Come Here To Me!

Over the weekend I was asked by thejournal.ie to pen a piece on the passing Shane MacThomais. I’m reposting it here as all references to Shane’s passing from Come Here To Me have been made elsewhere, on our Facebook page. For the historical record I wish to mark his passing here on the actual website. The three of us at Come Here To Me extend our deepest sympathies to Shane’s family and many friends.

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FEW FINAL RESTING places in Ireland command the respect of the round tower tomb of Daniel O’Connell. Forever immortalised in Irish school books as ‘The Liberator’, O’Connell is just one of the one-and-a-half million people whose mortal remains rest in what is officially known as Prospect Cemetery. The story of Ireland can be told by walking the grounds of this amazing place.

There is the tragic young Sean Healy, a 15-year-old rebel who perished in the rebellion of 1916, gunned down on a Phibsboro street corner. There are ‘characters’ of centuries past like Michael J Moran, or Zozimus as he was known, the blind bard of nineteenth century Dublin who captivated Dubliners with song. There are shocking reminders of the wrongs of Irish society in recent times too, with many victims of the Magdalene Laundry system to be found within the cemetery. Shane MacThomais understood that each and every human being buried within the walls of the cemetery he loved so passionately had a story, and his ultimate ambition was to tell as many of those stories as he could.

I had the good fortune of encountering this ambition of Shane MacThomais first-hand. My great-grandfather was one of the tens of thousands of Irishmen who would die as a result of the First World War, though lacking a heroic ‘over the front’ battlefield death and the Commonwealth Graves headstone that might come with it, rather dying months later in the Richmond Hospital in Dublin. A working class statistic of the most horrific war in human history, MacThomais was able to help my family locate the paupers’ grave in which he now rests. It may have been far from a round tower, but to my mother it was a spot to stand and pay homage to a man she had heard so much about, and an emotional experience. This was only one part of Shane MacThomais’ job, but all who knew him knew it was an important part to him.

In all the time I was fortunate to know Shane, he was a tireless champion of the underdog in Irish history. Only last year he passionately argued for Dublin’s newest bridge to be named after a woman, Rosie Hackett, arguing that “all too often the role of Irish women is forgotten in our history books.” There has often been much else missing in our history books in Ireland, such as the victims of tragedies like tenement collapses and tuberculosis outbreaks.

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Thomas ‘Tommy’ Wood (1919-1936), aged just 17, was the youngest Irish volunteer to fight and die with the International Brigades. A Dubliner from a staunch Republican family, he left for Spain with Frank Ryan on 11th December 1936 and was mortally wounded just 18 days later at the Battle of Cordoba.

Wood (often misspelt as Woods) joined Na Fianna Éireann at the age of seven and was later active with B Company, 2nd Battalion, Dublin Brigade, IRA. Before leaving, he wrote a letter to his mother:

I am very sorry for not telling you where I was going. I am going to Spain to fight with the International Column. Please forgive me for not letting you know. I got my wages in the Gas. Co. alright. I left a message to be delivered on Sunday. We are going out to fight for the working class. It is not a religious war, that is all propaganda. God Bless you.

He lived with his parents John C. Wood and Sarah Ann Wood (nee Doyle) at 16 Buckingham Place just off Amiens Street with siblings Sean (who died in a workplace accident in 1938), Patrick, Donald, Seamus, Ellis, Kathleen and Frances.

During intense fighting at the Battle of Cordoba, which saw eight Irish anti-Fascists killed, Wood was shot in the knee and then in the head. Frank Ryan wrote to his parents:

He was wounded on the Cordoba Front on December 29 last. I was talking to two comrades who brought him to the dressing station. He was hit above the left knee and then as they were bringing him in, he and one of his comrades was hit again. This time the bullet hit Tommy in the head, but the two lads with him thought it was only a graze as he was conscious all the time. He was brought to Andujar Hospital and the first report from there was very favourable, then we could get no more news of him. It is only now that we have found out why.

Ryan went onto say that name of Woods was confused originally with that of Wools, a Dutch comrade who was also in the hospital. His letter continued:

His comrades here wish to be associated in rendering you their sympathy. Tommy was universally liked during the time he was with us here. I want to emphasise that his life was given in a great cause. He did not come looking for adventures nor for reward. He believed in the cause for which the people of Spain, helped by men such as himself, are fighting. He has given his life not only for the freedom of the people of Spain, but of the whole human race and he will be remembered and honoured equally with those who gave their lives for freedom in Ireland.

On 13th January 1937, the Irish Independent reported:

News has reached Dublin that natives of Dublin serving with the Reds at Albacete – T. Woods (aged 17 years), of Buckingham Place, is suffering from shell shock, and C. Gough, of Cabra, is in hospital with a neck wound. Both casualties were sustained in an air raid on Albacete.

Buried in Corboda, Tommy’s name is inscribed on the grave of his parents Sarah and John Wood and brother Sean in Glasnevin Cemetery:

The Irish Press (29 Oct 1941) reported on the death of Sarah Woods (nee Doyle):

Tommy was immortalised in Christy Moore’s song ‘Viva La Quinte Brigada’:

Tommy Wood age seventeen died in Cordoba
With Na Fianna he learned to hold his gun
From Dublin to the Villa del Rio
He fought and died beneath the Spanish sun.

Two of Tommy Wood’s uncles were killed during the War of Independence.

Patrick ‘Paddy’ Doyle (29), of 1 St. Mary’s Place, a carpenter married with two children was hanged in Mountjoy Jail on 14th March 1921. Active with F Company, 1st Battalion, Dublin Brigade, IRA, he was arrested and charged with high treason and levying war against the King for his part in an attempted ambush of British forces at Drumcondra on 21st January.

Six weeks after his execution, his brother Seán ‘Jimmy’ Doyle was killed during the IRA’s attack on the Custom House on 25th May 1921. During an attempt to escape, he was cut down by a British Army machine gun and died of his wounds in the Mater Hospital. Doyle had been active with Michael Collin’s ‘Squad’. Oscar Traynor (BMH WS 340) wrote of his last hours:

As he lay on his deathbed (the nuns) said his one worry was, “Are the boys beaten?”, and that night as the sound of nearby explosions shook the air, Sean’s face, wreathed in smiles, turned to the Nun who was attending him, and he feeble whispered, “Thank God, Sister, the fight goes on”.

If anyone has a photograph or any further information on Tommy Wood, please get in touch.

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War can bring out the worst in people, and not only those on the front-lines of battle. In 1914 there were a number of attacks in Dublin carried out against businesses owned by German nationals, with particular attention being paid to pork butchers in the city. Much of this violence occurred on a single night, with a number of premises attacked in Dublin on 15 August 1914.

The violence was detailed in contemporary newspaper reports, with the Irish Independent reporting that “German pork shops on the south side of Dublin city had a rough time on Saturday night. Between 11 and 11.30 Lang’s shop in Wexford Street was wrecked. A jeering crowd of youths, it appears, had become aggressive towards the manager.” According to the newspaper, “everything breakable in the place was smashed, and the shop left a wreck.” The paper condemned the violence, stating that “the mob, never a wise arbitrator” had no authority to carry out such actions. The poet Padraic Colum asked, in a letter to the Irish Independent, “what have these defenceless traders done to the citizens of Dublin that their means and substance should be destroyed? What has Germany done to Ireland that she should be insulted by mean attacks?”

While there was considerable damage done to Lang’s premises, it was not the only one to be greatly damaged in the heat of the moment. Newspapers noted that George Retz’ butchers on the South Circular Road and Morton’s tobacconist on the same road were also attacked. It was reported that a sum of £20 was taken from the till of Reitz’ premises, while £14 was taken from the till of Lang’s premises.

In October it was reported that Lang was seeking compensation via a sitting of the City Sessions for the damage done to his premises, which was estimated to be just over £117. It was noted that he had lived in the country for twenty-three years, had married an Irish woman and had children here, yet amazingly it was argued on behalf of the Corporation that “the applicant was an alien enemy, and therefore not entitled to sue in their courts while a state of war existed between Great Britain and Germany.” Reitz also sought compensation from the authorities, to the sum of £223, and detailed that he had lived in Britain for the past twenty-six years and was not eligible for German military service. The Independent report noted that “his Lordship during the discussion said very few Englishmen had been allowed to do business in Germany. If these claimants had any right to sue, it was suspended during the war.”

Manus O’Riordan has noted that that among those to condemn the outrage outright was The Irish Worker newspaper, which accused the mob of “German baiting” and the authorities of turning a blind eye, noting that the DMP had arrested Reitz himself. The paper claimed that it was the “sport” of Redmondites, and also made it clear that if the homes and businesses of Germans were to be attacked again, “an appeal to the men of the Transport Union and the Citizen Army to act as a guard for their houses would not fail to produce good results.”

Highlighting the moronic and politically clueless nature of the attack on Lang’s premises was a report in newspapers on 20 October of that same year, detailing the fact his son Frederick Lang, aged 16, had died in the war effort in the service of British forces. His other son, Augustine, also served in the war effort with the Royal Marines at Antwerp.

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As part of a series of events being organised by the Dice Bar and others in Smithfield, I’ll be doing a few walking tours of the area this weekend, running Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The one hour tours cost €6 but include a pint (or a coffee/soft drink) in the Dice. All details are below in the poster, it’d be great if people can share notice of these events. This is being run by the Dice, just pay at the bar.

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