Tekst: Ewan MacColl
Now pause awhile my friends,
and listen to what I’m going to tell to you
About the events in Dublin City
and the girls of the I.D.A.T.U.
Dunne’s Store, the branch in Henry Street,
is where the trouble all began
That led to the strike, the famous strike,
of ten young women and one young man.
That year at the union conference
they said we should not compromise
With apartheid and they voted to boycott
all South African merchandise;
When Karen Gearon, the Dunnes shop-steward,
told her mates about the ban,
They said “We’ll stand by the resolution”.
Ten young women and one young man.
Now Mary Manning, from Kilmainham,
a twenty-one-year-old cashier,
Was put to the test the very next morning
when she spoke up loud and clear:
“No, I’m afraid I cannot serve you,
that grapefruit’s South African!
And some of us here are opposed to apartheid,”
Ten young women and one young man.
Well, what a hell of a hullaballoo,
the threats and groans and the angry cries,
The management foaming at the mouth
and the suits buzzing round like blue-arse flies;
“You’ll sell those goods or be suspended,
we’ll tolerate no union ban!”
Little did they understand the will of
ten young women and one young man.
So Mary Manning got the push,
this lass of independent mind,
And ten of her workmates came out
and joined her there on the picket line.
For days and weeks and months they stood there,
perservered and stood their ground,
Proclaiming the will and determination
of ten young women and one young man.
Then here’s to the girls of Dublin City
who stretched their hands across the sea,
Their action surely is a lesson
in workers’ solidarity
And here’s to the folk who heeded the boycott,
who won’t buy Cape and spurn Outspan,
And also the lad who joined the lasses
– ten young women and one young man!
Whack for the toora loora lady, whack for the toora loora lay
Whack for the toora loora lady, ten young women and one young man.