Irish Women Workers' Union

The male workers withdrew their labour in pursuit of better working conditions and Rosie was one of the first women to come out in sympathy with them and helped organise the women workers to withdraw their labour in protest.

In Dublin a move by management at Jacob's to force three young women to remove their union badges played an important part in starting the 1913 lockout.

By the end of the day more than 1,100 women had lost their jobs and the dispute took on a wider significance when their cause was taken up by dockworkers who refused to handle Jacob's goods.

Helena Molony, an Abbey actor and nationalist, became involved with Sheila Dowling, and with Constance Markievicz helped to organise soup kitchens at Liberty Hall during the dispute.

They noted that: "the omission of the principle of equal rights and opportunities enunciated in the Proclamation of 1916 and confirmed in Article 3 of the Constitution of the Saorstat Éireann was deplored as sinister and retrogressive.