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No One Saw It Coming

Grapefruits vs Apartheid

21 Jun 2026

Transcription

Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.

Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?

0.031 - 1.316 Rebecca Pond

ABC Listen.

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1.737 - 12.235 Robin Dunbar

Podcasts, radio, news, music and more.

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12.721 - 15.786 Mary Manning

Please explain. One Nation's Rise.

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15.846 - 18.751 Robin Dunbar

This is the unlikely story of One Nation.

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18.832 - 19.553 Mark Fennell

Well, I'm back.

20.174 - 24.501 Robin Dunbar

Is it a passing protest vote or a permanent realignment of Australian politics?

24.682 - 29.009 Mark Fennell

Whether you love her or hate her, truth is stranger than fiction.

29.27 - 35.961 Robin Dunbar

The Making of One Nation. To hear the full series, search for The Making of One Nation on ABC Listen.

39.907 - 49.019 Conor Sheahan

In a Dublin supermarket, a young woman is working at the checkout. And like most 21-year-olds, this job, it's really just there to get cash for fun.

Chapter 2: What led a young woman to refuse selling grapefruits in Dublin?

196.841 - 202.25 Conor Sheahan

And as I said before, for Mary, the sole purpose of working was just to get enough money to go out on the weekend.

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202.831 - 215.173 Mary Manning

And as a place of work, Dunn Stores was, well... It wasn't the pleasantest place to be working in. The money was good, but just the conditions were fairly bad. And we had a lot of issues in the store at the time.

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215.407 - 230.664 Conor Sheahan

So for some time now, Mary and her colleagues have been trying to sit down with management to talk about their working conditions, things like toilet breaks, and they were being patted down to check that they hadn't stolen anything. And weirdly, they weren't allowed to call anyone by their first name.

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231.385 - 233.607 Mary Manning

So everybody was Mr, Mr, whatever they were.

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234.328 - 238.933 David Marchese

Sounds really strict. Do you remember feeling like it was unfair at the time?

239.285 - 249.158 Mary Manning

Oh, yeah, we were really angry about the stuff that was going on and the fact that they wouldn't actually talk to us. Although they were enforcing the rules, we didn't always follow them.

249.639 - 262.356 Conor Sheahan

So we've got a group of young women working at a supermarket chain who are all friends, but they have to call each other miss for some reason, and they don't get on with management. Crucial piece of information here is that they are all part of the union.

262.724 - 272.117 Mary Manning

Out of that 50 or 60 people that worked there, there was probably about 20 union members. Because of a recession, people got afraid to join unions because they didn't want to go on strike, couldn't afford to go on strike.

272.758 - 284.854 Mary Manning

So it was kind of a mixture of really staunch trade unionists and people who were in the union but were only in it kind of for protection, if you like, from being sacked or whatever.

Chapter 3: How did the union's directive impact the workers at Dunn Stores?

1332.583 - 1347.621 Mary Manning

Like to know that what you, like we were told for so long that what you're doing is going to be, is wrong and hurt the black people. To hear someone like Nathanael Mandela say, you know, it kept them going and, you know. Now, we didn't change a part of that, but we certainly, I suppose, brought attention to it.

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1350.217 - 1362.532 David Marchese

So Nelson Mandela is telling you that while he's in prison in South Africa, he's hearing about you guys striking all the way over in Dublin and he's inspired by it. That's wild.

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1363.413 - 1382.561 Mary Manning

See, I suppose, I mean, it was solidarity. That's, I think, how he looked upon it. It was people who had, and as he said, we were so far away, we had nothing to gain from it. But to show solidarity for his people, He was commending the sign anyway. So it was just something that was unbelievable.

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1383.463 - 1392.162 David Marchese

If you could tell your 21-year-old self, refusing to scan a grapefruit, how much your life would be shaped by this event, what would you tell her?

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1392.764 - 1418.269 Mary Manning

Go for it. Do it. I mean... I suppose not to be as afraid as I was on the day. Now, I mean, it had good and bad effects. As I said, when the strike was finished, we were blacklisted really from getting other jobs, in Dublin anyway. So I went to Australia. Karen was eventually sacked from Dunn's. And little by little, everybody left Dunn's.

1418.829 - 1441.525 Mary Manning

Some got married and didn't work, and some worked in different places. And So it did have, in some ways, it had an effect, a negative effect, but not enough. To me, it's something that I feel really proud of being part of. It's something that, like, even though you couldn't talk about it, not that you couldn't talk about it, I suppose you couldn't talk about it for a while.

1442.247 - 1448.618 Mary Manning

It's something that in my heart, I know we did the right thing. I know it was like, it was the right thing to do at the time and still the right thing that we did.

1449.053 - 1464.44 David Marchese

So changing national law, inspiration to Nelson Mandela, and it all starts with refusing to scan a grapefruit. Two grapefruit. Two grapefruit. Let's not forget the second grapefruit. Mary Manning, you're an absolute legend. Thank you so much.

1464.46 - 1466.303 Mary Manning

Thank you.

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