Debenhams documentary shows workers fought harder than anyone bargained for

 Carol Ann Bridgeman with her daughter, Charlotte. Carol worked at the Mahon Point store and took part in the sit-in protest. Picture: Larry Cummins

In early September 2020, Carol Ann Bridgeman faced a predicament: attend her youngest child’s first day at school or be part of the occupation of a shuttered department store.

“There was a lot of grief at home about it but I had made my decision. If I didn’t do it I would have regretted it more,” she says. The occupation was of Debenhams in Cork city centre, the sister store of her workplace for 15 years at the Mahon branch and, at the time, the subject of a liquidation that had turned Carol Ann’s life upside down.