Line up 2026

John Regan: Married to Christine; son Ian; daughters Sinead and Claire.

Retired Construction Industry Trade Union Sector Organiser. SIPTU full-time member of staff from 1997 to 2025. Chairperson of the Meath Council of Trade Unions (MCTU) from 2022 to the present day.

Achievements: Played a role, with a colleague, in changing the legislation for the Redundancy Act 1967 and, more recently, the Jobseeker’s Pay-Related Benefit 2025. Both amendments came from disputes and turn-downs in Tara Mines and the mining industry, which I represented from 1999 to 2026.

Hobbies: Football (soccer) referee for over 40 years and still going strong; gardening; Man City blues fan since 1974.

Jim Connell Red Flag Festival: Looking forward to a successful festival dedicated to Tommy’s 10th anniversary, 29th–31st May 2026.

Leo Leydon is a local historian and heritage guide from north County Sligo. A long-standing member of the Sligo Field Club, he specializes in the archaeology, folklore, and social history of the region. He is closely associated with Lissadell House, the ancestral home of the Gore-Booth family (including Constance Markievicz and Eva Gore-Booth), where he has worked as a guide for many years. Leo’s connection is personal: his grandfather, James Waters, served the Gore-Booth estate for sixty years. This family link gives him a unique insight into the daily life, traditions, and social history of Lissadell across generations.

Professor Fergus D’Arcy, M.A., Ph.D., F.R.Hist.S., is Professor Emeritus in modern history of University College Dublin (UCD).

He lectured in UCD from 1970, was Dean of the UCD Faculty of Arts through 1992 to 2004.

His publications include Terenure College, 1860-2010 (Dublin, 2010), Horses, Lords and Racing Men: the Turf Club, 1790-1990 (Kildare, 1991) and the award winning Remembering the War Dead: British Commonwealth and International War Graves in Ireland Since 1914 (Dublin, 2007).

Francis Devine, a former Tutor in SIPTU College, has published histories of SIPTU and the Communications Workers' Union. With Sarah-Anne Bickley and John Cunningham, he edited Labour History in Irish History: Essays Celebrating Fifty Years of the Irish Labour History Society. With Steve Byrne & Friends, he issued the CD An Ownerless Corner of Earth featuring a number of songs written by Jim Connell.

Leonie Cooper AM was elected to the London Assembly in May 2016 and has been Labour’s lead on Environment and Energy since then. She is also the Deputy Leader of the Labour Group. 

Leonie has successfully campaigned on reducing single-use plastic bottle waste in London, leading to the Mayor’s programme of water fountains and work with Refill London. 

She has also helped tackle Londoners’ fuel poverty. Her campaigning led to the first ever Mayoral Fuel Poverty Strategy.  

She produced her own report on biodiversity in housing developments which led to the London Plan including Biodiversity Net Gain as a Planning Principle 3 years before it was introduced nationally. Her report also led to the inclusion of the Urban Greening Factor in the London Plan. 

Leonie has led a number of campaigns, including holding Thames Water to account for poor performance, campaigning for clean air in our city and arguing for a windfall tax on oil and gas companies to support Londoners with energy bills. 

Tiernan Murray is a member of the Financial Services Union and a Meath Council of Trade Unions delegate to the ICTU Youth Committee. A long-time trade union and political activist, he brings a Socialist and Republican perspective to contemporary political events.

Now Co-Chair of Navan Sinn Féin, Tiernan hopes to keep the Red Flag flying over a 32 County Democratic Socialist Republic, as proclaimed in 1916.

Darragh Ó Dúil is a 3rd year law student at Maynooth University and a delegate to the ICTU Youth Committee on behalf of the Meath Council of Trade Union. A proud Gaelgóir and political activist, he brings a socialist and student perspective.

Darragh hopes to keep the Red Flag flying for his fellow students and young people to prepare for the next generation.

Carol Mc Sherry has worked as a Special Needs Assistant for 24 years in a primary school in County Meath. Before that, she worked in banking. She was elected as Equality officer on her Fórsa Union branch, the North Dublin, North Leinster SNA branch in January 2020. Since then, she has completed three years as the Chairperson of that branch, and is now back in her preferred role as the Equality and Training Officer. Carol is also on the National Executive Committee of Fórsa Union and recently became the Vice Chair of the Education Divisional Committee.

She is a proud member of the Meath Trades Council and believes that Trades Councils are an untapped resource in Trade Unionism, although thanks to the hard work of many, increasingly their work is being recognised. Thanks to the Meath Trades Council, she is on the Meath Strategic Policy Council for Economic Development, Enterprise, Tourism, EU Affairs and Rural Regeneration. She completed a course in Maynooth University on Community Development for Climate Justice and Feminism in 2024.

She has brought successful motions on safe access zones, assault leave for SNAs, housing and has a pending motion on improving membership benefits for parents with a critically ill child for the Fórsa bi-annual conference in May 2026.

As Ireland prepares to hold the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, this is an opportunity for Trade Unions in Ireland to address the Irish laws governing them, some of which must be improved in order to comply with an EU directive. It has never been so important not only to join a Trade Union but to also play a part in the strengthening it.

Seamus Farrell has worked as a mental health support worker, community worker and education facilitator and has been involved in grassroots community housing organising since 2014, organising with the Irish Housing Network and Take Back the City.

In 2019 Seamus helped set up the Community Action Tenants Union (CATU). CATU has built a unique combination of grassroots democracy, community organising and direction into a large member organisation to tackle the housing and community crisis we face, in a few short years. Seamus is now an organiser with the union

Briana Corrigan is a Northern Irish singer from Belfast, currently living in Dublin, best known as a former member of the band The Beautiful South. She was a key vocalist for the group from 1988 to 1992, appearing on their debut album Welcome to the Beautiful South and singing on their UK number one single "A Little Time."

Since leaving the band to pursue her own work, Briana has released several solo albums, including the critically acclaimed When My Arms Wrap You Round (1996), Redbird (2012), and Driving Home for Christmas (2021). Her most recent singles include "Sweet Songbird" (2022), "The Young Dublin Rose" (2024), and "Caledonia" (2025).

Jim O'Brien — a Navan man who recently celebrated his 80th birthday — has lived by a simple creed: "I always believed in standing up for what is right." A carpenter, trade unionist, artist, and lifelong Labour Party member, Jim co-founded the renowned Crannac Co-Op, which became famous across Ireland for its quality furniture.

The co-op grew out of a three-month sit-in after his furniture factory closed in 1972 — a stand that secured proper redundancy pay and allowed workers to buy the business themselves.

Beyond his trade union work, Jim has been a passionate protester and campaigner on local and national issues — from divorce referendums to Palestine solidarity. Married to Rosaleen, a fellow trade union leader and lifelong friend of Tommy Grimes, who together made the monument to Jim Connell in Crossakiel possible.

Jim remains an active artist and advocate, still painting and still protesting. "I have no intention of giving up standing up for what I believe is right."

John King was elected SIPTU General Secretary in November 2025, having represented members across the private, public and community sectors in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland for over 30 years.

Holding organising roles across Tipperary, the Women Workers' Branch and the Northeast Region, John was appointed Services Division Organiser in 2010, where he championed the rights of tens of thousands of low-paid workers during the economic crisis.

He was centrally involved in the campaign in restoring the Joint Labour Committee (JLC) system and reversing the cut to the National Minimum Wage.

A passionate advocate for workers' rights, John has been a consistent champion of shop stewards and activists throughout his career. He currently serves as the Secretary of the ICTU Public Services Committee.

Sarah Woolley is the General Secretary of the Bakers Food and Allied Workers Union, she became a member of the union when she started work as a weekend assistant at Bakers Oven, which later became Greggs and though not initially active within the union, she became a shop steward shortly after Greggs took over and became more active not only in the BFAWU but the wider union movement.

She was elected as a full-time office in 2016, sitting on the union’s national executive as the Women’s representative before that and was elected as the first Female General Secretary the union has at the end of 2019 and took up the role in 2020.