A number of Irish trade unions are going to pay for Dunnes Stores anti-apartheid strikers to go to South Africa when Nelson Mandela's funeral is held next week.
The 11 strikers, who worked for Dunnes on Dublin's Henry Street, made the headlines in 1984, when they refused to handle South African goods in protest against the apartheid regime.
The workers went on strike for almost three years between July 1984 and April 1987.
The government eventually banned South African goods from being sold in Ireland and it stayed in place until the end of the apartheid regime.
Nelson Mandela met with some of the strikers when he visited Dublin after being freed, and said that their stand helped keep him going during his imprisonment.
In 2008 a plaque to honour the Dunnes Stores strikers was unveiled on Henry Street.
Earlier today it was announced that the Irish Government had invited a single rep for the protesters to join the President and the Tánaiste at Mandela's official memorial service on Tuesday.
However a number of union have now offered to pay for the entire group to travel.
Thousands of delegates from all over the world have been invited to attend the memorial at Johannesburg's football stadium and invitations are limited.
But the Unions are hoping to get the Irish strikers into as many events as possible.
