'May Day' celebrations continue tomorrow in Navan
May Day celebrations in Meath will conclude tomorrow (Saturday )with a labour history seminar to mark the end of the Decade of Centenaries. Hosted by Meath Council of Trade Unions it takes place in the SIPTU Dan Shaw Centre, Navan, 10am – 13.30pm.
It follows on from the Jim Connell Festival in Crossakiel on Sunday and the visit by the Jim Connell Society's visit to Aras an Uacharain last Thursday, as part of President Higgins' May Day celebrations.
Sunday's festival, which celebrated Jim Connell, the writer of the socialist anthem The Red Flag, saw hundred of trade unionists from across the country and the UK travel to the Crossakiel area.
It was the 25th festival in the north Meath village and saw Owen Reidy of the Irish Congress of trade Unions deliver a passionate anti-racism speech in which he said “The far-right does not represent working people – trade unions do."
The festival also received a letter from RMT, Genera Secretary, Mick Lynch in which the high profile British Trade Unionist pledged enduring solidarity and support to the society.
Tomorrow's seminar will focus on the much neglected class and gender dimensions of the revolutionary dynamic driving the struggle for national independence.
Among those speaking at the event will be Dr Martin Maguire who will speak on 'Writing and erasing labour in the Irish revolution: an historiographical overview'
Tracey Holsgrove will give a presentation entitled "Did motherhood overtake revolution? The political activity and legacy of Meath women in the revolutionary period."
Tracey Holsgrove is an independent researcher living in Oldcastle. Her main interest is women's history, currently focusing on women's political activity in Meath in the period 1912-1923. Tracey is a member of the Meath History Workshop, the Meath Archaeological and Historical Society and the Moylagh Historical Society.
Aidan Gilsenan will talk on 'Arrant bolshevism'? The ITGWU in Meath, 1918- to 1923’
Aidan Gilsenan is a native of Meath and is currently a PhD candidate in Maynooth University researching the social history of evicted tenants of the Land War, 1879-to 1939.