Two Grapefruits

Mary Manning was given five minutes to change her mind.

She was twenty-one and worked at a till in Dunnes Stores on Henry Street in Dublin. That morning, July 19, 1984, a customer had brought two South African grapefruits to her checkout. Mary refused to sell them.

Bhí treoir tugtha ag a ceardchumann dá bhaill gan earraí ón Afraic Theas a láimhseáil mar agóid in aghaidh apartheid. Bhí lucht bainistíochta Dunnes ag cur brú uirthi rogha a dhéanamh: neamhaird a thabhairt ar threoir an cheardchumainn nó a post a chailleadh.

Mary and her shop steward, Karen Gearon, were taken upstairs. They were kept in separate rooms. When the five minutes were up, her answer had not changed. She was suspended.

Nine colleagues went on strike alongside her. They expected to be back in a few days.

The strike lasted two years and nine months.

They knew little about South Africa at first. They were following their union’s instruction. A few days into the strike, a South African exile named Nimrod Sejake joined them on the picket line. He told them about the restrictions imposed on black people like him: where they could live, which public facilities they could use and the passes they needed to travel.

Dúirt sé go raibh apartheid cosúil le pionta Guinness: an tromlach dubh thíos agus an mionlach beag bán thuas.

Mary’s weekly income fell from over £100 to £21 in strike pay. Customers crossed the picket line. Some shouted abuse at the strikers or spat at them.

Bhí an rialtas i gcoinne apartheid, ach ar dtús chosain oifigigh an ceart a bhí ag comhlachtaí trádáil a dhéanamh leis an Afraic Theas.

Some Catholic priests encouraged their congregations to cross the picket line. Many clergy crossed it themselves.

In December 1984, Bishop Desmond Tutu asked to meet the strikers at Heathrow Airport on his way to Oslo to collect the Nobel Peace Prize. Mary and Karen travelled to London with their union official, Brendan Archbold.

Tutu hugged them both. In front of the reporters, he praised the strikers’ courage. He promised to tell workers in South Africa that people in Ireland were standing with them. He also invited them to visit South Africa.

On St Brigid’s Day, February 1, 1985, a group of Brigidine sisters joined the workers on the picket line.

In a letter to the union, Bishop Eamonn Casey had described the strikers as “impertinent”. About three weeks after the sisters joined the picket, however, he publicly called on people to support them. Many clergy then stopped shopping in Dunnes.

To pay for the trip to South Africa, the strikers and their supporters went from pub to pub in Dublin. They raised £7,000 in a single night, Karen later recalled.

In July 1985, eight strikers and Archbold travelled to South Africa.

They were refused entry. At Johannesburg Airport, soldiers surrounded them. They were held under armed guard for eight hours before being put on a plane back to London.

At Heathrow, police boarded the plane and escorted them off. Karen later said she feared they were about to be thrown out of Britain too.

But they were taken to a press conference. Reporters were waiting to hear their story.

Back in Dublin, they returned to the picket line.

In January 1987, the government introduced restrictions on imports of South African fruit and vegetables. The strike ended in April. Mary had refused to sell two grapefruits. Now the State itself was restricting their import.

Karen returned to Dunnes. Thirteen months later, she was dismissed. She brought an unfair dismissal case against Dunnes and won.

When she applied for other jobs, she rarely got an interview. Employers recognised her from television, she later recalled. She eventually moved to Tralee, where the Irish Congress of Trade Unions found her work.

Mary believed employers had blacklisted her. She emigrated to Australia in 1988 and found an office job.

When Nelson Mandela visited Dublin in 1990, nine of Mary’s fellow strikers met him at the Berkeley Court Hotel. He shook their hands and thanked them.

Mary was still in Australia.

She returned to Ireland in 1993 and eventually found an office job. She left the strike off her CV.

In 2008, Mary was back outside Dunnes on Henry Street. A plaque honouring her and the other strikers was being unveiled.

An lá dár gcionn, bhí sí ar an bhfón ar Liveline RTÉ. Ghabh Ben Dunne leithscéal léi go pearsanta as an gcaoi ar chaith Dunnes léi.

Mandela said the Dunnes strikers had “provided me with great hope during my years of imprisonment”.

When Mary was asked whether she would do the same thing again, she said:

“I always say I’d do it again.”