Come Here To Me!

If any of you attended the History Ireland Hedge School on the Animal Gangs at the National Library recently, you’ll remember that as well as the 1930s the following decade was discussed at some length, and particularly youth violence and criminality in early 1940s Dublin. The so caled ‘battles’ of Baldoyle and Tolka Park would of course feature in such a discussion.

In his biography of Garda James C. Branigan, or Lugs as he is known to generations of Dubliners, Bernard Neary would note that the 1940s saw the Gardaí and indeed the state adopt a much tougher approach to Dublin gangs. Two particular outbreaks of violence at Baldoyle and Tolka Park saw a very serious crackdown from the state against ‘gang culture’ in the city at the time, with the first showdown at Baldoyle in May of 1940 displacing the second World War from the top of the national media and whipping up hysteria in the capital that the ‘Animal Gangs’ were still alive and well.

That battle is a story for another study and another day, and in this post I intend to look at a particular day of violence in early 1940s Dublin, when Dublin’s youth gang culture would raise its head at Drumcondra Soccer Grounds during a match, grabbing the attention of the national media and indeed state forces. It was an event which would see the national media reporting on March 26th of nine youths being charged with attempted murder.

‘Dublin Football Venue Onslaught!’ read the headlines of The Irish Times on March 24th, reporting on bizarre scenes of violence in the capital. Two days previous, during a clash between Mountain View and St.Stephen’s United in the Junior Combination Cup, blood had been spilled on the terraces of a Dublin football ground.

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Thanks to Gregory Dunn for leaving a link to this video in a comment on the site, which has brought an awful lot of nostalgic feelings back. Murphy’s shop in Palmerstown Village is a local institution, it’s old-fashioned shopfront in stark contrast to the Londis next-door and indeed all other shops on the village street. Anyone who grew up or attended school in the area will know it for the pickamix options in shop, old-fashioned sweets you’d only heard of before and the kind of goods unavailable next door in Londis. Many one pound coins were loaned to friends and never spotted again. This is a great bit of local history, as is the shop itself.

There has been a real resurgence in this sort of oral history in recent times. This was a great throwback to the time of schoolbags, obair bhaile and white shirts with black collars. Cheers Gregory!

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I was so taken with this book cover I thought it worth scanning up! It depicts a rather famous character in the history of this city, ears and all. It comes from Bernard Neary’s biography of Dublin’s most famous police-officer, Jim ‘Lugs’ Brannigan. James Brannigan was, as Neary states in his introduction, better known as Jim or Branno and The Bran to colleagues, but is known to generations of Dubliners by one name and one name only: Lugs.

The book’s forward is written by none other than Charles J. Haughey, who remarks that the book ‘chronicles the career of a great Dubliner and a great officer whom the members of the Garda Siochána will always remember with pride and affection.’

A great article from the time of the retirement of Lugs can be found digitalised here:

He is known as ” Lugs” throughout the city because of his ears. They are large and unwieldy. For years he was a heavyweight international boxer and after that an international referee. But hitting people in the ring was only a pastime; his joy for thirty years has been that of leader of what is popularly known as the Riot Squad. They are called” Red Cars” officially and can be called to any part of the city where there is trouble. The red cars actually consist of one car and one van. The van carries two members of the Riot Squad and a few British-trained Alsatians to pacify difficult members of the public. The car carries Lugs and two or three other members of the squad. Every night of the week they tour the city seeking to quell trouble

Lugs will undoubtedly be discussed this coming Thursday at the History Ireland Hedge School on the Animal Gangs, which takes place at the National Library of Ireland. I’m one of the panelists for what promises to be an interesting discussion.

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