Margo Rice, Irish Anti-Apartheid Movement

“My husband, Rodney, was a journalist and in 1979 he travelled to South Africa to report on the situation facing people there. He came home and said, ‘You’ve got to listen to this’. He played me a tape of his interviews and I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. The oppression people faced was so stark and so brutal. I had been on the Executive Committee of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association and straight away I could see the parallels in terms of the discrimination people were facing. I decided that I would get involved.

I contacted Kader Asmal, who was the head of the Irish Anti-Apartheid Movement and ended up joining the committee. We were a mixture of Irish and South Africans living here. It was a very active group. There was a lot of public support for what we were doing. We had a huge public rally in Dublin at one stage. Local Anti-Apartheid Movement branches were formed in places like Galway.

Mandela’s release was such a huge moment. Rodney hosted the television coverage, which a group of us watched together in Kader’s house. A few months later, we had the honour of meeting him when he came to Dublin.

Rodney had been banned from South Africa following his reporting in 1979 and I never wanted to set foot in the country as long as the apartheid system was still there. The year after Mandela’s release, we decided to go there together. It was a very special trip. We were proud to know that Ireland had been a voice for justice and had stood with the people when they faced such oppression.”