“Acting on apartheid in a way that is consonant with the Irish people’s love of freedom”: anti-apartheid activism in Ireland, 1959–1994

This article seeks to provide a broad overview of anti-apartheid activism in Ireland, in doing so, demonstrating that anti-apartheid activists in Ireland forged a distinct identity grounded in Ireland's anti-colonial history as well their alignment with the African National Congress (ANC) and South African Communist Party (SACP). Focusing on the Irish Anti-Apartheid Movement (IAAM) it highlands the role played by its most prominent figure, the exiled South African academic and senior ANC/SACP member Kader Asmal. Securing a national profile through the mass protest campaign against the 1969–70 Springbok rugby tour, the IAAM portrayed itself as above domestic politics. Nonetheless, efforts to force the disaffiliation of the Provisional Sinn Féin in the early 1980s proved the impossibility of entirely avoiding entanglement in the domestic political climate. The IAAM was also criticised by the women who led the 1984–87 strike against South African goods at Dunnes' Stores, who saw it as dependent on middle-class support and reluctant to enter the industrial sphere. Drawing on engagement with the IAAM's internal archive, the article contributes towards filling a substantial gap in the scholarship of anti-apartheid activism globally, as well the study of left-wing activism and trade unionism in late 20th century Ireland.