Christy Moore - Dunnes Stores lyrics

Close your eyes and come with me back to 1984
We'll take a walk down Henry Street to Dunnes
Department store
The supermarket's busy and the
Registers make a din'
The groceries go rolling out and
The cash comes rolling in

Mary Manning is at the checkout
And she's trying to keep warm
When a customer comes up to her
With a basket on her arm
The contents of the basket Mary's
Future is to shape
But the label clearly stated
"Produce Of The Cape"
I can't check out your oranges Mrs
Now won't you bring them back
For they come from South Africa
Where White oppresses black
I'd have it on my conscience
And I couldn't sleep at night
If I helped support the
System that denies Black people's rights

Our union says "Don't Handle Them
It's the least that we can do
We Fought oppression here for centuries
We'll help them fight it too"
The managers descended in an
Avalanche of suit's
And Mary was suspended cos
She wouldn't touch the fruit's

Dunnes Stores Dunnes Stores
Dunnes Stores with St Bernard
Better Value Beats Them all

Well, her friends are all behind
Her and the union gave support
And they called a strike and
The pickets brought all
Dunnes' Stores to a halt
No one was going to tell the
Boss what he bought or sold
These women are only workers
They must do as they are told

Isn't it just typical of
A partite screwball law?
It's not just in South Africa
The Rich Temple and the poor
He wouldn't have a boycott
He couldn't give a tinker's curse
Doesn't matter how he fills the
Shelves as long as he lines his Purse

The messages came rollin' in from
All around the world
For such concern and sacrifice
And for courage brave and bold
When 14 months were over, 10 women and a man
Had helped to raise the
Consiousness all around the land

Cleary's in O'Connell street
Wouldn't sell South african shoes
Best Man sent all their clothes back
Roches Stores sent back their booze
Until all South African goods
Were taken off the shelves in Dunnes
And Mary Manning was down in
Henry Street sticking to her guns