15th Spirit of Mother Jones Festival returns this month

The 15th Annual Spirit of Mother Jones Festival and Summer School festival will be held in and around the Shandon Historic Quarter from Thursday 23 July until Saturday 25 July. It is organised by the Cork Mother Jones Committee 2026, an independent, voluntary, community-based committee.

The festival is dedicated to the memory of Mary Harris/Mother Jones and to inspirational people everywhere who fight for social justice, workers’ rights, and human rights. This festival celebrates her spirit.

The events are informal and free, thanks to the support of the trade union movement, Cork City Council, Cathedral Credit Union and local businesses. Attendance at each event is on a first-come, first-seated basis, so booking is unnecessary.

This unique festival celebrates the life of Mary Harris who was baptised in the North Cathedral on the morning of 1 August 1837 and who emigrated from Cork around the Great Hunger period and went on to become the union activist Mother Jones.

Today she is remembered in many parts of the world and especially here in her native Cork for her fight for social and labour justice and for her efforts to abolish child labour. She organised the March of the Mill Children in 1903. This was an event, which proved to be seminal in the long campaign to remove young children from the mines and mills of America, and to ensure they went to school.

Mary Harris was named Mother Jones by the miners as a mark of respect for her efforts to improve their pay and work conditions over many decades. Her slogan of ‘Pray for the Dead and Fight like Hell for the Living’ still resounds in campaigns and strikes around the world.

The forthcoming festival will take place over three days and will again consist of talks, lectures, discussions, singing, dancing and music as well as films and walks in Shandon. All are welcome, there is no charge and no booking is required, however people are advised that its first come first seated.

Speakers such as Anne Twomey who will explore the remarkable story of the Cummins sisters of Cork. The engrossing story of the Cummins sisters will be on Thursday evening 23 July at the Dance Cork Firkin Crane. The five daughters of William Edward Cummins Professor of Medicine at University College Cork and Jane Constable Hall born between 1890 and 1907 were unusual in that they obtained a third level education and forged independent careers at a time of immense political change in Ireland. Geraldine Cummins, Mary Hearn, Iris Cummins, Jane Cummins and Phyllis Hayes achieved hugely in their chosen careers. Some are honoured in Cork city, Shandon has the Dr Mary Hearn Park, while UCC named the Civil Engineering Building after Iris Ashley Cummins.

Anne Twomey will concentrate on the life stories and achievement of the five unique sisters and portray the wider picture of this unusual Cork family in the early years of the 20th century in Cork as they made their journey in a male dominated society through the turmoil and tragedy of World War 1.

An unusual element is that in an era which is not noted for the involvement of women in 3rd level education and having independent careers, the five sisters achieved academic excellence through the encouragement especially of their father and the influence of their governess Winifred Holloway.

Their active participation in the sport of hockey at an international level, four out of the five gained international caps for Ireland, more than matched the achievement of their brothers on the rugby fields and was also unusual at the time. Their individual achievements in their private and professional lives in medicine, engineering, arts, as scientists and army officers in Cork and elsewhere are worthy of examination.

Other speakers will include the President of the Irish Congress of Trade unions (ICTU) and the Irish Nurses’& Midwives Organisation leader Phil Ní Sheaghdha as well as former Greenpeace activist and MEP Grace O'Sullivan will talk about her time in the environmental campaign organisation.

Sara Nelson, one of the most prominent American trade union leaders, will join in the festival through Zoom to send fraternal greetings. Elliott Gorn, author of the biography of Mother Jones, is hoping to attend along with some American academics. Professor Naomi Masheti will speak in relation to investing in migrants being allowed to tell their stories. Songs from the Cork Singers' Club will again be heard, along with Kalyna Ukrainian Community Choir and Club Ceoil Ballyphehane Ballad Group. On the Saturday of the festival, two great Cork people who always attended and helped in the festival will be honoured - Joan Goggin (Mother Jones) and Norman O’Rourke, the Cork piper. Both passed away during the year. The Cork Mother Jones Committee also sends its best wishes to singer Jimmy Crowley who has played at each Mother Jones festival and they wish him good health.

Mary lived a long and active life and died at the age of 93 on 30 November 1930. Her 100th anniversary is coming up in just four years’ time and Cork city will remember this amazing woman who has been the source of inspiration for so many.

Kieran’s July Historical Walking Tours. All free, no booking required, 2 hours:

Sunday 12 July: The South Bank – The South Parish and its Histories. Meet at the Ronnie Herlihy Pocket Park, Langford Row, just opposite intersection of High Street, Summerhill South and Douglas Street at 2pm in association with the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society.

Tuesday 14 July: Cork Through the Ages, an Introduction to the Historical Development of Cork City. Meet at the National Monument, Grand Parade at 6.30pm.