The Swastika Laundry operated from the Shelbourne Road in Ballsbridge, Dublin 4 for 75 years.
It was founded by John W. Brittain (1872 – 1937) from Manorhamilton, Co. Leitrim who was one of the “pioneers of the laundry business in Ireland” having founded the Metropolitian and White Heather Laundries in 1899. He was also the owner of a famous horse called Swastika Rose which was well known “to frequenters of the Royal Dublin’s Society’s Shows“. (The Irish Times, March 27, 1937)
(c) Life Magazine. 1943, David E. Scherman.
An Irish Times advertisement from Thursday, March 15, 1928
The fact that people still talk about the laundry today is, for the most part, based on the fact that a swastika was used for their logo. As you can see from the title and picture above, the laundry was founded in 1912, eight years before the German Nazi party decided to formally adopt the symbol. (This important detail was promoted by the company at the outbreak of WWII when they changed the company’s name to The Swastika Laundry (1912) to distance themselves from the NSDAP)
Swastika Laundry van. Date unknown.
"A street scene in Dublin during the war". Marshall Cavendish Corporation, History of World War II, 2005, p. 610
In his travel memoir Irisches Tagebuch (Irish Diary) (1957) the future Nobel Laureate, Heinrich Böll had an unpleasant run in with a Swasika Laundry van. He notes that he
was almost run over by a bright-red panel truck whose sole decoration was a big swastika. Had someone sold Völkischer Beobachter delivery trucks here, or did the Völkischer Beobachter still have a branch office here? This one looked exactly like those I remembered; but the driver crossed himself as he smilingly signalled to me to proceed, and on closer inspection I saw what had happened. It was simply the “Swastika Laundry”, which had painted the year of its founding, 1912, clearly beneath the swastika; but the mere possibility that it might have been one of those others was enough to take my breath away.
The vans used by the Swastika Laundry didn’t operate on diesel or petrol, they were electric, quite ahead of their time.
Photo taken in 1962 - http://www.flickr.com/photos/bakerportfolio/193597110/
"Observed in Shelbourne Road, Dublin, 1960s" - http://www.photopol.com/signs/swastika.html
The Spring Grove Laundry bought the company out in 1987 and sold the land for redevelopment in the early 2000s. The only reminder of the Swastika Laundry at the site today, now known as The Oval, is the huge chimney, now a protected structure, which was emblazoned with a huge swastika until the late 1980s.
The Oval. Chimney on the right. (The Irish Times, Wednesday, March 28, 2007)
Click on the book for more.
Click on the book for more.
Come Here To Me! 
The grandson, Peter Brittain, of the founder of the Swastika Laundry was interviewed on the Derek Mooney programme in 2007 or 2008 which I produced. He explained that they choose the name because a swastika is an eastern good luck symbol and they had an ornament , a cat, with a swastika around its neck and that is where they got the idea. ge gave us a photo of the cat which I have.
Never knew about the cat connection! Thanks for the info Peter.
I know this is an old article, but this is amazing, Peter Brittain Was my great grandfarther. I knew about this business but i had never seen the pics before…. btw someone posted a picture on reddit.com which is how i found this.
That interview is available on the RTE site at http://www.rte.ie/radio/mooneygoeswild/archive/index_jan2008.html
on the entry for Thursday, January 17th 2008 click the listen icon and the Swastika Laundry item and interview starts is around 49 minutes.
Its great stuff.
To Peter Mooney (St.John?)
Are the Swastika Brittains in any way related to the Dublin Brittains of Light Brigade fame?
Des Brittain (London Brittain Branch HQ.)
Just noticed that Joe Duffy’s brother worked in the Swastika Laundry.
“Success for me would have been a job. I was very conscious during summers of trying to get a job and it was difficult to get one, especially when you were only four years of age! My brother got a job with the Swastika Laundry, which was a great achievement. He wanted to stay on, not go back to school.”
pp60, A Class of your Own: Conversations about class in Ireland, Patrick O’Dea (ed.)
We are presently producing a documentary on the swastika symbol. We tried to contact Peter Brittain (Britton) but were informed by his wife that he had passed away some years ago, sadly. We would have loved to interview him and see the the items from the Swastika Laundry and especially the cat. We have discovered the symbol was as common as the four leaf clover and the lucky horse shoe. So during that period in post war Europe it was not un-common or unusual to see it on greeting cards and the like. I would love to hear from anyone who can add anything to our research of the Swastika Laundry and the various Swastikas located around Ireland. So far we have such buildings from the G.P.O to the Bank Of Ireland.
Where, in the GPO and the Bank of Ireland, have you located Swastika’s?
The early history of the Brittain family in Manorhamilton may be found in the article ‘On the Street where you Live’ by Margaret Connolly in the 2012 Leitrim Guardian.
Thank you very much Sir.
The Bank of Ireland on College green. The Trinity college side entrance, look up to see Etruscan Swastikas. The same is in the G.P.O. Go to the counters on the East of the building, where one would pay bills,etc. Around the small square skylight you will find the same. In the National Museum Of Ireland on Kildare street you can find Greek Swastikas on the Glass doors as you go in. You will find them around the border design on the glass. Also as you walk in the main hall you will find them dotted around the mosaic on the floor. There is one immediatly at your feet before you walk into the main exhibition hall. To the left there is the Stone age exhibition and just as you step in there look around the walls and floor. You will find them around the area of the cafe there also. In Francis st, in St Nicholas’ church you will find Swastikas on the ceiling. There are many more. Check my documentary page for more insight.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/My-Swastika-Official-documentary/290744544795
http://www.myspace.com/myswastika
[…] […]
In relation to the tall chimney still standing, I have the original architects specification for its construction entitled “Proposed new laundry for The Swastika laundry company ltd.” The architects were “Frederick Hayes of 24 Nassau st.. The eight page document is written in long hand caligraphy. The opening paragraph details as follows : “The chimney to be built by bona fide and competent Chimney builders and in strict accordance with the drawings.To be faced with first quality Portmarnock red facing bricks laid in black mortar and neatly weather pointed as the work proceeds. baked up with first qualtiy Dolphins Barn wire cut bricks and built in the following thicknesses.” Further on it details that ” The cornice and capping to be in Ballyknocken granite” and also “Enamelled copper letters …….to be the manufacture of Messrs J.H. McGloughlin limited, Great Brunswick st.” The entire works are priced at £340. Additionally there is a separate sheet detailing the pricing for various boiler options including “Adamson, Inglis, Cochran and Lancashire boilers”, ranging in size from 10,000 lbs to 15000slbs and in price from £5442 to £7332
Thanks for that Gerry
I have taken photos of the the document. If you like I can pass them on.
Thank you Gerry. Our email is myswastik@hotmail.com. That would be most appreciated. Much thanks.
Gisela Holfter has just written a very interesting book on Böll and Ireland.
Thanks Póló . We will read it hopefuly. Thank you for making us aware of this book.
francis street church has a cornise around its ceiling of an unbroken swastika i was aboy van helper in 1961 in the swastika laundry
Very interesting. Thanks for the comment Ray.
[…] I have pointed out too, Irish readers would be familiar with the Swastika laundry in Dublin. I remember seeing these vans and walked past the laundry on my way to […]
I worked as a Vanboy at the Swastika Laundry in the 50’s. Pay was 27 shillings and 6 pence a week for a 6 day week. Driver paid (3p old money) to check and top up the batteries plus a weekly wash of the Van. I can’t remember any bad times there except the Vanman was a miserable git. The Brittains (owners) house was on our route and they had a very posh car parked outside, a Bristol 2 Liter. For a poor 14 year old from the North side of Dublin it was a different world. But things were simpler then.
Mick Brennan
Mick,
Can you remember a Mary Tilson who worked in the Swastika Laundry in late 1940s or early 1950s. If you have any information please phone me on 086 2597809
Regards,
David
Hi David
Sorry I can’t help you there as we were out on the road most of the time.
Regards
Mick
Found a picture on Wikipedia as I remember them coming around Walkinstown to miss Ryan’s house in hughes rd
see pictures in https://comeheretome.com/2010/04/26/swastika-laundry-1912-1987/
I joined Swastika Laundry in 1971 from Thomond Laundry Limerick which was also a member of the group including Phoenix Laundry and M Laundries Cork.
The reason behind using electric vans was Swastika was quite unusual in that they only travelled up to 10 miles to deliver/collect domestic laundry.Despite that I can remember some vans limping in with little charge left in the batteries at night. During the 70’s Swastika processed more shirts weekly than any laundry in Europe.13 Prosperity shirt units once pressed over 70.000 a week.
I bet the Swastika Laundry kept your whites white!
[…] i came across recently: a laundry business with an unusual name and logo that used to be based in dublin […]
[…] Niets mis mee, tot het in Duitsland ernstig fout begon te lopen. De rest van het verhaal kunt u hier lezen. Wat zouden, pakweg, kinderdagverblijf Dutroux, wapenhandel Breivik of krokodillenhandel Amin […]
[…] Originally Posted by WiseBuddha Bear in mind that the nazi party adopted the swastika in the early 1920s, German nationalists were using the symbol in the 19th century However… You can't find fault with that It was less associated with their rather vile deeds then though. There used to be a Swastika Laundry in Dublin Swastika Laundry (1912 ? 1987) | Come here to me! […]
i was a van boy there in 61..very good employer…used to go to arus an uachtarian twice a w eek one to collect 5 of de valera.s collars for starching and then bring them back
Great article! We will be linking to this particularly great post on our site. Keep up the good writing.
[…] This story is based on the real-life Swastika Laundry, an interesting part of Dublin history with which the author has a […]
I worked in the ” Swas ” as a 15 yr old about 1972
, I was a tall lad, so they put me on the Shop lorry with Joe Collins, this lorry delivered and collect laundry from the Swastika shops around Dublin, the laundry was in huge wicker baskets, the Shops were in Rathmines, Phisboro, Ranelagh, and I’m wracking my brains here trying to remember where the other shops were. anybody remember a shop in their area of Dublin
I just remembered Dun Laoghaire !
Any shops on the northside Des? I remember seeing the vans on Clonliffe Road.
Phoenix Laundry ruled the North side of the Liffey. Not as classy as the Swastika but then all the money was on the South Side.
Yes there were shops on the northside, I remembered another one, that was on Drumcondra Rd. opposite St Patrick’s college, plus the one mentioned above.. in Phibsborough which was beside St Peters church, the vans delivered to houses from the laundry in Ball’s Bridge, the lorry I was on only delivered to Swastika shops, I’m stuck on all the places where the shops were, so far I remember Ranelagh, Rathmines, Phibsborough, Drumcondra, Dun Laoghaire, Bray
I believe the Dry Cleaners on the Drumcondra Rd was IMCO
Yeah, that would add up – I have memories of seeing the vans on Clonliffe Road.
Swastika Laundry outlets in the Dublin area:
160 Shelboure Road, Ballsbridge
18 North Frederick Street, Dublin 1
66 Ranalagh, Dublin 6
26 Upper Georges’ Street, Dun Laoghaire
2 St.Stephen’s Green North
89, Morehampton Road, Donnybrook
7a Lower Camden Street
49 Thomas Street, D2
97a Talbot Street
63 Lower Dorset Street
392 NCR, Phibsboro
24 Turlough Terrace, Fairview
123 Lower Rathmines Road
9 Main Street, Bray
38a Main Street, Blackrock
17 Wicklow Street, Dublin 2
Hi – can you tell me how I can find a list of Employees in the company?
I might add a little something to the topic. Here’s an article I wrote few years ago, after I came across a 1950s advertisement for the Swastika Laundry: http://archeattica.wordpress.com/2013/06/04/swastikas-and-bedlinen/?preview=true&iframe=true
Breathtakingly well written piece of Irish history. I am studying on how the English occupation of Ireland effected developmental relationships betwixt the English commoners and Irish nobleman.
Yes I am also interested in the Swaticka Laundry because our Laundry was done by them from the 1940 to the late 1950. This begs a lot of questions ie. Were my Parents supporting Hitler ?. Would you like to be speaking German now or a FREE Country ? You also have to consider that Ireland is still part of the British Isle’s and without Britain where 80 % of our Exports go we would be back to the Famine. I ASK THE QUESTION Why would 230,000 Irish men and women fight for the British Empire and die ” The Fallen ” . and to-day we hardly respect them. The Easter Rising was a Stab in the Back when there was HOME RULE on the agenda prior to the First World War. Home Rule was set aside because of the First World War which was the right thing to do and in affect saved Ireland. So as usual the Paddies got the message wrong. Those who died got it wrong and the 1922 Civil war got it wrong.
What a load of CLOWNS : They thought they were doing the right thing in essence if they had waited they would have got what they wanted.
To day will we have another Civil War, I doubt however, if a new Election is Called Neither of the Major Parties will get in or Shin Fein.
What does Parliament mean ie the Will of the People.and the Nation. It is not up to Political Parties or Independents . They have a DUTY to form A Government on behalf of the People of Ireland. That is their Duty. If they cannot do so than it should be passed to the Upper |House to decide what should be done. And than onto the President if so to have a new Election. I recon both leading parties will possible loose their standing and smaller parties will take over. And Drive this Country Forward.
Thanks for the Email
D
I too was a van boy in 57 the Van man was Bill Brock, Bill was always very neat and tidy with a lovely shine on his shoes. Good company to work for, fond memories or maybe I was just young.
I worked on E van and John Green was the driver. He stopped every Monday at a customer’s house for extended tea break and always anointed himself with some smelly stuff. Seemed very strange to a 14 year old and was the source of some juicy stories among the rest of the vanboys.
Transport manager was English Mr Johnson who was a kind man but was regimental (rumoured to be ex military). Good memories.
I believe Bill Brock was on D Van parked alongside each other in the loading bay. I was there 56 & 57 and had to go as me Ma got ill. Mr Johnson (English Manager) came to our room on the Northside and said he’d keep a job for me and train me how to drive when I was eligible. However I had to look after my Ma.
Why was Swastika Laundry so called? Wouldn’t you think they were pro-Nazi? To think that Swastika Laundry actually used the same symbol as the Nazis!
But didn’t the Irish tend to support the Germans in the Second World War? To think there’s been relatively little anti-Semitism in Ireland.
Anyway, please visit https://twitter.com/JeremyKeller9 and check, for example, my BBC link.
If my memory serves me right, there was a swastika cleaners and dyers on middle abbey street. I think it was run by a lovely Jewish couple who used to eat in Le Parigot.
The Swastica Laundry should have been renamed in 1937. Because in my opinion as an anti Fasist. I personally would not have used it. and those who did are Fashist including the Catholic Church. Now EXplain Yourselves.
” U ” Boats were refulled in Cork and this is a FACT so how Neutural was Ireland in the Second World War.
Explain yourself to George Hook on News Talk. I dare you, because there is a picture in the Imperial War Museum in the UK which shows a German “U ” being supplied with Oil in the Second World War. How Neutural is THAT..
Desmond
Desmond I think you have everything upside down. The Swastika laundry was named before Hitler got his hands on it and also the Nazi party did not use the term swastika. They used what is known as the Hakenkreuz, the broken cross. The word Swastika is a Hindu term meaning All Well Being that was popular pre war due to oriental fashion that swept Europe. Please check out the Chester Beatty museum for European oriental artifacts. The laundry was not run by Jews. It was set up by the Brittain family and the name came from a gift Mrs Brittain received of a porcelain cat wearing the symbol around it’s neck. It was explained to her that it was a symbol of good luck and that is why the laundry got it’s name. Now Desmond please pay attention. The Nazi party did not use the term or symbol of Swastika. They used the Hakenkreuz. Totally different symbol and meaning. And yes if you want to pass on my details and your details to George Hook I would be quite happy to debate this topic on air just to educate you further and quite frankly put you in your place in relation to educating you. So if you would like I put down the gauntlet in terms of your debate. You set it up and put your money where your mouth is and I will gladly cut you down I refuse to let someone belittle the symbol and the good people who worked for Swastika Laundry as all I have heard through talking to them are good things. Mr Brittain from what I have learned was a gentleman. So set up the debate. my number is 0868925426.
Dominick I mostly concur except 1) Hakenkreuz means hook cross, not broken cross, and 2) it’s not a totally different symbol and meaning, there is significant overlap. Other than that I agree.
I worked as an Apprentice Fitter in Ringsend from 65 to 70 and the Swastika Laundry would pick up our overalls and the cleaning cost taken out of our wages. I didn’t know the history of the Swastika Laundry until recently but as a young lad was often amused as to the similarity to the Nazi Icon. It’s amazing how some people jump to conclusions (Desmond). Perhaps he thought the Swastika Laundry in Ballsbridge was the Centre for the 4th Reich.
Perhaps he suspects that Hitler had his Brown Shirts cleaned there as another breach of our Neutrality. Wake up and get a life Desmond.
what is the connection between Bells dry cleaners and Swastika Laundry were they the same family run company?
Hi Christy, my memory from the ’60s and ’70s is that the vans at that time bore the name “Bells and Swastika Laundry”; and I think I remember two symbols, a pair of bells as well as the swastika.
Bells was the Dry Cleaners. At the Balls Bridge laundry was a Bells area where strong chemicals were in use. Us laundry van boys steered well clear because of the fumes while seeking laundry shortage items which delayed our customers deliveries. The vans customers did not use Bells often and I believed the Bells shops done nearly all the dry cleaning business.
Yes Bells & Swastika with the two symbols.
Hi – would it be possible to see the names of the employees between 1956 – 1968 .and possibly Photos of the employees ?
1956 & 1957 was my time but cameras were few & far between. John Green was my driver on E van where I was the helper.