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ON THIS DAY in 1984, Dunnes Stores workers began a strike that would last almost three years.
Shop steward Karen Gearon gave a union instruction to her colleagues not to handle any South African goods, in protest against the apartheid regime in the country at the time.
When 21-year-old cashier Mary Manning refused to put some fruit through the till, she was suspended and nine of her colleagues walked out the door with her.
This was the beginning of what would be a battle by twelve workers for two years and nine months. The government eventually banned South African goods from being sold in Ireland and this ban remained in place until the end of the apartheid regime.
In RTÉ archive footage Gearon described how the workers had very little concern about what was going on in the rest of the world before the strike.
We were basically concerned about our own little life or little social circle and we would get paid on Friday, go out to a pub, some discos and blow the money, then go back into work on the Monday and just basically do your job and that was it.
Speaking from a picket outside the Henry Street store in 1985, she said that the strike had changed them all and made them more aware of not only the horrors in South Africa, but of other injustices across the world.
“Our battle is nothing to what their battle is,” she said.
https://vine.co/v/MQjq3YVxa2b
When Nelson Mandela met with them in Dublin in 1990, he said that the stand these twelve workers took helped him to keep going during his time in prison. A number of the workers attended the former South African leader’s funeral last year.
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Just remember one thing these people who died where somebody’s son somebody’s daughter somebody’s grandson somebody’s father somebody sister somebody’s brother somebody mother ,somebody’s.
I hope it’s never me on the streets I hope it’s never you on the streets I hope it’s never one of my family members on the streets.
@Deadman Walking: exactly mate
Would appear to the accepted norm now, by some. That such things, and other things are permitted happen however ‘its unacceptable’ is bandied about, makes it acceptable. Acceptance brings normality.
homeless people no use to FFG they dont do the brown envelope
Agh, nó need to prioritise the local population, they are expendable. With knowing they won’t reach their yearly housing building targets, it really doesn’t make sense to keep allowing asylum seekers to arrive. What about a stop for a year so numbers of local people housed can maybe start stabilising? No, I’m not talking about Ukrainians, they are coming from war that is knocking on our backdoor. Helping them is the least we should do.
@peter willekens: Asylum seekers are not the cause of homelessness.
@Phil Mitchell: You’re telling me that the most powerless people in the country are to blame for the country’s problems?
@peter willekens: Go ahead and round up 120 Dublin homeless and tell them you’re going to stick them in a hotel in Roscrea, and see what answer you get. Accommodating asylum seekers has little to no impact on our housing issues.
@Phil Mitchell: which asylum seekers caused 10k Irish people to be homeless before the War in Ukraine?
@Brendan O’Brien: im not blaming asylum seekers, I’m blaming the accommodation that they occupy while here. Whether they have a right to be here or not, they are taking up spaces to live all around the country. Especially in Dublin, stop them coming in for a year and allocate the little bit that is available to the locals.
@Brendan O’Brien: we in Ireland have spent our entire existence claiming we can’t in refugees.
We’re you demanding we take in Syrian refugees a decade ago, because it wasn’t fair to Germany?
No.
Saying we’ll only take in refugees when we sort out our decade plus long housing crisis is a nonsense as well. You think it’ll be fixed in a year? Despite there being over 10k Irish homeless before the Ukraine war?
C’mon.
You’re just looking for excuses to keep out foreigners, and the only one you have is, ‘our government is so incompetent and has been for so long that it hurts us when we keep to our legally binding agreements… So let’s ignore the law and hope for magic solutions’.
Why would anyone take that opinion seriously? Especially as its just a cover for xenophobia.
@peter willekens: there are thousands of them here and a tiny fraction of that are not accommodated. We don’t have that many hostels even though hundreds of buildings are being renovated to take more as it is a very lucrative business. Just give it a break as the government are not up to scratch to build more general housing. We are talking students, homeless, irish families, those that went back to live with their parents, those couch surfing,… Not just new builds would solve part of the problem……
@peter willekens: This Housing Crisis was first identified over 10 years ago and we’ve been debating it ever since, nothing has been done mind except for FFG thinking Vulture Funds would solve the problem.
@peter willekens: There’s Thousands of of empty houses in Leitrim, Roscommon and Mayo. A few years ago the government proposed using those to rehome a lot of the Dublin homeless but it was rejected wholesale. Literally people chose to be homeless in Dublin than be housed in the west of Ireland.
@Phil Mitchell: you can’t break the law because you spent 100 years voting for people who couldn’t source a proper bucket, despite most of them owning bucket factories, and you’ll be hard pressed convincing anyone you care about bucket capacity when you haven’t mentioned it ever, until bucket sizes could be used to spread xenophobia.
Try again.
Also, Irish people relying purely on markets – markets which generate more revenue the smaller the bucket – isn’t an excuse for breaking the law. Or attacking refugees.
All of us down to a person watched all of you ignore the housing crisis completely, for a decade, when all it do was hurt poor Irish people. We know you don’t care about Ireland or the Irish. This is just a trojan horse to spread hatred.
And guess what, the only people falling for it are xenophobes.
How many times have you voted for FFFG?
Wanna know who to blame for our decade plus old housing crisis? Buy a mirror.
We have reached a new point in our history – no Irish citizen or person working here & paying taxes is as important as a person coming here to claim international protection
I for one don’t recall being asked if I agree with this new reality
@Gerry Kelly: You are framing the problem wrongly: there is no reason why looking after refugees and ‘our own’ should be an ‘either-or’. We can and must do both.
@Brendan O’Brien: we have been & more than most & now it’s coming to the stage or has come to the stage where it’s simply not sustainable to keep taking in refugees especially when we see figures like this re. homeless people in Ireland. Why can’t you see that!? We’ve done enough!
@Gerry Kelly: Loling that you think everyone needs to be asked before we sign up to the UN Convention on Human Rights.
Golly Gerry, what do you think about the Geneva Convention of 28 July 1951? We’re you alive and of voting age in 1951?
Stop being a dope.
We don’t all get a say on every UN treaty. Or every subsection of every EU law. Demanding it makes you look simple.
@damien leen: we have not been ‘more than most’
In fact we’ve done FAR FAR LESS than any country near Ukraine.
And tell me, when Germany took in a million Syrian refugees, were you demanding Ireland take its fair share, because you’re such a huge believer in the fair distribution of refugees?
Of course you didn’t.
You’re just being a hypocrite in that respect.
But to be clear, the problem isn’t refugees. Eg we have 14x more Airbnb listings than long term rentals available. Eg we sold 2/3rds of our social housing to private ownership. Eg we had 10k homeless before the War in Ukraine.
The problem is we keep electing right wing landlords. Who in turn create the above described environment. Because as Leo said, excess housing drives down property value.
So no, it’s not refugees. It’s anyone that’s ever voted FFFG.
Of course the Irish don’t REALLY care about this.
Instead they’ll say, ‘these were all drugged out scnm’ and if they didn’t want to die they should’ve just tried harder.
Because that’s what they always say.
How many lives could be saved by having proper injection centres, better healthcare, etc., etc. A lot.
Put injections centres on the ballot and they’re voted down. And people have voted for the same healthcare system destroying party for generations.
The Irish don’t care if you’re, sick or poor. Into the septic tank you go.
People in low paid jobs could afford bedsits 280 monthly but forced to pay, unable to afford 1700 monthly for apartments
@thomas molloy: Lefties in their Dachas deciding to devastate accommodation structures to create suffering destitution for electoral advantage.
@thomas molloy: if you had half a clue you might be dangerous… Luckily though…
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.
Were they substance users because they were homeless or homeless because they were substance users?
@J M: too late to ask….. RIP
Since the 1951 Geneva Convention has been quoted then people need to know this – it was an agreement to get most of those still refugees home safely after WW2. This meant approx 5m mostly Germans in a world with a population of approx 1 BN
Today there are 8 BN people on the planet & over 100m refugees
If you count western Europe U.S. & Canada plus Oz & NZ there are approx 35 countries they are trying to enter
Do the maths….
And if certain NGOs get their way the number will rise by 100s more millions if “climate refugees” are counted
It’s well time people were told of this
People do die whether they are homeless or not .
@SFmeansShitforfree. I agree. While I sympathise with people sleeping on the street context is badly needed here. I give money directly to people who appear to be destitute as there are too many people making a living on their backs.
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