ROSIE HACKETT (1893-1976) was a lifelong Irish trade unionist and revolutionary who always stood on the side of working-class people, no matter the personal cost.

Despite a consistent record in leading resistance against oppression, Hackett would have been forgotten from history if not for the extraordinary efforts of the Irish women campaigners who came after her.

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Hackett was born into abject poverty in Dublin in 1893, starting life in a tenement building, struggling to survive. These buildings were dirty, unsafe and overcrowded, with multiple families sharing one outdoor toilet and one source of running water  —  conditions that gave Dublin one of the highest infant death rates in Europe.

These conditions had a profound impact on Hackett as a young woman and shaped her political activity. She worked alongside James Connolly and both Delia and Jim Larkin in her tireless efforts to advance the interests of the Irish working-class life.

Poverty left Hackett with little choice but to seek work as a teenager and she was employed as a messenger in Jacob’s biscuit factory. Jacob’s employed 3,000 women but the working conditions in the factory were both brutal and oppressive.

The women had to work up to 90 hours a week and spurious excuses were used by the bosses to impose fines which further reduced pitiful earnings. The women were banned from talking, singing or even adjusting their hair during working hours.

Jobs were hard to come by, even harder to keep, and much of the work in Dublin was casual. Hackett, small in stature but subsequently described as feisty, strong and of extraordinary character, decided to stand up to the bullying bosses. She joined the Irish Transport and General Workers Union (ITGWU) organising workers and leading strikes when she was just 18 years old.

Her efforts led to hundreds of women factory workers walking out in a sympathy strike with the men of the Jacob’s bakehouse strike in 1911. The strike ended in victory and led to a pay increase and improved conditions.

But she didn’t stop there. As a born leader, Hackett was one of the women who founded the Irish Women Workers Union (IWWU), which at its height had 70,000 members and was closely tied to the ITGWU.

In August 1913, when the tram workers struck, Hackett and her fellow women workers from Jacob’s mobilised in support of the pickets and they gathered in O’Connell Street on August 31 for a rally against the employers. She was in the crowd and brutally attacked by the police.

On September 1 1913, Hackett was among several young women who refused to remove their red union badges when asked to do so by the Jacob’s factory bosses. This bravery inspired 300 Jacob’s women workers who joined in and also refused to remove their badges.

All of the women, including Hackett, were dismissed but their bravery was one of the sparks that further galvanised and fuelled mass working-class resistance during the Dublin lockout of 1913.

During the height of the action, some 25,000 workers were locked out by their employers. Poverty and hunger were widespread in the city, Hackett was one of the many women who helped run the Liberty Hall soup kitchen and she helped to set up a relief fund for the strikers and their families.

After she lost her job, Hackett took up a position as a clerk in the IWWU shop, based in Liberty Hall and retrained as a printer. When Connolly formed the Irish Citizens Army (ICA) during the lockout to protect striking workers against the brutality of the forces of the state, Hackett joined up and became a leading member.

She was highly trusted by both Patrick Pearse and Connolly during the 1916 rising and she printed the Irish proclamation of independence and delivered it to Connolly herself. She later reported that the men in the room complained that a woman had been allowed in.

During the 1916 Easter Rising, Hackett, alongside other women, resisted police attempts to capture Liberty Hall and hid papers viewed to be seditious by the state. Hackett and others occupied St Stephen’s Green. At the end of the rising, she was arrested and imprisoned in Kilmainham jail for 10 days.

Undeterred by her incarceration, Hackett dedicated the rest of her life to political and trade union work. In 1917 the ITGWU decided to commemorate Connolly’s death by hanging up a banner which was quickly removed by the police.

Hackett and other women climbed the roof of Liberty Hall and barricaded themselves inside to ensure that the banner could hang for a longer period of time. She later reported that police were “mobilised from everywhere” and joked that it took 400 police to take down four women.

Following her death in 1976, a campaign by Irish women who she inspired eventually led to a newly constructed bridge in Dublin being named the Hackett Bridge. In 2013, a full 100 years after the Dublin lockout, Ireland finally had a lasting testament to the memory of a leading female trade unionist and revolutionary.

From humble beginnings with the odds being stacked against her, Hackett became a fierce fighter for her class. Her story tells us that working-class life women can do extraordinary things when we stick together.

Women can cut right across the misogyny still rife throughout our movement and do impressive work. Together women can stand up, speak out and push right back against our own oppression while making gains that advance society in the interests of all working-class people. The determination of women to fight not just for our own rights but for our class should never be underestimated.

Helen O’Connor is a trade union organiser and former nurse. Follow her on X @HelenOConnorNHS.