Joe Creedon “Ellen Cotter, the mother of Mary Harris,and Inchigeelagh in the early 1800s” Firkin Crane Theatre

8:00 p.m. L Professor Elliott J GornAuthor of Mother Jones: The Most Dangerous Woman in America“The Story of Mother Jones” Firkin Crane Theatre

9:30 p.m. M The Cork Singers’ ClubMaldron Hotel

The Radical Irish Diaspora

11:00 a.m. L Lorraine Starsky“In the Footsteps of Mother Jones - The Life and Legacy of ElizabethGurley Flynn 1890 - 1964” Cathedral Visitor Centre

1.00 p.m. M William HammondMusic at the Maldron

2.30 p.m. L Dr Kieran Groeger"The Extraordinary Life of John Swiney, the United Irishman from Shandon" Cathedral Visitor Centre

5.00 p.m. F The Limerick SovietA collaborative documentary between Limerick Council of Trade Unions andFrameworks Films100th anniversary of The Limerick Soviet Maldron Hotel

7.30 p.m. L Anne Twomey Shandon Area History Group “Mary Elmes: An Irish Heroine”Firkin Crane Theatre

9.30 p.m. M Club Ceoil Ballyphehane Ballad GroupEvening includes the Song for Mother JonesMaldron Hotel

10:30 a.m. L Briege Voyle “ Ballymurphy August 1971”

F Includes a screening of the Channel 4 documentary The Ballymurphy PrecedentDirected by Callum MacraeFirkin Crane Theatre

3:00 p.m. L Professor Elliott J Gorn“The Lynching of Emmet Till - A Civil Rights Movement is born!”Firkin Crane Theatre

7:30 p.m. M Rory McCarthyAnnual toast and songs to Mother Jones at the plaque on John Redmond Street

9:00 p.m. M VocalicCelebrate the end of the 2019 festivalMaldron Hotel

F FilmM MusicL Lecture/talk/discussion

Photo by Andy Jay

11:00 a.m. L Luke Dineen“Craftsmen and the Irish Revolution 1920 - 23”Cathedral Visitor Centre

1:00 p.m. M Jimmy CrowleyMusic at the Maldron

2:30 p.m. L Dr John Barimo“Social Justice, Inequality and Climate Change”Cathedral Visitor Centre

3:30 p.m. F Remembering the Cork Climate Change March 2019

L Micah Neilson Fridays for Future Cork Alicia O’Sullivan Ireland's Youth Ambassador for the OceansCathedral Visitor Centre

5:00 p.m. F Fords – Memories of the LineA film documentary produced by the Ford Ex-workers’ Group andFrameworks FilmsMaldron Hotel

7:30 p.m. L Michael Kingston & Tom MacSweeney“The Whiddy disaster 40 years on: Still looking for answers”Statement by Madame Ginette Ravaleu, President of the French-Irish Association of Relatives and Friends of the BetelgeuseFirkin Crane Theatre

9:30 p.m. M John Nyhan & Mick TreacyThe songs of Pete Seeger 1919 - 2014 Maldron Bar