Photo Credit Michael Meade
“The guy who gave the crisis a soundtrack” – The Guardian
‘Mother Jones‘ is the latest release from Cork singer and songwriter Martin Leahy. Martin has released the song to coincide with the upcoming Spirit Of Mother Jones Festival, which is a yearly event in Cork City.
The song is a tribute to the great Mary Harris who later became famous as “Mother Jones“. Born in Cork in 1837, she moved to the US and went on to become a prominent union organizer and activist. As well as paying homage to her life, energy, spirit and sense of justice, the track also relates her activism to today’s turbulent world by quoting one of her many great sayings – “Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living.”
Martin plays all the instruments on the track and produced and recorded it in his home studio in Bandon, Co Cork. The Spirit Of Mother Jones Festival will be held in and around the Shandon Historic Quarter in Cork City from Thursday, July 24th, until Saturday, July 26th, 2025, inclusive. Martin will perform his song at the closing ceremony.
Martin released his song, ‘Everyone Should Have A Home‘, in April 2022. He has been travelling from Cork to Dublin every week to protest outside Dáil Éireann by singing his song since May 2022.
He has performed at all the major Cost Of Living Crisis protests in Dublin and in Cork including the recent Raise The Roof Protest in Dublin. His song and protest has been featured on RTE News, Al Jazeera News, American public radio NPR, Dutch, German and French TV national broadcasters, The Guardian, The World.Org, The Irish Times (front cover) The Irish Examiner, Irish Independent, Hot Press, Echo, Joe.ie, Virgin Media TV, TG4 etc..
‘Everyone Should Have A Home‘ has also been covered multiple times by different artists as a means to raise awareness of the Irish housing crisis. The song is also mentioned in the latest edition of Rory Hearne’s book on the housing crisis called ‘Gaffs‘.
Martin has had the honour recently of Christy Moore covering ‘Snowflakes‘ on his album and at his live gigs. The song is related to Martin’s own experience of social media trolling. Martin joined Christy at Vicar Street and The Cork Opera House recently where they both performed ‘Everyone Should Have A Home‘ and ‘Snowflakes‘.
He also has written a number of songs in solidarity with the people of Palestine and performs weekly at the Cork City protests and has also performed at the national march in Dublin. His song ‘Palestine‘ has been shared multiple times including Al Jazeera, Middle East Eye and also by the activist and musician Lowkey.
Martin has been playing as a session musician on the Irish music scene for about 25 years. Along with his recent successes as a singer/songwriter he has worked with songwriters and musicians including Christy Moore (on his No.1 selling album ‘Listen’) John Spillane, Jimmy McCarthy, Seamus Begley and Jim Murray, Declan Sinnott among many others.
He has toured the world playing drums with the traditional band North Cregg. An accomplished multi instrumentalist, he has produced many albums including Leah Sohotra, Cormac O Caoimh, and the recent single by John Spillane called ‘Palestine Sunbird‘.