Film Screening: Blood Fruit

February 22, 2027
6:00pm - 8:00pm

Note: We will discuss this film (and the related book "Striking Back" with director Sinéad O'Brien, live via Zoom from Dublin Ireland at Lunch With Books on Feb. 23 at noon!

This moving documentary explains how a strike over the sale of South African fruit in Ireland became the focus of world attention as a key battleground in the fight against apartheid. The film takes audiences back to 1984, the height of apartheid in South Africa. Mary Manning, a 21-year-old Dunnes Stores checkout girl, refused to sell two Outspan grapefruits under direction from her union in support of the anti-apartheid struggle. She and ten other supporters were suspended, and a strike ensued. The eleven knew little about apartheid and assumed they’d be back to work before long, but the arrival on the picket line of activist Nimrod Sejake changed everything, setting the strikers on a path never expected. His influence on the strikers and their struggle to bring about change proved to be the central turning point in their motivation for not only continuing the strike but advancing it to the international stage.

Director: Sinéad O'Brien