Striking back against apartheid South Africa

Our reporter meets Mary Manning, the young Dunnes Stores worker who started a strike when she refused to handle the sale of South African fruit in 1984

On the picket line: (l–r) Mary Manning, Michelle Gavin, Sandra Griffin and Alma Russell. Photo: Derek Speirs

Kim Bielenberg

Two large yellow grapefruits changed the life of shopworker Mary Manning forever. When she refused to ring the South African fruit through the till at Dunnes Stores on Dublin's Henry Street on a summer day in 1984, Mary immediately found herself suspended from her job.