Mary Fitzgerald

Mary Fitzgerald (also known as Pickhandle Mary; 4 August 1883 – 26 September 1960) was an Irish-born South African political activist and was considered to have been the first female trade unionist in the country. She was South Africa's first female master printer. As editor of the Voice of Labour, she published articles advocating for women's enfranchisement, racially integrated trade unions and revolutionary socialism. She played a lead role in the Black Friday Riots of 1913. She was the first woman to be elected to the Johannesburg City Council (JCC) in 1915 and later served as Deputy Mayor of Johannesburg. Early life Mary was born into a farming family in the townland of Gortins, near Cleariestown, County Wexford in 1883. Her parents were Thomas Sinnott and Margaret Dunne. They had four other children: Dennis who was born in 1880, Doris and Sarah who were born in 1886, and Barbara. Mary attended the Presentation Convent in Wexford, where she qualified as a shorthand typist. Her father Thomas travelled to America and got a job as a representative for the Singer Sewing Machine Company. Three months later, he moved to rapidly growing Cape Town as the company representative. In 1900 he returned to Wexford and travelled back to Cape Town with Mary, with plans that the rest of the family would follow. Career and family life At first, Mary found a job working at British military headquarters as one of the first female shorthand typists in South Africa. Her mother and siblings sailed from Southampton to the Cape in December 1900. Margaret Sinnott started work as a dressmaker on her sewing machine while Dennis got a job on the tramways.