‘The Red Flag’ and Meath

A chara, – In the quiet rural village of Crossakiel in north Meath last Sunday, a group of Anglo-Irish trade unionists met to celebrate the life and times of Jim Connell, who was born in nearby Kilskyre in 1852, and who went on to pen The Red Flag, the anthem of the international labour movement.

It was an almost surreal backdrop in which to listen to a trade union leader representative of Durham miners speak of the great anomaly of our times, the high levels of unemployment and underemployment present among the most highly educated generation of school-leavers to date. Though the village setting was local, the message was universal and global – the pervasive inequalities of our times. – Is mise,

COLIN QUIGLEY,

Steeple Manor,

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Trim, Co Meath.