The spirit of Mother Jones fights on

Some of the attendees at the Mother Jones Garden Party.

The 2015 Spirit of Mother Jones Festival and summer school in July/August in Cork City featured four days and nights of talks, debates, films, singing, poetry and music, concluding with a musical tribute to labour leader Joe Hill.

Actress Kaiulani Lee performed her play Can’t Scare Me…The Story of Mother Jones at the Firkin Crane and Fr. Peter McVerry was presented with the 2015 Spirit of Mother Jones award for his work in challenging the causes of homelessness.

The festival saw UK Labour Party MP Chris Mullin speak on his role in the campaign to free the Birmingham Six, Durham miners speak on the Battle of Orgreave and many historical talks on figures from the first decades of the 1900s.