She was 21 years old and decided that she would not handle oranges from South Africa, and by doing so gave Ireland a moral compass in the face of governmental failure. Dubliner Mary Manning was a member of a trade union, not one of the biggest, and that union had passed motions against goods and services from the Apartheid state. Mary was in a low paid job in Dunnes Stores in Dublin City Centre in the 1980s, when most of those of her age were forced to emigrate to England or America due to the poverty and high unemployment rates. But she still chose to take a stand. From 1984 until 1987 she, and ten other Dunnes Strikers stayed on strike pay until the government was forced to adopt an embargo on South African goods. An ordinary working-class woman on a check out stood up while others found excuses not to. When Nelson Mandela was released and came to Ireland, he insisted on meeting her and her fellow strikers, and thanking them.
