Come Here To Me!

Mike Quill is one of the most celebrate trade unionists in American history, remembered for the actions of his militant New York union of underground workers. The title of L.L Whittemore’s biography is quite fitting, describing him as “the man who ran the Subways”. His offer to finance the removal of Admiral Nelson from the Pillar in O’Connell Street is a great story, which we detail below.

Mike Quill shaking the hand of Martin Luther King at a Transport Workers conference. (Transport Workers Archive)

Mike Quill is a truly fascinating figure in both republican and trade union history. Born in County Kerry in 1905, he was active with the Irish Republican Army during the War of Independence, and his name appears in Kerry’s Fighting Story, documenting the war there. Quill’s family were deeply republican, and his role in the war was that of a dispatch rider. He was active with the Kerry no.2 Brigade.

Mike Quill took an active role in the Civil War, opposing the Anglo-Irish Treaty and participating in the capture of Kenmare by republican forces. In a 2002 address at a Siptu conference in Kerry, labour historian Manus O’Riordain noted that ‘during those years Mike Quill also had his first experience of industrial struggle when he and his brother John were fired for staging a sit-in strike in a Kenmare saw-mill.’

Like many men who had fought in the Civil War, Quill was to settle in the United States, arriving in 1926. Quill found himself employed with the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT), having first worked a variety of jobs. The IRT were the private operator of the New York underground of the day, and Quill was among the men to bring the Transport Workers Union of America into existence in April 1934. Quill would go on to become one of the most influential and capable union leaders of his time, organising men who worked on the New York underground.

Many of the workers around the new union were Irish migrants, and indeed many, like Quill, had been veterans of the revolutionary period. As historian Brian Hanley has noted:

It was a combination of former IRA veterans, among them Quill and Gerald O’Reilly, members of the Clan na Gael, activists in the Communist Irish Workers Clubs and the American Communist Party itself which proved crucial to the foundation of the TWU.

‘Red Mike Quill’ would become one of the leading trade unionists of his time, and it should be said that Quill was a passionate supporter of the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s. Dr. Martin Luther King was the keynote speaker at the 1961 convention of the TWU, and in a 1956 letter to King from the leaders of the TWU it was noted that:

Once again we want to take this opportunity to congratulate you for the mature and courageous leadership you have given not only to the people of Alabama but all Americans in the fight to wipe out the scourge of segregation from our national life.

Quill’s union, in 1964, extended a rather unusual offer to the people of Dublin when he offered to finance the removal of Admiral Nelson from O’Connell Street.

Dubliners pass the remains of Nelsons Pillar following the explosion in March 1966. (NLI)

In January 1964, Quill made the offer on behalf of the Transport Union “cheerfully to finance the removal of Lord Nelson”. He made the offer in a letter to the Taoiseach, and it was responded to publicly by Sean Moore, then Lord Mayor of Dublin. The Irish Times reported the Lord Mayor as stating that the Corporation had no power to remove Nelson, as the monument was under the guardianship of trustees.

The Irish Times noted that Quill said his union would pay for the removal of Nelson from his pedestal and his transportation to Buckingham Palace, where he said Nelson was “respected and loved for his many and victorious gallant battles on behalf of the British Crown.” Quill wrote that he believed the statue gave the impression to visitors, owing to its sheer scale, that to the Irish it meant what the Statue of Liberty meant to Americans. Quill suggested a statue of Patrick Pearse, James Connolly or Jim Larkin be placed on top of the pillar instead of Nelson. As a compromise, “since there are two governments in Ireland today”, Quill suggested President John F. Kennedy as a statue to place in the centre of O’Connell Street. Kennedy had been assassinated only months prior in November 1963, and discussions were under way regarding a potential monument for Kennedy in Ireland.

Quill noted that his union were willing to finance the removal of Admiral Nelson “in a dignified manner and without hatred or rancour on the part of anybody.”

The Lord Mayor of Dublin “thanked Quill for his offer” the newspaper noted. Surely the offer of the radical New York subway workers union to remove Nelson from his vantage point is one of the most unusual chapters in the story of Nelson’s Pillar? Just over two years on from the offer, the monument was of course targeted by militant republicans.

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Two interesting pages here, showing British coverage of the rebellion in Dublin. Notice that James Connolly is listed as “leader of the Sinn Féiners”. The pages come from my own family collection, and are an interesting insight into the way the rebellion was reported. I’d welcome information on the publication.

Backed by a modicum of German gold (and German promises) several hundred Sinn Féiners attempted to seize the city by armed force, wreaking great damage to private property, and killing a number of citizens, including women and children. The rebellion was captained by James Connolly, and supported by one or two personalities of a revolutionary temperament.

The second pages notes that these amazing scenes of damage are “not somewhere in France or Flanders” but rather Dublin. The image of a looted florists on Grafton Street is one I haven’t seen before.

‘The First and Last of the Dublin Revolt’. Notice Connolly identified as ‘Leader of the Sinn Féiners’. (Fallon collection)

Damage to the city of Dublin following the rising. (Fallon collection)

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A fantastic, well-researched 24 page document by artist Sean Lynch in which he focusing on a selection of Dublin monuments that have been “used and abused” down the years. Those featured are The Crampton Memorial, The Bowl of Light, Nelson’s Pillar, James Joyce’s Tower, Sean’s Spiral, Anna Livia  and  the Millennium Countdown Clock. All of whom have been removed for a variety of reasons.

It can be downloaded here.

Lynch wrote the piece in the run up to the unveiling of his Me Jewel & Darlin’ public artwork display on O’Connell Street which ran from January 2011 to April 2012.

A feature from the document

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Saint Werburgh’s Church.

I was recently lucky enough to get inside Saint Werburgh’s Church, which sits on Werburgh Street near to Dublin Castle. It’s a tragedy that the church where Jonathan Swift was baptised and Edward Fitzgerald’s remains are found has fallen into a sad state in places. In a 2009 article in The Irish Times, the Very Rev. Derek Dunne noted that the once glorious church had “…been neglected for decades” and that “Saint Werburgh’s is not ours, it is in the ownership of Dublin. The work needs to be done, it is almost too late.”

In 1715, Commissioners were appointed for the rebuilding of the church, and none other than Surveyor-General Thomas de Burgh was to be the architect to oversee construction of the new church. Thomas de Burgh is an architect of great importance in the capitals history, responsible for example for the Custom House of 1707, along with the library of Trinity College Dublin and Dr. Steevens’ Hospital.

The church contains many items of historical interest, ranging from the bell associated with United Irishman Napper Tandy, which came from Saint John’s Church where he had been a churchwarden, to the fantastic pulpit which was once at home next door in Dublin Castle.

I began looking at the plaques around the church. Normally, Church of Ireland churches in Dublin tend to produce interesting plaques I find, and what I was seeking primarily were monuments to the involvement of men in the parish in the First World War. What I stumbled across however was a very unusual plaque from the 1830s with a fascinating story that connects the church to a young boy shipwrecked upon a Spanish slave ship off the coast of Jamaica.

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These images form just a tiny part of the remarkable collection of 148 images contained in the Dublin City Public Library collection which you can view in full here. 26 Dubliners lost their lives in a series of car bombings carried out across the city.

The photographs are a unique source that gives a vivid picture not just of the devastation caused by the attacks, but of the horror felt by Dubliners after the bombings and the dread that further bombings would take place. The bombings occurred against the background of deep civil unrest in Northern Ireland and at the time there were intense fears in the South that they heralded a spread of paramilitary activity to the Irish Republic.

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An image of The Irish House pub I scanned from John Harvey’s Dublin, 1949

O’Meara’s public house, The Irish House, was a beautiful pub which sat on the corner of Winetavern Street and Wood Quay until demolished to make way for the Civic Offices. The fantastic public house which dated back to 1870 became a forgotten victim of ‘The Bunkers’ constructed at Wood Quay. The magnificent exterior stucco work upon the pub displayed historic scenes and nationalist leaders from Irish history, with Henry Grattan and Daniel O’Connell featuring. Sean Lynch has noted in his history of the building that Lord Moyne of the Guinness Brewery “financed a project to salvage the exterior of the Irish House. In July 1968 scaffolding went up and all embellishments were removed and transported to a warehouse at the Guinness Hopstore.”

Today, some of the figures from the front of the building are on display in the Dublin Civic Trust on Castle Street. I photographed them on a recent visit, enjoy.

Daniel O’Connell, notice the word ‘Repeal’ on the document he clutches.

Henry Grattan

The figure of Erin

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A very enjoyable Storymap on the Easter Rising, from John Gibney. John is the author of an upcoming biography on Sean Heuston as part of the 16 Lives series, and as a walking tour guide I suppose there’s a decent chance you’ve passed him on the street at work.

Sean McLoughlin is a fascinating and often overlooked character of the period. As well as discussing his role in the evacuation of the GPO, Gibney tell’s the story of the British officer who may well have saved young McLoughlin’s life. He also talks of how McLoughlin went on to become a communist activist. McLouglin’s politics feature in an interesting brief article here on the role of communists in the Irish Civil War.

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The Ouzel Galley plaque is one I pass several times a week, but never investigated. It tells the story of a famous Dublin merchant ship that it was said set sail from Ringsend in 1695, on route to the port of Smyrna in the Ottoman Empire. She was to return the following year, having engaged on a trade mission on behalf of the Dublin company Ferris, Twigg & Cash. Eoghan Massey of Waterford captained the ship.

When three years had passed in 1698, and there had been no word of the ships faith, a panel of Dublin merchants settled the question of instance, by ruling that the ship had been lost with her crew of 40 on board, and that compensation should be paid out to the owners and insurers of the ship.

The story goes that in 1700, to the amazement of Dubliners, the ship returned up the River Liffey. Massey claimed that his men had spent five years in captivity at the hands of Algerian corsairs, who had used the ship to engage in acts of piracy. Rumours and allegations spread, and it was claimed Massey and his men themselves had engaged in such acts. The ship was loaded down with an impressive booty upon its return, which naturally raised questions in light of the fact insurance had been paid out two years prior.

John Moran wrote a fantastic account of the ships return in The Irish Times in 2005, noting that

…. five years after she sailed away, a battered and torn Ouzel listed up the River Liffey, and was greeted by first a sense of disbelief, then to scenes of wild dockside jubilation. Exhausted oarsmen rolled to the strains of an old sea shanty as they heaved her toward the howling crowd on the quay.

The ownership of the ship’s cargo became a huge matter of debate and controversy. The same panel of merchants which had settled the debate in 1698 on the ships fate met once more, and his time decided that all monies remaining following the proper compensation of the owners and insurers should go towards a fund for the alleviation of poverty among Dublin’s “decayed merchants”.

Out of this case, emerged ‘The Ouzel Galley Society’, a society founded for the purpose of determining commercial differences by arbitration. The 1818 History of the City of Dublin, its Present Extent, Public Buildings, Schools, Institutions, etc details the foundation of this society, and notes that “its members consist of a captain, lieutenants and crew who always have been, as they are now, the most respectable merchants in Dublin.” The society would meet two or three times annually it was noted, and the costs decreed against the parties “who submit to their arbitration are always appropriated to charitable purposes.” Arthur Guinness was among the individuals to serve time with the society.

Interestingly, historian Lisa Marie Griffith noted in a recent article for History Ireland on the subject, that:

While there is no doubt that an arbitration body called the Ouzel Galley Society was established in the early eighteenth century, the veracity of its origin-myth is a different story. I could find no eighteenth-century records referring to the incident of the pirates.

She goes on to note that the first reference to the involvement of pirates in the affair comes from a nineteenth-century novel, The Missing Ship, by William Kingston. This novel was first published in 1887 under the prior mentioned title, and then later in the same year as The Ouzel Galley. The novel, she notes, “certainly added layers to the story of the foundation of the Ouzel Galley Society.”

The Dublin Chamber of Commerce, founded in 1783, largely subsumed the Society, and the stone plaque on College Green today marks the spot where the Chamber of Commerce met historically, at Commercial Buildings. The Ouzel Galley Society was wound up in 1888, though in the year of Dublin’s millenium in 1988 it was reestablished, primarily as a charitable institution.

My favorite part of the popular story is that when the men of the Ouzel Galley, presumed dead, returned to Dublin they were met by remarried wives and brand new children. Children born illegitimately in Ringsend were supposedly jokingly refereed to as ‘Ouzellers’ in the aftermath of the incident!

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