As editor of the Voice of Labour, she published articles advocating for women's enfranchisement, racially integrated trade unions and revolutionary socialism.

In 1900 he returned to Wexford and travelled back to Cape Town with Mary, with plans that the rest of the family would follow.

At first, Mary found a job working at British military headquarters as one of the first female shorthand typists in South Africa.

[7] She also co-edited the pioneering feminist journal, Modern Woman in South Africa, under the auspices of the Women's Enfranchisement League.

[11] Other sources attribute the name to an incident in the same year, when a group of protesting women broke into a hardware store armed with pick handles.

WIL members were involved in expelling "coloured" waiters from a Johannesburg social club and forcing management to hire white women.

[17] She attended the 1921 conference of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in Geneva as a delegate of the South African government.

She was arrested in 1922 for allegedly leading a group that set fire to Park Station during the Mine Workers Strike.

On her retirement she was presented with a car bought by public donations, the first to be owned and driven by a Johannesburg woman.

'Mama Mary Fitzgerald' was posthumously awarded The Order of Luthuli (Silver) by the Presidency of the Republic of South Africa in 2018.

[22] The Order of Luthuli is awarded to South Africans who have made a meaningful contribution in the struggle for democracy, human rights, nation-building, justice, peace and conflict resolution.