The President has honoured the Dunnes Stores workers, who 40 years ago today, began their protest against South Africa’s apartheid regime.
On July 19th, 1984, Mary Manning who worked in Dunnes Stores on Henry Street, Dublin refused to handle grapefruit from South Africa.
Karen Gearon, who now lives in Kerry, is also one of the workers who took a stand in support the anti-apartheid movement.
The group, mainly young women, refused to handle produce imported from South Africa.
For this refusal, 12 workers were suspended, leading to a strike which lasted for almost three years.
Their protest led the Irish government to eventually ban South African goods from being sold here, and this ban remained in place until the end of the apartheid regime.
One of the protestors, Karen Gearon now lives in Kerry; she and the other campaigners were welcomed to Áras an Uachtaráin today by President Michael D Higgins and his wife Sabina.
President Higgins noted how Nelson Mandela saluted the Dunnes Stores workers when he addressed the Houses of the Oireachtas in 1990.
The Dunnes Stores anti-apartheid strikers will also attend an event today organised by the Mandate trade union.
