Exhibition Opening:
Wednesday, 13 May 2026
Venue:
Little Museum of Dublin
Time:
6:30pm
The Centre for Humanities Research at the University of the Western Cape and the Little Museum of Dublin are proud to present Together/Apart, which opens on Wednesday 13 May in Ireland.
This exhibition is about the thousands of ordinary Irish people who participated in a mass movement of solidarity against apartheid in South Africa, and will include a panel discussion with key participants of the Irish Anti-apartheid Struggle on opening night.
In April 1964, the Irish Anti-Apartheid Movement (IAAM) was launched in Dublin by Kader Asmal, a South-African law professor in Trinity College Dublin. Lobbying for the end of apartheid in South Africa, the Movement raised awareness of the racism experienced by communities and campaigned for the release of political prisoners.
Twenty years later, eleven young shopworkers in Dunnes Stores in Dublin, refused to handle South African goods. This simple act led to an almost three-year strike that became a symbol of solidarity in the liberation struggle.
Together/Apart invites us to consider the deeper resonances of solidarity that link the peoples of Ireland and South Africa. Beyond the spectre of war and violence, this exhibition asks us to reconsider the meaning of generosity, care and solidarity – ideas that once helped to forge a human chain in the face of apartheid.
Seamus Heaney’s idea of “rhythmic solidarity” suggests the need for deeper commitments that extends beyond the momentary linking of arms around a particular grievance and speaks instead to lasting bonds of friendship and generosity. Throughout this exhibition, you will encounter objects of memory – some ordinary, others extraordinary – loaned by the very people who joined a struggle to rid the world of the scourge of apartheid.
From the Dunnes Stores strike to the South African Bill of Rights, which was partly composed on Asmal’s kitchen table in Dublin, Together/Apart explores the legacy of the anti-apartheid struggle in Ireland, highlighting the importance of international solidarity and cooperation in the ongoing fight against racism and apartheid in the world today.
Together/Apart will be launched in the Little Museum of Dublin by former Irish president Michael D. Higgins at 6:30pm on Wednesday, 13 May 2026. The exhibition is curated by Daryl Hendley Rooney and Premesh Lalu, and will travel to South Africa later in 2026.
For more information about the Little Museum of Dublin:
Kindly supported by
CHR, UWC, UWC-Robbben Island Mayibuye Archives.
