I’ve got a few emails over the years from people looking for information on where they can buy Bernard Neary’s biography of famous Dublin Garda James ‘Lugs’ Branigan. It’s been an invaluable resource for me in researching Dublin youth criminality in the 1930s and 40s, and while very sympathetic overall, it does offer great insight into things like the Animal Gangs, Teddy Boys and other youth groups which have come and gone in the city.
Lugs Branigan illustration by Luke Fallon for Rabble magazine.
It seems the Gardaí have uploaded the now years out of print book as a PDF, which can be read and downloaded from here. It lacks the fantastic pictures in the original, and the introduction from a certain Mr.Haughey, but the bones of the work is there.
Nobody in Ireland would have believed, in the last days of the nineteen forties, that the next decade would produce the King of Rock and Roll, the film (or movie) Rock Around the Clock and the Teddy Boy cult, and that the new and exciting young social scene would make Jim ‘Lugs’ Branigan a household name throughout the country and a legend in his own lifetime.
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Donal
Ciarán
Sam
Brilliant book. Tried a few seconhand bookshops for it with no joy and then stumbled across it at a stall in a book fair a few months back, got it for a fiver! Fair played to the Guards uploading it, I’d say plenty have tried in vain to find this book.
Just finished reading the download – excellent stuff. The likes of Branigan won’t be seen again. Thanks for posting this up.
I like the reference to the opening lines of HG Well’s, The War of the Worlds.