In 1998 Kells trades union and labour movement activists led by Tommy Grimes were able to unveil a permanent monument to the Red Flag anthem author Jim Connell in Crossakiel near Kells County Meath near his birthplace. The monument is dedicated to the millions of workers from rural Ireland who migrated to the cities who played a pivotal role in the development and growth of new unionism in late Victorian era. The Red Flag anthem celebrates their success in London in winning the eight-hour day (the gas workers), ending zero hours casual work (the dockers) and movement towards safe workplaces (the match girls strike). (See picture of the panel with the dedication)
Connell himself from rural Meath was one of these migrant workers working in London. Based on these victories new unionism spread like wildfire among the ranks of workers whose numbers were swelled by the migrants from the rural areas. This new unionism was standing on the shoulders of the earlier generations of unionists like the Chartists and the Tolpuddle Martyrs who took the first steps in liberating urban and rural workers from tyranny.
By 1900 the union movement developed a political arm in the form of Labour Parties in Britain and Ireland. Over the years the industrial and political achievements of the trade union and labour movement grew, and the number of trades union members worldwide has grown to over 200 million.
In 1996 Tommy Grimes was in contact with GMB London descended from the gas workers union and Battersea and Wandsworth Trades Union Council whose founder John Burns was a leader of the dockers union. Given their organic links to the Red Flag anthem and its author they bought into Tommy Grimes vision for the monument. They gave Tommy Grimes the bulk of the funding to enable a Kells based committee to build the monument is Crossakiel.
The trades union movement has a very long and very illustrious history. They secured the basic rights to assemble, to associate and for freedom of speech. Their fundamental principles are the rule of law, democracy and economic and social justice.
The Red Flag Festival celebrates these principles and strives to develop and deepen them in our times.
"Their victories were profound: London gas workers won the eight-hour day, dockworkers ended the tyranny of casual zero-hour labour."