Come Here To Me!

The Lion and the Unicorn on display at the Custom House today (Dfallon)

While the bombing of iconic Dublin statues by militant republicans in the decades following independence is well documented, other attacks on the iconography of the city have largely been forgotten. Recently, I stumbled across an interesting file in National Archives dealing with the issue of the Royal Coat of Arms, which remained in place on many magnificent Dublin buildings in the years following independence. In the 1930s, following an explosion at Exchange Court targetting one such piece of symbolism, senior figures inside An Garda Síochanna called for the removal of the Royal Coat of Arms from public buildings in the interest of safety and security.

On November 11th 1937 militant republicans were responsible for an explosion at the building which was home to the Engineering Branch of the General Post Office, at Exchange Court. The premises had once been home to ‘G Division’ of the Dublin Metropolitan Police, and it was at Exchange Court that Peader Clancy, Conor Clune and Dick McKee were to lose their lives on Bloody Sunday in 1920.

At half-six on a quiet November morning in 1937, an explosion destroyed the plaster cast of the Royal Coat of Arms, with The Irish Times reporting that:

The force of the explosion broke the plaster cast of the lion and the unicorn into pieces, blew a large hole in the wall of the building, and shattered hundreds of panes of glass in surrounding houses, shops and offices. Bricks and mortar were hurled into rooms of the premises, smashing furniture and damaging official documents.

Windows were broken at the Olympia Theatre, and even on Parliament Street, by the force of the blast.

In the Garda report in the immediate aftermath of the explosion, Chief Superintendent Thomas Clarke noted that Garda intelligence believed republicans had been planning an attack on a symbolic target early in November of 1937, and that Gardaí were monitoring memorial statues, poppy depots and the Ex-Servicemen’s Park. Clarke would write that:

It is the practice to have a Garda in uniform detailed to patrol a special beat in the vicinity of Cork Hill but there was no member available on the night of the 10th/11th,instant, for duty at this point owing to the other demands made on the available strength for protection of Poppy depots, memorial statues, halls etc.

It was noted that Gardaí believed the IRA were likely to cause an explosion at the Ex-Servicemens’ Park, or at some other prominent centre, between the first and the eleventh of November, in the run up to Armistice Day. The Garda report would note that the removal of the Royal Escutcheon from buildings in the city under the control of the Board of Works should be considered, owing to the damage caused through such explosions and the risk to the civilian population. In May of 1937 the statue of King George II in Stephens’ Green had been blown to pieces, and such attacks were undoubtedly seen as a very real threat.

Discussion around the Royal Coat of Arms and its presence on Dublin buildings continued into the following year. In a 1938 Garda report it was noted that if the Royal Coat of Arms could be removed from places “…without attracting press notice”, such a policy should be considered.

The 1938 confidential Dublin Castle report, on the Suggested Removal of the Royal Crest from Courthouse at Kilmainham, noted that “the protection of the buildings on which it is displayed cannot very well be effectively carried out.”

Inspector P.Killeen noted that in the case of the Kilmainham Courts, which display the Royal Coat of Arms to this day:

In view of the attitude adopted by a section of the population of this country to such emblems as this, and inv iew of the damage caused on several occasions within the last few years to statues and monuments associated with the British regime here, I think it should be advisable to have the emblem removed, and I suggest that representations should be made to the Office of Public Works to have this done.

The removal of the object now may save a great deal of trouble to the Police later, and may also save the Rate Payers and perhaps lives of citizens.

The National Graves Association had spent some time calling on the ‘Lion and the Unicorn’ at Exchange Court to be replaced with a memorial plaque to the three republicans who lost their lives there on Bloody Sunday in 1920. Today, such a plaque exists right next to City Hall, where the Royal Coat of Arms had once gazed down on Dubliners.

The Royal Coat of Arms can still be seen in several locations across the city, not only at the Kilmainham Courthouse but also at College Green on the Bank of Ireland (the historic Irish Parliament), at the top of Henrietta Street at the Kings Inns and at the magnificent Custom House.