The organisers of The Red Flag Festival invite you to celebrate the 27th anniversary of this historic event, dedicated to honouring Jim Connell, the esteemed author of the Red Flag Song – a timeless anthem within the international labour movement.
The Red Flag Committee welcomes suggestions on what you would like to see at this event in 2025. Please utilize the ‘Get in Touch’ facility below to share your ideas and feedback. We value your input and look forward to making the event even more memorable with your contributions.
The Jim Connell Commemoration / Red Flag Festival, held each year in County Meath since 1998 — the birthplace of Jim Connell — stands as a proud celebration of the enduring spirit of the trade union movement. It honours the victories hard-won by workers through collective struggle and solidarity, and it pays tribute to those who continue the fight for fairness, dignity, and justice — not only in the workplace, but in the broader struggle for LGBTQ+ equality, migrant and asylum seeker rights, and the protection of all marginalized communities.
Rooted deeply in the local community, the festival draws strength from its surroundings while casting its gaze outward to the global stage. It brings together activists, artists, trade unionists, and citizens to reflect on the movement’s historic achievements, to confront the modern challenges it faces, and to renew a shared commitment to the ideals of equality, democracy, and social progress.
Though grounded in Meath, the Red Flag Festival is international in vision — a living reminder that the struggle for workers’ rights knows no borders, and that the anthem Jim Connell gave the world still marches on in hearts and picket lines across the globe.
Join us at the Jim Connell – Red Flag Festival from 30th May to 1st June 2025 for a socialist good time you won’t want to miss!
The Red Flag — that defiant, soaring anthem of hope and struggle — was penned by Irishman Jim Connell in London in 1889. What began as a song has since become the rallying cry of working people across the world, the heartbeat of the international trade union movement.
Trade unions have never been mere institutions — they are the collective force of generations of workers, rising up against exploitation, refusing to accept poverty as destiny, and daring to demand justice. From the factory floor to the fields, from dockyards to digital offices, unions have fought — and continue to fight — to free families and entire communities from oppression.
They have been the backbone of movements for the most basic of rights: fair pay, safe working conditions, equal treatment, the rule of law, democracy, dignity. These victories were not handed down — they were won through solidarity, sacrifice, and unwavering courage.
Today, that spirit lives on. The trade union movement is not a relic of the past, but a living, breathing force that spans the globe — 207 million strong in 163 countries — still confronting injustice, still empowering the powerless, still raising the Red Flag high for a better, fairer world. The monument in memory of Jim Connell is dedicated to the million sof Irish emigrants who fought for economic and social justice and helped build the Trade Union movement worldwide.
In order to provide you with the best possible experience throughout the weekend, we kindly ask all attendees to sign up via the Eventbrite App, tickets are free. This will assist with planning your transport and catering for the event. Free transport from Navan to Crossakiel for Sunday's main event.
In 1998, trade union and labour movement activists from Kells, led by Tommy Grimes, proudly unveiled a permanent monument to Jim Connell — the author of The Red Flag — in Crossakiel, near his birthplace in County Meath. This tribute stands not only as a memorial to Connell’s legacy, but as a lasting dedication to the countless workers from rural Ireland who migrated to the industrial cities and helped ignite a wave of change known as New Unionism in the late Victorian era.
The monument honours their courage, their determination, and their impact. These workers — many from towns like Kells and villages like Crossakiel — formed the backbone of a growing labour force that demanded dignity and justice. Their victories were profound: London gas workers won the eight-hour day, dockworkers ended the tyranny of casual “zero-hour” labour, and new safety standards began to transform dangerous workplaces. These breakthroughs inspired a new spirit of resistance, and New Unionism spread like wildfire through the working classes, fuelled by the energy of Irish migrants and the solidarity they built in their adopted cities.
As the 20th century unfolded, the trade union and labour movement grew in strength, scope, and vision. Its achievements expanded into the political realm, advancing the rights of working people everywhere. Today, the global trade union movement represents over 200 million members in 163 countries — a living testament to more than a century of struggle and solidarity.
The roots of the Crossakiel monument trace back to 1996, when Tommy Grimes reached out to GMB London — the modern successor of the gas workers’ union — and to the Battersea and Wandsworth Trades Union Council, whose founder, John Burns, was a leader of the dockers’ movement. Recognising the significance of honouring Connell in his homeland, they provided the bulk of the funding, enabling a Kells-based committee to bring the vision to life in Crossakiel.
The trade union movement has a proud and storied history. It has secured the right to organise, the right to associate, the right to speak freely — all hard-won liberties that are now the foundation of democratic society. Its core values remain unshaken: the rule of law, democracy, and economic and social justice.
The Red Flag Festival exists to celebrate and renew these values. It reminds us not only of how far we’ve come, but of the work still to do. It stands in the spirit of Jim Connell and the generations of working people who raised their voices — and their flags — for a fairer world.
Posted by International Red Flag Festival on Monday 13 May 2024
If you have any questions or would like to discuss accomodation, please get in touch!
SIPTU Dan Shaw Centre, Dan Shaw Road, Commons Rd, Navan, Co. Meath
Fri, 30 May 2025 – Sun, 1 June 2025
We look forward to welcoming you to an event that promises to be both enlightening and exhilarating. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to be part of a community united by a vision of a fairer, more equitable world. See you at the Jim Connell Red Flag Festival!
Location
SIPTU Dan Shaw Centre, Dan Shaw Road, Commons Rd, Navan, Co. Meath
Date
Fri, 30 May 2025 to Sun, 1 May 2025