From Shandon to Hillsborough

CELEBRATING the workers’ rights activism of Cork-born firebrand, Mary Harris, The Spirit of Mother Jones Festival takes place in the Shandon area of Cork city from Jul 30-Aug 1.

Now in its second year, the festival has been expanded and will see academics, authors, activists and musicians taking part, with Aug 1 designated by Cork City Council as Mother Jones Day in the city.

Mother Jones (1837-1930) was a school teacher and dressmaker who became a prominent labour leader in America, having emigrated there in her teens with her family. She would go on to organise major strikes and co-found the Industrial Workers of the World. When her husband and four young children died of yellow fever and her dressmaker’s shop was destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire in 1871, Mother Jones began working as an organiser for the Knights of Labour and the United Mine Workers Union. She was called “the most dangerous woman in America” because of her success in organising miners and their families against the mine owners.