In the 1970s, the labour movement awarded Hackett a gold medal for decades of service, and in 2014 a Dublin city bridge was named in her memory.

[citation needed] According to the 1901 census, she was living with her widowed mother and five other family members in a tenement building on Bolton Street in the city centre.

On 22 August 1911 Hackett helped organise the withdrawal of women's labour in Jacob's factory to support their male colleagues who were already on strike.

Hackett was involved in preparations for the 1916 Rising, working in a union shop, helping with printers, and making first-aid kits and knap-sacks.

[8] She took up first aid training provided by Dr. Kathleen Lynn for six months before the rising and attended night marches organised by the Irish Citizen Army.

[7] Like other girls and women who were involved in the Rising, she carried messages and guns, and prepared uniforms and food for Irish Republican Army members "and sometimes risky work".

On Easter Tuesday, under the command of Constance Markievicz, Hackett took part in the 1916 Rising and was located in the area of St Stephen's Green and the Royal College of Surgeons.

[14] In the Royal College, Rosie Hackett as a first-aid practitioner was allowed entry to the lecture room sanctioned to the Red Cross only.

[13] Another first-aider, Aider Nora O'Daily, later reported that during those days: “I have a very kind remembrance of Little Rosie Hackett of the Citizen Army, always cheerful and always willing; to see her face about the place was a tonic itself”.

She described their revolutionist feelings about this action: “We enjoyed it at the time – all the trouble they were put to.”[7][16] After the Rising, Hackett returned to the IWWU which, at its strongest, organised over 70,000 women.

[6] In the 1970s, Walter McFarlane (then branch secretary of the ITGWU) awarded an honorary badge for Hackett's sixty years contribution to the union.

After her passing on 4 July 1976, her legacy was remembered in the union's newspaper, a tale of the strife of Rosie together with the rest of Dublin's working class, for which she fought to change.

The Hackett Bridge Campaign had begun in October 2012 – led by three women Angelina Cox (an active member of Labour Youth), Jeni Gartland and Lisa Connell.

In April 2015 a plaque was unveiled on Foley Street by the North Inner City Folklore Project to commemorate the women of the Irish Citizen Army.