Jeremy Corbyn to read from ‘Poetry for the Many’ with Len McCluskey in new Peacemakers Museum in Derry’s Bogside

The independent Islington North MP will be joined by former General Secretary of Unite the Union Len McCluskey at the new Peacemakers Museum in the Bogside at 2.30pm on Sunday.

The veteran left-wingers will be in Derry to promote their ‘Poetry for the Many’ compendium, which they edited and which was published last year.

The event has been organised by the Peace and Justice Project, an organisation set up by Mr. Corbyn in 2021 to ‘work with labour and social movements and provide platforms to those campaigning towards a future that works for the many, not the few’.

"At 2.30pm on August 4, Jeremy and Len will be taking part in a very special poetry reading and Q&A at the Peacemakers Museum in Derry, a brand new £2.8million redevelopment and extension of the Gasyard Centre to support the local community with education, reflection and engagement with the history of the conflict and the ongoing peace process. This event will be followed by a book signing,” a statement from the P&JP advises.

Among the poems included in the book are Portglenone priest Fr. Charles O’Neill’s republican ballad, ‘The Foggy Dew’ and Oscar Wilde’s ‘Sonnet to Liberty’. Mr. Corbyn’s own composition ‘Calais in Winter’, written on the train after he had visited the refugee camps in northern France, is also included in the collection.

Mr. Corbyn served as leader of the British Labour Party from 2015 to 2020, having joined the party in 1965, and served as MP for North Islington from 1983.

Under his leadership the Labour Party were narrowly defeated by the British Conservative Party in the UK General Election in June 2017.

In the closest election result between the two main British parties since 1974, Labour received 12,877,918 votes, its highest vote tally in an election since Tony Blair’s landslide of 1997.

Mr. Corbyn stood down as leader of the British Labour Party after the 2019 General Election when the party won only 202 seats despite receiving 10,269,051 votes, more than the 9,708,716 votes that yielded 411 seats for Labour following the Tory collapse earlier this month.

The former Labour leader was barred by Keir Starmer from standing for the party in the 2024 General Election and was expelled when he announced he would contest North Islington as an independent. He was nonetheless returned on July 4 with a majority of 7,247 over the official Labour candidate Praful Nargund.

"The announcement of the 2024 general election in May meant that many of our planned promotional events for ‘Poetry For The Many’ were postponed,” said the P&JP.

"We are delighted to collaborate with Sinn Féin partners to bring these exciting literary events to towns and cities across Ireland. We look forward to announcing further events in due course,” the project added.

The P&JP is directed by Mr. Corybn and former Labour councillor Pamela Fitzpatrick.

Patrons include Noam Chomsky, Yanis Varoufakis, Chantal Mouffe, Alicia Castro, Evo Morales, Ronnie Kasrils, Danielle Obono, Lowkey, Diana Butto, Rafael Correa, Paul Rogers, Michelle Stanistreet, Pauline Bryan, Ken Loach, Rob Delaney and Len McCloskey.

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