Come Here To Me!

An historic church hidden away in Portobello (Dublin 8) is currently up for sale.

Rev. Patrick Comerford has written a bit about the building’s history:

The granite-block former Kingsland Place Church was designed by John McCurdy in 1870 for the Primitive Wesleyan Methodist Church, and opened in 1871. From the 1950s, the church was used as the Women’s Employment Exchange, and it stands as a reminder of another religious minority that has been lost to this part of Dublin.

It’s yours for €850,000 via Douglas Newman Good.

Kingsland Place Church. (Picture credit - http://revpatrickcomerford.blogspot.com)

Read Full Post »

I had to laugh seeing this advertisement for O’Connell’s Ale popping up frequently in An Phoblacht in the early 1930s. Daniel O’Connell of course was far from a militant republican, and one wonders how he’d feel on the pages of that organ!

Daniel O’Connnell Jr. had famously acquired the Phoenix Brewery in James’s street in 1831, which produced O’Connell’s Ale. It should be noted that O’Connell and the Guinness family were at times political rivals, something best captured by the 1841 ‘Repeal Election’, where O’Connell had stood against and defeated Arthur Guinness Jr. This period would see a sizeable boycott of Guinness, dubbed “Protestant Porter” by sections of the populace, though this was against the wishes of O’Connell himself.

John D’Arcy continued to brew O’Connell Ale after the family had ceased their role in brewing, and in time production moved to the Anchor Brewery in Usher Street. Watkins eventually took up the brewing of O’Connell Ale, and this advertisement was placed by them in the pages of leading newspapers in the 1930s.

While Arthur had failed to defeat O’Connell at the Ballot Box, I always wonder what O’Connell would think of the Guinness Empire today every time I see a Diaego truck pass his statue.

Read Full Post »

'Un assassinat politique' Le Petit Journal (Fallon collection)

This is a fantastic illustration from ‘Le Petit Journal’ showing the assassination of Sir Henry Wilson by Irish republicans in London, an event which would ultimately lead to the Free State moving in against republicans occupying the Four Courts premises in Dublin. Henry Wilson was assassinated in London on the June 22 1922, only hours after unveiling the Great Eastern Railway war memorial at Liverpool Street Station in London. Reginald Dunne and Joseph O’Sullivan were the two London volunteers responsible for Wilson’s death. O’Sullivan had lost a leg at Ypres in 1917 fighting for King and Country, while Dunne had also seen service in the Great War with the Irish Guards. Wilson was assassinated on his own door step, only hours after unveiling a memorial to those who died in the Great War, by two of its veterans. The men were hanged at Wandsworth Prison on August 10th 1922.

In August of 1929 a memorial was erected at Dean’s Grange Cemetery to Dunne and O’Sullivan, at a ceremony attended by over 500 people. In July 1967 the bodies of the two Volunteers were buried in Dublin in Dean’s Grange, following years of campaigning by the National Graves Association.

The attack on the Four Courts by the Free State attracted huge international media attention, and the images below come from the London Illustrated News of July 8 1922.

Documents from the Four Courts litter the streets.(Fallon collection)

Damage to the Four Courts. (Fallon collection)

The execution of Henry Wilson was not the only Irish interest story to make the front page of the Le Petit Journal. Below is their take on the execution of Michael Collins at Béal na mBláth.

'Les Convulsion sanglantes de I'Irelande' (Fallon collection)

Update: The folks at the Dublin Review of Books have linked to this piece on their site, and in the process have taken the time to translate the caption on the Wilson illutration:

Come Here To Me! does not translate the caption to the illustration of the shooting. It reads: “L’histoire du conflit entre l’Irlande et la Grande-Bretagne a toutes ses pages tâchées de sang. – Un nouveau chapitre dramatique vient d’y être ajouté. A Londres le maréchal Wilson a été assassiné a coup de revolvers par des fanatiques Irlandais. C’est un brave soldat et un ami de la France qui vient de disparaître.” (Every page of the history of the conflict between Ireland and Great Britain is stained with blood. – Another dramatic chapter has just been added. In London Marshal Wilson has been assassinated by the revolvers of Irish fanatics. A brave soldier and friend of France has died.)

Read Full Post »

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.

Read Full Post »

Sean Treacy is a character of great importance to the War of Independence period, indeed he was among the men of the Third Tipperary Brigade who fired the opening shots of that conflict at the Soloheadbeg ambush. Treacy would lose his life on October 14th 1920 on the streets of Dublin, owing to a shoot-out on Talbot Street that would also leave Gilbert Price of the British Secret Service lying dead on the street. A small plaque on Talbot Street today marks the spot where Treacy was killed. The incorrect spelling of his name should be noted, a common error.

The plaque was unveiled by the National Graves Association in 1937, with a huge crowd gathering for proceedings.

Image taken from the front of The Irish Press newspaper, September 13 1937.

Each time Tipperary reach an All Ireland Final, Tipperary fans gather at the spot on Talbot Street to remember Sean Treacy. The video below shows the 2011 commemoration at the site.

Following Irish independence, the renaming of streets became common place in Dublin. In March 2011 I posted a copy of a 1922 Dublin Corporation report which recommended a number of street name changes in the capital. That report proposed radical changes, including the re-naming of Beresford Place (home to Liberty Hall) as Connolly Place, and not all of its recommendations were implemented. Interestingly, absent from the list was the issue of Talbot Street. In the decades following independence, members of a wide variety of nationalist organisations would call for the renaming of that street to honour Sean Treacy.

Among the organisations demanding the changing of the name Talbot Street in the 1940s were Ailtirí na hAiséirghe, a fascist movement whose name translated into ‘Architects of the Resurrection’ and who were led by Gearóid Ó Cuinneagáin. The movement produced the paper Aiséirghe, a copy of which was previously uploaded to this very blog. The politics of the movement very much fused European fascism with a deep sense of Irish Christianity and cultural nationalism. An impressive collection of election literature and propaganda from the group has been uploaded to the Irish Election Literature Blog, which provide interesting insight into the ideology of the group. In their 1943 General Election leaflet outlining principal points of policy, the organisation noted that: “Your duty to Ireland does not end with the casting of your vote. Serve Ireland always. Speak the language. Encourage others to speak the language. Help everything Irish and national and clean!”

An edition of Aiséirghe's newspaper.

On November 1st 1943, members of Ailtirí na hÁiseirghe created uproar at a meeting of Dublin Corporation, by shouting from the public galleries while the Corporation was sitting. At the time of the interruptions, the Corporation was discussing the planned removal of Queen Victoria’s statue from Leinster House. One man rose and shouted: “Get rid of all the symbols of slavery in the streets! We demand that Talbot Street be renamed Sean Treacy street. Young Ireland is awakening.”

It was reported that another member of the group shouted: “Honour Sean Treacy, despite the shopkeepers of Talbot Street. If you do not, you are not worthy of the name of Irishmen.”

(more…)

Read Full Post »