Together Apart The Irish Anti-Apartheid Movement

In April 1964, the Irish Anti-Apartheid Movement (IAAM) was launched in Dublin by Kader Asmal, a South-African professor of law in Trinity College. Lobbying for improved human rights and liberation in South Africa, the Movement raised awareness of the racism experienced by communities and campaigned for the release of political prisoners.

Twenty years later, Mary Manning, a young cashier at Dunnes Stores in Dublin’s Henry Street, told a customer that she would not check out any South African fruit. This simple act led to a two-year strike that symbolised Irish solidarity with South Africans in their struggle for liberation.

From the Dunnes Stores’ Strikes to the South African Bill of Rights, which was partly composed on Asmal’s kitchen table in Dublin, this lecture explores the history and legacy of the Irish Anti-Apartheid Movement, highlighting the importance of international solidarity and cooperation in the ongoing fight against racism and apartheid in the world today.

This lecture draws upon the IAAM Archive held at UWC and reflects the ongoing research and development undertaken for the exhibition, Together Apart: The Irish-Anti Apartheid Movement, a partnership of the Little Museum and the University of the Western Cape. The exhibition is co-curated by Professor Premesh Lalu of UWC and Dr Daryl Hendley Rooney. Together Apart will open at the Little Museum in spring 2026 for six months before moving to Cape Town.