In March 1974, the recently opened Spanish Cultural Institute on Northumberland Road was petrol bombed by suspected insurrectionary anarchists. It took three sections of the Dublin Fire Brigade to put out the fire which badly charred the hall door.
The wife of the director of the Institute and her 10-month-old son were in the house at the time of the blast. Both escaped injury.
Passers-by told the gardai that they had seen two men running down the steps and getting into a blue Hillman Minx car parked a short distance from the house, shortly after the attack. The men were aged between 20 and 30, 5 ft. 9 ins., slim, with dark shoulder length hair and dark suits.
Soon after the attack, a man with an Irish accent telephoned The Sunday Press and said: “I am speaking for the First of May group. We have exploded a bomb at the Spanish Cultural Institute. It is in retaliation for the murder today in Spain of the Spanish anarchist”. The anarchist in question was Salvador Puig Antich (26), a student, who was executed in Barcelona for killing a policeman in September 1973. Also executed that day was Polish citizen Heinz Ces, for shooting a Guardia civil police officer, in Tarragona.
The Irish Independent. March 04, 1974.
On March 8 1974, a letter was published in The Irish Times deploring the attack and was signed by more than sixty U.C.D. students and teachers. It stated that “the Institute … is exclusively concerned with cultural activities, and thousands of people have already availed themselves of its services, and know that these are offered without any political strings.” “We hold no brief whatever for the Franco regime, political representation or any form of capital punishment” it added and we “deplore the execution of Spanish anarchists as much as any petrol-bomber thinks the does.”
In July 1974, a twenty-four old clerk called Robert C. (Surname withhold for privacy), with an address on the South Circular Road, was sentenced to jail for seven years after admitting making a letter-bomb and leaving it outside the Iberian Airlines office on Grafton Street. He was also charged with armed robbery, possessing firearms, ammunition and explosive substances. Three other individuals in their early 20s were also sentenced. The first for ‘conspiring with others to cause explosions’ and the other two for holding money that they knew had been stolen. [1]
(In January 1972, Robert C. was one of nine people up in court in connection with squatting Frascati House in Blackrock. The charges included ‘making or having explosives’ and assualting a Garda by the name of John Munnely. Frascati House was threatened with demolition and it would appear that these nine individuals who squatted were involved with the Dun Laoghaire Housing Action Group [2] )
Among other items found in the possession of Robert C. during searches of his house in July 1974 was a notebook containing information on the Spanish Embassy in Dublin, the registration number of the Ambassador’s car and the names of the Director of Spanish Cultural Institute as well as those of his wife and son. [3] One could come to the conclusion that Robert C. may have been involved in the attack on the Spanish Cultural Centre a few months before.
A Dublin Housing Action Committee protest in late 1960s(?) Dublin. Is Robert in the background? Who knows. (Taken from an article 'What motivated Noel Murray', I.T. 10/12/76)
On February 23 1975, Robert C. joined a hungerstike with nine other prisoners, in the Curragh Camp, in protest against visiting conditions, the standard of food and other grievances. [4] By March 3, Robert was one of only four prisoners still on hungerstrike. The Prisoners’ Rights Organisation picketed the Department of Justice and the Curragh Detention Centre in protest against the “deplorable conditions” which forced the non-political prisoners to start the strike. [5] On March 5, the hungerstrike came to an end. No details were available as to the condition of the prisoners or as to the reason why the strike was called off. [6]
The trail ends there. What became of Robert C.? Your guess is as good as mine. He would of turned 60 this year. I’m no fan of bombs, letter or otherwise, but I wish Robert all the best and hope he’s alive and well. Do you know what happened to him? Get in touch. Or if you know him, send him a link to this article. It be great to hear from him.
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[1] The Irish Times, July 11, 1974, p. 15
[2] The Irish Independent, January 22, 1972, p. 9
[3] The Irish Times, December 10, 1976, p. 14
[4] The Irish Times, February 24, 1975, p. 1
[5] The Irish Times, March 3, 1975, p. 8
[5] The Irish Times, March 5, 1975, p. 16
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