Come Here To Me!

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.

Wedding photo of Tommy’s parents Sarah Doyle and John Woods, 1915. Credit – ailishm49

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:

Wood family grave. Credit – ailishm49.

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

Sarah Wood – Irish Press (29 Oct 1941)

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.

Letter from Patrick Doyle to his sisters a few days before his execution. Credit – ailishm49.

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?”

A popular recruitment poster from WWI asking Irishmen if their home was worth fighting for, and showing German soldiers entering a home.

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.

Report detailing the death of Lang’s son.

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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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An attempt to collate a chronological list of all the major incidents in Dublin during the conflict in the North. If I have missed any, please leave a comment.

1969
5 August – The UVF plant their first bomb in the Republic of Ireland, damaging the RTÉ Television Centre in Donnybrook. No injuries.
27 December – The UVF plant a bomb at the Daniel O’Connell statue on O’Connell Street. Little damage was done to the statue but the blast smashed windows in a half-mile radius.
28 December – The UVF detonate a bomb outside the Garda central detective bureau in Dublin. The nearby telephone exchange headquarters is suspected to have been the target.

1970
3 April – Garda Richard Fallon (44) is shot by members of Saor Eire during a robbery of the the Royal Bank of Ireland at Arran Quay.
26 March – A bomb damages an electricity substation in Tallaght. An anonymous letter claimed responsibility on behalf of the UVF.
2 July – A bomb damages the main Dublin-Belfast railway line at Baldoyle. Gardaí believed it was the work of the UVF.
13 October –  Saor Eire member Liam Walsh (35) is killed in a premature explosion when himself and another member Martin Casey were planting a device at a railway line at the rear of McKee army base off Blackhorse Avenue in Dublin. His funeral was attended by over 3,000 people.

Funeral of Liam Walsh (Saor Eire), O’Connell St, 1970. Note two revolvers. Photos were in possession of the late Paddy Browne

1971
17 January –  Daniel O’Connell’s tomb in Glasnevin Cemetery is damaged by a Loyalist bomb. No injuries.
8 February –  The Wolfe Tone statue at St. Stephen’s Green is destroyed by a Loyalist bomb. No injuries.
25 October –  Saor Eire member Peter Graham (26) is shot dead in his flat at 110 Stephen’s Green in an internal feud.
30 December –  PIRA member Jack McCabe (55) is killed in a premature bomb explosion in a garage, Swords Road, Santry. McCabe had been active in the IRA since the 1930s.

Pieces of the statue of Theobald Wolfe Tone on St Stephen’s Green, 1971. Credit – Irish Photo Archive

1972
2 February –  The British Embassy on Merrion Square is burned down in response to Bloody Sunday. A British-owned insurance office in Dun Laoghaire and Austin Reeds outfitters on Grafton Street are also petrol bombed. The Thomas Cook travel agency along with the offices of British Airlines and the RAF club on Earlsfort Terrace were also attacked.
28 – 29 October – A 12lbs bomb is planted in Connolly Station, Amiens Street by Loyalists but dismantled by the Irish Army before it went off. They are also responsible for leaving firebombs in bedrooms in four Dublin hotels (Wynns, The Gresham, The Skylon and The Crofton).
26 November – Loyalists plant a bomb outside the rear exit door of the Film Centre Cinema, O’Connell Bridge House injuring 40 people.
1 December –  Bus driver George Bradshaw (30) and bus conductor Tommy Duffy (23) are killed and 127 injured in the first Loyalist car bomb planted in the Republic close to the CIÉ Depot at Sackville Place off O’Connell Street. A second car bomb exploded 7 minutes before causing massive damage to Liberty Hall and many injuries.

1973
20 January –  CIE bus conductor Thomas Douglas (25) is killed and 17 injured in Loyalist car bomb in Sackville Place off O’Connell Street. The car used in the bombing had been hijacked at Agnes Street, Belfast.
3 August – Cashier James Farrell (54) is killed by the IRA during during an armed robbery while delivering wages to British Leyland factory, Cashel Road, Crumlin.
31 October – The IRA use a hijacked helicopter to free three of their members from the exercise yard of Mountjoy Prison, Dublin. On of those who escaped was Séamus Twomey, then Chief of Staff of the IRA who was later recaptured in December 1977.

1974
17 May –  Three no-warning bombs explode in Parnell Street, Talbot Street, and South Leinster Street during rush hour. 26 people and an unborn child are killed. Over 300 are injured. Italian restaurant owner Antonio Magliocco (37) and a French-born Jewish woman Simone Chetrit (30) are amongst those killed.
8 June – Tens of thousands attend the funeral march of PIRA volunteer Michael Gauaghan from Co. Mayo who died on hunger striker in Parkhurst Prison on the Isle of Wight.

Michael Gaughan’s IRA guard of honour passes Daniel O’Connell statue, 1974. Credit – corbisimages.com.

1975
22 March – The funeral of IRA member Tom Smith, shot dead during an escape attempt from Portlaoise Prison on St. Patrick’s Day, is attacked by Gardai. Three people, including a press photographer, are injured.
22  June – Christopher Phelan stabbed to death after he came upon the UVF attempting to place a bomb on the railway line near Sallins on June 22 1975.
11 September – An off-duty Garda, Michael Reynolds (30), is shot dead in St. Anne’s Park by two Anarchists Noel and Marie Murray, former members of Official Sinn Fein, following an armed robbery at the Bank of Ireland, Killester.
2 October – Official IRA member Billy Wright (35) is shot by members of the organisation in his brother’s hair salon on the Cabra Road. He died in hospital on 19 October. He was targeted after he made a statement to Gardai, implicating a prominent member of the Official IRA, about an armed robbery in Heuston Station that occurred in September 1973.
28 November – Two Loyalist bombs at the arrival terminal at Dublin airport injure eight and kill John Hayes (30), an Aer Rianta employee.

Funeral of IRA member Tom Smith attacked in Glasnevin, 1975. Credit – Coleman Doyle via Shane MacThomais.

Funeral of IRA member Tom Smith in Glasnevin, 1975. Credit – Coleman Doyle via Shane MacThomais.

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Three lads drinking, nd. (Credit – Jacolette blog)

If you knew where to go, it was possible to drink around the clock in 1930s, 1940s and 1950s Dublin.

When regular pubs closed at 11pm, still-thirsty revelers could travel to ‘bona-fide’ pubs on the outskirts of the city. A ‘bona-fide’ house utilised a legal loophole, dating back to early coaching days, that allowed a genuine ‘bona-fide’ traveler three miles (five in Dublin) from his place of residence to drink alcohol outside normal hours.

Some creative drinkers would send a letter to “themselves” using the address of a friend who lived the required distance away from their desired pub. They could then show the letter to the publican to give him some piece of mind. During a police raid, the publican would try to hide those who shouldn’t be there in his living quarters or rush them out a back door so they could attempt a getaway.

In a piece entitled ‘The Irish “Bona Fide Traveller” Nuisance”, The Sacred Heart Review (13 September 1902) noted:

Travelers, tramps and tourists are common the wide world over, but the so-called ” Bona Fide Traveler ” is peculiar to Ireland. Under the curious laws which govern or misgovern Ireland, it has been decreed that when any person “travels” three miles to a “public-house” on a Sunday he is entitled to all the drink he can buy, even though the Sunday closing law is in full force there. Thus a man living in the town of Kilronan can not legally enter a public-house to secure a drink, but let him walk or ride to Knooknagow, three miles away, and he can have all the drink he wants…

The United Irishman of recent issue, discussing the new Licensing Act, complains that it does not deal with the bona fide traveler scandal, and says:— ” Blackrock and Dunleary on the average Sunday night are a blot on Ireland. We heartily sympathize with the real bona fide traveler. But seventy-five per cent, of the people who travel down to Blackrock and Dunleary on Sunday evenings after seven o’clock do so for the purpose of indulging in the luxury of treating one another to drink … The bona fide traveler has become a standing joke in Dublin, and it was not, perhaps, too presumptuous to hope that the absurdity of men leaving a Dublin public-house at seven o’clock on a Sunday evening, stepping on a tram-car, and a few minutes later descending at the door of another Dublin public – house, invested with the rights of travelers, should have been considered. We have witnessed in English towns, it is true, scenes more degrading than we have witnessed in the streets of Blackrock and Dunleary on Sunday nights, but it is no excuse for an Irishman to make himself a bonham because an Englishman makes himself a hog.

There was at least one ‘bona-fide’ on each main road out of Dublin. They included Lamb Doyles (Dublin Mountains), Widow Flavin’s (Sandyford), the Dropping Well (Dartry), the Deadman’s Inn (Lucan), the Swiss Cottage (Santry), the Igo Inn (Ballybrack) and The Goat (Goatstown).

Throughout the years a number of late-night revellers, staggering or driving under the influence towards the bona-fide, were involved in deadly accidents. This was one of the main reasons for the Government abolishing the law in 1960.

If you wanted to keep on drinking after the bona-fide closed, you could travel back into the city and visit one of the ‘kips’ around Capel Street or Parnell Square. A ‘kip’ was a brothel-cum-speakeasy that sold whiskey or gin from tea cups till the early morning.

One of the City’s most famous ‘kips’ was the Cafe Continental at 1a Bolton Street near the corner of Capel Street which was in operation from the 1930s (?) to the mid 1960s. It was run by the legendary madam ‘Dolly’ Fawcett (often misspelled as ‘Fossett’ or ‘Fosset’). Annie Elizabeth, originally from Wicklow, married William Fawcett who was rumoured to have been a former Dublin Metropolitan Police (DMP) officer from the North who was discharged because of his relationship with her.

The Fawcett family also ran another ‘kip’ called the Cozy Kitchen on nearby North King Street.

Ostensibly an innocent late-night cafe, the Cafe Continental was a haven for late-night revelers who often carried clandestine “Baby Powers,” or miniature bottles of whiskey, which they tipped into their cups of coffee. ‘Dolly’ also served up ‘red biddy’ (mixture of red wine and methanol), poitín and water-down whiskey.

It was a popular place for ladies of the night and they’d often find clients there. So Dolly Fawcett’s would be better described as a ‘prostitute pick up-place’ as opposed to a brothel in the traditional sense of the word.

The Irish Times (7 Oct 1944) ran a front page piece about a journalist’s visit to an “all-night drinking den”. My bet would be that it was Dolly Fawcett’s.

‘In a Dublin All-night Drinking Den’. The Irish Times, 7 Oct 1944.

Dolly, who lived over the Cafe Continental with her family, passed away at home on 12 March 1949. Her funeral, which took place after mass at the Pro-Cathedral, attracted a large attendance. She was highly regarded in the area for her numerous charitable acts.

Longford Leader (19 March 1949) & The Irish Independent (15 March 1949)

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Radio equipment and arms seized by Gardaí in Dublin. The Irish Times, 17 April 1958.

Ireland has a long history of pirate radio, something I’ve looked at before in an article for Rabble that can be read here. This brief article looks at a number of political pirate radio stations that operated in Dublin, many of which were operated by the republican movement as a means of spreading propaganda.

There is no denying that pirate radio was always taken seriously by the authorities in Ireland, even when it lacked a political bent. Radio Milinda, which operated from North Gloucester Place, was raided by almost 100 Gardaí in December 1972, becoming the first pirate radio station to be raided by the authorities and prosecuted. It was not a ‘political’ station, indeed in an interesting history of the station that is available to read here, one of its founders talked about how the emphasis was very much on music, both in terms of charts and classics:

So many wonderful things happened to us in the “Milinda Days”. We met so many wonderful people. One who comes to mind straight away was James McGuinness who lived across from us in the Diamond. He had the most wonderful collection of records and I remember doing a four hour special on the life on Glen Miller thanks to his record collection. At the weekend the house was full of people who just wanted to sit around, listen and chat.

Pirate radio was often utilised in the North during the conflict there, in particular by republicans. Among the most celebrated examples of this is Radio Free Derry, which broadcast during the Battle of the Bogside in 1969. In the south, pirate radio often offered a means of countering the Section 31 legislation, which was designed to keep republican voices off the airwaves and off television screens. In 1987 for example Gerry Adams conducted a 75 minute interview with a pirate radio station in Limerick, something that was condemned by the authorities as a breach of the legislation. Even before that legislation however republicans were utilising pirate radio across the Republic.

In 1936 a reference was made in several newspapers to “the mysterious pirate radio station in the Free State”, with the Leitrim Observer noting that “Many listeners in the Free State heard the stations unknown announcer deliver a speech in which there was a denunciation of recent Government decisions. The speaker said the station had been acquired for the purposes of the Irish Republican Army.” In late 1939 a republican named Sean McNeela was sentenced to two years imprisonment for his involvement with an IRA pirate radio station which was broadcasting from Rathmines, and raided by state authorities while on air. Sentenced for “conspiracy to usurp a function of Government”, he died on hunger strike, along with Tony Darcy, in 1940.

The death of McNeela is reported in the press, 20 April 1940.

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Image Credit: Broadsheet.ie

Dublin has long prided itself on its literary heritage and history, and perhaps no work has put Dublin centre-stage in quite the same way as Ulysses. Many of the locations from Ulysses are still with us today, while others are no more. Nelson’s Pillar was lost in rather dramatic fashion, but others have just been lost to redevelopment and the changing city.

The Ormond Hotel on the quays featured in the work, with Joyce setting Sirens (Episode 11 of the work) at the hotel, with Bloom dining there. The hotel has fallen into total ruin in recent years, and not too long ago the plaque connecting it to Ulysses vanished from the front of the building, something which set alarm bells ringing for many. The front of the building has attracted quite a bit of graffiti in recent times, including the rather mad ‘I ❤ SCALDY MOTS', which was there for some time and based on a quick glance online attracted more than a few camera shots.

Plans for a massive redevelopment of the site have fallen through. The Independent has reported that:

A €15m plan by investors including AirAsia boss and Queen’s Park Rangers owner Tony Fernandes to demolish the capital’s Ormond Hotel to build a new hotel on the site have been shot down by Dublin City Council.

Mr Fernandes and shareholders in Monteco Holdings had wanted to construct a new five and six-storey property with 170 bedrooms in what would have been one of the latest plays by foreign investors in Dublin’s resurgent hotel sector.

But a number of well-known individuals and organisations voiced concerns over the plans by Mr Fernandes, including Mannix Flynn, Ciaran Cuffe and the James Joyce Centre.

My thanks to Luke Fallon for permission to reproduce his illustration below on the site today:

Credit: Luke Fallon.

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Noel Lemass, Captain of the 3rd Battalion, Dublin Brigade IRA, had a short but eventful life. He fought in the Imperial Hotel during the Easter Rising of 1916 and was wounded while taking dispatches to the GPO. He later played an active role in the War of Independence (1919-1921) and joined the occupation of the Four Courts after taking the anti-Treaty side in the Civil War.

Noel Lemass in uniform. Credit – http://irishvolunteers.org

In July 1923, two months after the Civil War had ended, Noel was kidnapped in broad daylight by Free State soldiers. Three months later, on 13th October, his mutilated body was found on the Featherbed Mountain twenty yards from the Glencree Road, in an area known locally as ‘The Shoots’. It was likely that he was killed elsewhere and dumped at this spot.

There are many amusing anecdotes of his military career in the Witness Statements. One of my favourites is from Andrew McDonnell (BMH WS 1768) who was an officer with the Irish Volunteers and then the IRA in Dublin from 1915 to 1924. He said Noel Lemass had the:

the distinction of being the only man in the Dublin Brigade ever to commandeer a tram. Always looking for action, and willing to go anywhere to take part in a scrap, I mentioned to him once about an attack coming off, on the Naval Base, Dun Laoghaire. This was something that appealed to him, and it was arranged that she should be in Dun Laoghaire, about 10.30pm, on a fixed night. He was then attached to the 3rd Battalion. The day arrived, and Noel made frantic efforts to contact me – could we wait for him until 11 p.m. as a dinner dance, or some such, would delay him? 11 p.m. it would be, but not later. We were at the spot, on time. No sign of Noel. A tram came along, very quickly, and off stepped noel, complete in dinner jacket, coat and white scarf …

Lemass revealed to McDonnell that he had:

boarded the tram somewhere about Mount Street, going upstairs. As it got further out, passengers got fewer and fewer, until Noel was along on top, and, to this mind, progress was very slow. Slipping down the stairs, on to the driving platform, he told the driver to keep going, and fast. He did and Noel arrived on time, with the help of the conductor, who happened to be Jack Luby of the Dalkey Section.

One can only imagine the sight of Lemass, alighting of a near empty tram, decked out in dinner jacket and white scarf and ready to join an IRA attack on a British Naval Base in Dun Laoghaire.

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I came across two reviews of pubs in the city from magazine ‘In Dublin’. Both from 1977. This issue (no. 34, Aug 1977) reviewed:

– Mulligans, Poolbeg Street
– Davy Byrne’s, Duke Street
– Kehoe’s, South Anne Street
– Grogan’s, South William Street
– Dohney and Nesbitt, Baggot Street
– Toner’s, Lower Baggot Street

Pub review. In Dublin 1977. (Credit – David Denny2008)

Later in the year, issue (no. 40, Nov 1977) reviewed:

– Bruxelles, Harry Street
– The International Bar, South William Street

Pub review 2. In Dublin 1977. (Credit – David Denny2008)

Nearly forty years later and all those pubs are still there. Most of them probably haven’t changed that much. Except for the price of course.

I also stumbled upon this lovely photo of O’Connell’s on South Richmond Street in Portobello. One of my favourite pubs in the city. At a guess, I’d say it was taken in the 1960s.

J. O’Connells, Sth. Richmond St. (Credit – whiskiesgalore.blogspot.ie)

Also this snap of Doyles, then called The College Inn with The Fleet attached, on College Green opposite Trinity. It’s a great shot with red car flying past and yer man in the sheepskin jacket waiting to cross.

The College Inn (now Doyles) in 1978, College Green. (Credit – dublincitypubliclibraries.com)

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While Ireland’s first reggae band was without doubt Zebra (1979-80), a number of pop and rock bands recorded songs with ska and reggae influences in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. Some were absolutely awful, others mediocre, while a handful were just about listenable. This is an attempt to compile an accurate list of those records.

1969 was the year of the skinhead reggae explosion in England. Desmond Dekker & The Aces’s single ‘Israelites‘ reached the UK No. 1 spot in April. Other significant singles released that year included ‘Monkey Man‘ by Toots & The Maytals and Symarip’s ‘Skinhead Moonstomp‘ which was aimed specifically at the British reggae-loving skinhead audience.

That same year an Irish showband called The Fairways from Edenderry, Co. Offaly, on the go since 1966, released a novelty ska-influenced single “sung in a cod West Indies accent”. Titled ‘Yoko Ono’, after the Japanese artist who married John Lennon that year, the lyrics concern a man’s attempt to to find transport to bring him to a plantation where Yoko is waiting for him. The song opens with:

Mister, can you help me?
Can I get to Skaville?
Anyone going? My way
Anyone leaving? Today

In Dublin in the early 1970s, as revealed by Garry O’Neill in his book Where Were You?, skinheads danced to reggae in clubs called Bartons and Mothers, both on Parnell Street, and Two Ages on Burgh Quay. The scene also opened its own short-lived club, the Boot Inn, in a basement on Middle Abbey Street.

London-based Jamaican reggae band The Cimarons became the first international reggae act to play Ireland, playing their first Irish gig in the Exam Hall in Trinity College in April 1978. This was followed by the Macroom Festival in Cork in June of that year and further dates around the country in 1979. Journalist Kieran Flynn wrote in Magill magazine that:

Reggae has never been a particularly popular form of music in Ireland, but the Macroom audience response suggests that the Cimarons will be back here soon.

Eamonn over at Irishrock.org describes that Belfast-band Dirtywork (pre-Katmandu) released a “reggae version” of the ‘Rose of Tralee’ in 1976. You’ll have to make up your own mind about that.

Early 1979 saw the release of the debut album ‘Infammable Material‘ from Belfast punks Stiff Little Fingers. It included a punky reggae cover of Bob Marley’s ‘Johnny Was‘:

The Bogey Boys, pub-rock band from Dublin/Meath, released their debut album ‘Friday Night’ in October 1979. One song ‘Gunslinger’ was vaguely reggae-influenced.

1979 also saw the release of Ireland’s first real single. ‘Repression’ by Zebra which was brought out by Terri Hooley’s Belfast-based ‘Good Vibrations‘ label.

Con O’Leary ran the reggae Operator Sound System from 1979-83, playing venues like the TV Club and McGonagles. If you have anymore information, please get in touch.

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