Come Here To Me!

[Note: Special thanks to Manus and Luke O’Riordan for their photographs, knowledge and continuing friendship]

Edit: Max Levitas died on 2 November 2018. RIP comrade.

Max Levitas celebrated his 100th birthday in 2015 surrounded by family and friends in Whitechapel, East London. At the end of the festivities, he called for the crowd to offer up a collection for the Morning Star newspaper. This minor incident symbolises Max’s absolute generosity and unbroken commitment to progressive, left-wing politics going back over 80 years.

Max, 2011. Photo -Spitalfieldslife.com.

Born in Portobello, Dublin 8 over a century ago, Max visited Ireland in 2015 for the last time. This article looks at his family background, his long political life and brings together pictures and stories from his recent trip to Dublin.

Family background:

Max’s parents, Harry Levitas from the Lithuanian shtetl of Akmeyan and Leah Rick from the Latvian capital of Riga, fled the anti-Semitism of Tsarist Russia in 1913 to join relatives already residing in Dublin.

The couple met in Dublin and married in the synagogue at 52 Lower Camden Street. Three of their Dublin-born children would later participate in the 1936 East End Battle of Cable Street: Max (1915-2018), Maurice (1917-2001) and Sol (1919-2015). Also born in Dublin were the late Celia and Isaac, the infant boy dying as a result of a tragic domestic accident in their Warren Street home. A sixth child, Toby, was born following the emigration of the family to Glasgow.

Max and his brothers attended St Peter’s Church of Ireland National School on New Bride Street beside the Meath Hospital. His father struggled to earn a living, sometimes dealing in scrap metal, but more often as a tailor’s presser.  He became an active member of the International Tailors’, Pressers’ and Machinists’ Trade Union, known to Dubliners as ‘the Jewish Union’.

The Levitas family lived in a series of houses in Portobello (known then as Little Jerusalem) from 1915 to 1927. They were as follows : 15 Longwood Avenue (1915), 8 Warren Street (1916-25) and 13 St. Kevins Parade (1925-27).

In an 2011 interview with Spitalfieldslife.com, Max told the author:

My father was a tailor and a trade unionist. He formed an Irish/Jewish trade union and then employers blacklisted him, making sure he could never get a job. The only option was to leave Dublin and we lived in Glasgow from 1927 until 1930, but my father had two sisters in London, so we came here to Durward Street in Whitechapel in 1931 and stayed ever since.

Arriving in London in the early 1930s, the teenage Max and brother Maurice soon became active in left-wing politics. In 1934, at the age of 19, Max was appointed secretary of the Mile End Young Communist League. That same year he “became an East End hero” when he was arrested for writing anti-Fascist slogans on Nelson’s Column in Trafalgar Square.

Talking to Spitalfieldslife.com, he recalled :

There were two of us, we did it at midnight and we wrote ‘All out on September 9th to fight Fascism,’ ‘Down with Fascism’ and ‘Fight Fascism,’ on Nelson’s Column in whitewash. And afterwards we went to Lyons Corner House to have something to eat and wash our hands, but when we had finished our tea we decided to go back to see how good it looked, and we got arrested – the police saw the paint on our shoes.

1934 report after his arrest. Newspaper unknown. Credit – Spitalfieldslife.com

He was name checked by Oswald Mosley around this time who sarcastically told a fascist audience :

Ragotski, Schaffer, Max Levitas, Fenebloom, Hyam Aarons, Sapasnick. Old English names : Thirty-two of them out of sixty-four convicted since last June for attacks on Fascists. Thirty- two names of that character. Spontaneous rising of the British people against fascism! [Ref.]

Two years later, he took part in the famous Battle of Cable Street when hundreds of thousands of anti-Fascists (including many Jews and Irish) prevented Mosley and his Blackshirts from marching through the East End.

Max remembers:

I was working as a tailor’s presser in a small workshop in Commercial St at the time. Mosley wanted to march through Whitechapel … and I knew the only way to stop him was to have unity of the people. I approached a number of unions, Jewish organisations and the Communist League to band together against the Fascists but although they agreed what I was doing was right, they wouldn’t support me.

But I give credit to the huge number of members of the Jewish and Irish communities and others who turned out that day … There were thousands that came together in Aldgate, and when we heard that Mosley’s intention was to march along Cable St from Tower Hill into Whitechapel, large numbers of people went to Cable St and barricades were set up. The police attempted to clear Cable St with horses, so that the march could go ahead, but the people of Cable St fought back and the police had to give in.

Barricades on Cable Street, 1936. “They Shall Not Pass! Remember Olympia!. Credit – libcom.org.

[In 1937, Max’s brother Maurice ‘Morry’ Levitas  joined the British battalion of the XV (International) Brigade to fight against Franco in Spain. He saw action at Teruel, Belchite and Aragon, was captured and spent 11 months in jail where he was subject to violent interrogations, arbitrary beatings, and mock executions. He was among sixty-seven republicans released in a prisoner exchange sought by Mussolini in 1939. He later served in India and Burma with the Royal Army Medical Corps and then worked as a plumber, teacher and lecturer. He died in 2001.]

In 1939, Max was the convenor of a successful twenty-one week rent strike while living in Brady Mansions in Whitechapel. He explained in a 1999 interview how such strikes “could also demonstrate another aspect of class unity”:

We were fighting the Jewish landlords the same way as we’d fight any landlord that increases rents, doesn’t care if he repairs flats, so forth and so on: these are the enemies of the people and must be fought – if they are a Jew, black or white. And this helped to develop a much more broader understanding and [to unite] the struggle against Mosley and the fascists.

Preventing the growth of fascism in Britain was a political as well as personal undertaking for Max and so many others.

Members of the extended Levitas family, who remained behind in eastern Europe, suffered the fate of many Jews during the Second World War. Max’s paternal aunt, Sara, and all her family were burned to death, along with fellow-villagers, in the synagogue of Akmeyan. Their maternal aunt, Rachel, and most of her family were massacred by the Nazis in Riga. A paternal uncle who thought he had emigrated far enough westwards to Paris was murdered on his own doorstep by a Gestapo officer.

First elected as a Communist Party Councillor for the Borough of Stepney in the East End in 1945, he retained his seat for a further 17 years.

Max on the campaign trail in 1940s/1950s. Credit – http://spitalfieldslife.com

Max continued to be politically active throughout the succeeding decades. He has outlived both his wife Sadie and his son Stephen (who passed away in 2014)

In 2011, he helped deliver leaflets promoting a march to oppose the English Defence League in his local Tower Hamlets area and spoke eloquently to the anti-Fascist crowd on the day.

Earlier this year, the council demanded he pay £25,000 for repairs to the ex-council flat in which he has lived for over five decades. Max, being Max, decided to fight back and Channel 4 news featured the campaign.

Weekend in Dublin:

On Friday 25th September 2015, Max was the guest of the Lord Mayor Críona Ní Dhálaigh (Sinn Féin) & Deputy Mayor Cieran Perry (Independent republican socialist councillor) in the Mansion House.

Max with Mayor Críona Ní Dhálaigh & Deputy Mayor Cieran Perry. Picture – Luke O’Riordan.

On Saturday, he attended the wonderful main concert of the Frank Harte Festival in the Teacher’s Club on Parnell Square where CHTM! friends and favourites Lynched headlined the show.

On Sunday 27 September, Max visited Portobello in Dublin 8 where he was born and spent his early years. The following pictures are a wonderful reminder from that trip.

Max pictured outside 15 Longwood Avenue, Portobello, the house he was born in on June 1, 1915.

Max, 15 Longwood Avenue. Photo – Luke O’Riordan

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[Note : We have previously looked at the history of bona fide pubs, kips and early houses in the city]

There a number of private bars and social clubs in Dublin that cater for different people depending on their profession, nationality or politics.  Here is an incomplete list. Please leave a comment if you have any other suggestions or memories.

The Members Bar in Leinster House is open only to TDs and Senators. It keeps on serving as long as the Dail is sitting, which occasionally could be as late as 4 or 5 in the morning.  The two Dáil bars (members and visitors) save more than €1,000 annually in duty payments because they are exempt from holding a pub licence under ‘parliamentary privilege’.

The RTÉ Sports & Social Club in Donnybrook has a bar and restaurant plus a function room, gym, squash courts and a sauna. As of 2013, the club had around 800 and 900 members, made up of current staff and former employees.

[For journalists of another generation, the Irish Times Club above a bookmakers on Fleet Street opened around midnight and stayed serving until 6.30am. Entry was granted by ringing a bell and hoping for the best.]

The Garda Siochana Boat Club (established 1954) in Islandbridge has a function room with bar. From 1964 to 2014, the Garda Club on Harrington Street in Portobello boasted two ballrooms and a members bar.

Garda Club, Harrington Street. Credit – Irish Times (2014).

According to an Irish Times article from 2014, the club was:

regularly packed on Mondays and Thursdays during the peak years of the 1970s and 1980s.

At that time most of the unmarried members of the force lived in garda stations such as Harcourt Terrace and Pearse Street. The balance of the support for the club came from what was known as “flatland” – inner city flats rented by teachers, civil servants and firemen “up from the country”.

The club has been in decline since the 1990s, partly because a great many of the young gardaí could not afford to buy houses in the city, opting instead to live and socialise in outlying towns such as Mullingar, Drogheda, Dundalk and Naas.

Housed in two beautifully restored Georgian buildings (36 & 37) on Parnell Square, Club na Múinteoirí (The Teachers’ Club) has a lovely old-fashioned bar upstairs and a large function room in the basement.  It was opened by the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation in 1923. The renowned Góilín Traditional Singer’s Club meets there every Friday evening.

Teachers Club bar, 2012. Credit – M Stephen M. (Yelp)

The Millmount House in Drumcondra was once home to the Prison Officers Association of Dublin. Prison Officers from Mountjoy are known to drink in the snug in The Hut in Phibsboro.

On the first floor, block A of the Newman building (Arts Block) in UCD, there is a small private bar called the UCD Common Room Club which is open to UCD staff and their guests.

For those working in Dublin Airport and their families, the Airport Leisure Social Athletic Association (ALSAA) in Toberbunny has a bar, gym and a large sports complex.

There is a bar and lounge on the first floor of the Dublin Postal Sports & Social Club in Tallaght. A balcony offers panoramic views of the Dublin Mountains. Full Membership of the social club is open to An Post and subsidiary company employees.

MacTurcaills on Townsend Street (now closed) , a stone’s throw away from Tara Street Fire Station, was once very popular with firefighters and their families. The Dublin Fire Brigade Sports & Social Club took over the famed Ierne Ballroom on Parnell Street in 1994 and ran a members bar, a snooker room, the main ballroom and a smaller lounge. It closed down some years ago.

The City of Dublin Working Men’s Club on Little Strand Street off Capel Street has been based there since 2003. The club’s previous home for 115 years was on Wellington Quay. In 1891, it boasted of having “300 members generally on its books (and) a large lecture and concert hall, library, and reading-room, as well as a comfortable bar and billiard-room.”.

City of Dublin Working Men’s Club, Wellington Quay (1989). Credit – Pat Liddy (Irish Times).

A brief history of the club:

Article by Pat Liddy, Irish Times, 05 Apr 1989.

This building was sold to Brushfield Ltd (a trading name for the Clarence Hotel, which lists Bono, the Edge and businessman Harry Crosbie as directors) who opened a popular live music venue called The Workman’s Club in 2010.

City of Dublin Working Men’s Club, Little Strand Street from Google Maps.

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Though Magill is no more today, the magazine was hugely important in its day and remains a very useful tool for those researching the Ireland of the past.

Founded by Vincent Browne in 1977, the magazine included frequent contributions from some of Ireland’s most relevant journalists, including Eamonn McCann and Gene Kerrigan. It also included the photography of Derek Spiers, who captured great images of social movements in the Dublin of the 1970s and 80s. The magazine frequently found itself making headlines in other publications. A 1982 edition, exposing criminal activity on the part of the Official IRA, caused serious headaches for Sinn Féin The Workers’ Party (SFWP), while the magazine also interviewed many controversial individuals, including Provisional IRA spokesmen and criminal elements.

Today, the archive of the magazine is online and free to browse, thanks to the people at politico.ie, and it’s something I want to highlight here. From 1977 to 2008, the collection covers very important moments in Irish political and social history, and it should be noted the publication was incredibly diverse; from the League of Ireland to youth subcultures in Dublin, there is much of merit here.

I have decided to pick out a few particular issues I think will interest CHTM readers here:

Magill, April 1983.

Click here for this edition of the magazine.

In April 1983, Magill interviewed the killers of Declan Flynn, an innocent gay man beaten to death in Fairview Park, a well-known cruising spot for the gay community in 1980s Dublin. Flynn was just one of a number of gay men attacked in the park by bigots in the early 1980s. When five men were put on trial for his death in March 1983, Justice Sean Gannon disgracefully told the court that the actions of the men “could never be regarded as murder.” Maggie O’Kane’s interview with some of Flynn’s killers makes for harrowing reading:

They began to beat and kick him. When they had finished Declan Flynn lay on the path choking on his own blood.Tony Maher knew he was dying, he opened his shirt button,his hands were trembling, he felt all panicky. Robert Armstrong went to get the ambulance, the others just stood there and looked. They turned him on his side and then they legged it.

Earlier this year, with the passing of the marriage equality referendum, flowers and ‘Yes Equality’ badges were left at the bench where Declan Flynn sat before he was brutally murdered.

Magill, November 1983.

Click here for this edition of the magazine.

The Dunne family were a scourge on working class Dublin, directly responsible for the importation of large quantities of drugs that would tear communities apart. Mary Raftery’s piece on the family highlighted the manner in which they were personally profiting from the lucrative heroin trade that was reeking havoc on inner-city Dublin in the early 1980s. Raftery’s piece shocked the public, by shining a spotlight on the rise of a criminal empire that the state was slow to confront:

Down through the years every housing estate had its share of criminal families. They were known to be involved in various kinds of crimes, break-ins and shoplifting and the like. The Dunnes were in that tradition, distinguished only by their success and by their progress to bigger crimes. By the 1980s they had become an anachronism – very visible, their connections obvious.Crime had become a more professional pursuit, with specialist individuals coming together for criminal projects.

As public consciousness of professional crime increased and the issue became one of embarrassment for politicians and police alike the Dunnes became an obvious target.This was why, in the early summer of 1982, Charles Haughey and Sean Doherty had a meeting with Patrick McLaughlin and Joseph Ainsworth, the Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner of the Gardaí. Haughey told them bluntly that he wanted something done about the Dunnes,that they were walking the streets freely. He told them he wanted the Dunnes in prison within twelve months.

Magill, March 1984.

Click here for this edition of the magazine.

Like the Dunne family, Ma Baker was responsible for pushing misery onto working class communities. Magill noted that “day by day the heroin bushfire moves Southwest across Dublin, with one community suffering as another chases the pushers out.” Colm Toibin, Mary Raftery and Maggie O’Kane penned a fascinating report on the drugs crisis gripping Crumlin at the time:

Ma Baker and her sons are among the largest pushers in the Crumlin area of Dublin. They have between 150 and 200 regular clients and operate all over Crumlin, but usually not outside it. Five of her distributors are members of her own family. A further six are small boys.The boys are all local and she does not use kids who take heroin. She also changes them regularly. Her nephew, who is currently charged with possession of heroin with intent to supply, also distributes for her.

One of her sons is serving an eighteen months sentence in Mountjoy. Two of her other sons are facing drug-related charges.Baker is not her real name, but she is widely known by other pushers and by addicts as Ma Baker, a corruption of Ma Barker, the name of the machine gun-wielding head of an infamous criminal family in the US in the Thirties.

Magill, 1986.

Click here to read this edition.

In 1986, Magill turned its focus to some of the reactionary Catholic forces who were preparing to do battle in the divorce referendum. Emily O’Reilly and Gene Kerrigan combined to produce an eye-opening report on the shadowy bodies preparing to fight any attempt to introduce divorce into Irish society:

The campaign against divorce will be run by a group of Catholic professionals, shadowy but well-organised, linked in varying degrees to Opus Dei and the Knights of Columbanus. Seasoned by their victory in the Pro-Life Amendment Campaign, they have no difficulty in raising finance and no shortage of powerful connections. Even the bulk of Family Solidarity members are unaware of their existence.

Magill, April 1982.

Click here for this edition of the magazine.

In April 1982, a Magill article entitled ‘In the Shadow of a Gunman’ raised awkward questions around the Official IRA, noting that “SFWP aspirations towards socialist respectability are undermined by the continued military operations of the Official IRA.” The magazine listed a number of murders and criminal activities which it claimed the OIRA were directly responsible for, and the magazine would also examine “the trade union and media infiltration by SFWP.”

Credit: Luke Fallon.

Thanks to Luke Fallon for this image, showing that Fleet Street has somehow made the leap from Dublin 2 to Dublin 8. Street names and their origins is something that has long interested us on the blog, see for example this piece on names that survived the chop after 1922, including Nassau Street and Waterloo Road.

We wonder how long the sign has been up!

It’s been a while since a post highlighting upcoming events in the city (beyond our own nights!), but there’s a few great events ahead that I want to highlight here. Firstly, our nearest and dearest at Rabble are bringing their own unique brand of culture (!) to Friday night by taking over Jigsaw at Belvedere Place. If the name doesn’t ring a bell – it was formerly Seomra Spraoi. It’s been a busy year for all at Rabble so far, and there’s plenty more to come from them. The name of the night is a fine tribute to Denis O’Brien, if we’re allowed highlight that. Simon Conway and Giles Armstrong are on the decks. It’s BYOB, which beats paying €6.50 for a pint in some awful nightclub in town any day of the week.

Rabble Ruckus.

Bargaintown is the story of Dublin’s inner-city before the Celtic Tiger, shot in the inner-city of 1988 by David Jazay. David has described the city in the film as “derelict but hauntingly beautiful, and chock full of amazing characters.” The 2015 restoration of this footage was supported by the Irish Film Institute and Goethe-Institut Dublin, and it will be screened on Sunday 27th September in the IFI. More information here.

Bargaintown. See -http://www.thejournal.ie/dublin-before-the-celtic-tiger-2305950-Sep2015/

On 1 October, I’m taking part in a History Ireland Hedge School at Dalymount Park entitled ‘Dublin in 1890 – When Bohs were born’. The event page is here. This year is of course the 125th anniversary of Bohemian F.C, and while my scarf may be red and white this discussion is all about the context of the Dublin Bohs were born into, and will no doubt touch on the history of The Beautiful Game in Dublin. Chaired by Tommy Graham, the editor of History Ireland, Dr Mary McAuliffe (UCD), Dr David Dickson (TCD, Author of Dublin – the Making of a Capital City) and Ciaran Priestley (a historian who has written some fascinating articles on Bohs) are also on the panel. Dickson’s masterpiece work on Dublin doesn’t need another rave review – so I’ll just say it’s a great feeling to share a panel!

Skipper’s Alley are a fantastic seven piece trad ensemble that are gaining quite the following in recent times, and deservedly so.They are taking to the stage of The Sugar Club (our favourite venue dare we say!) on October 4th., with more information here. If you made it to our last Dublin Songs & Stories night, you would have heard John Flynn from the band, who delivered a great little set. There is something wonderful happening in the traditional and folk music scenes of Dublin of late, and Skipper’s Alley are joined on the night by Ye Vagabonds. Having seen them recently in both The Cobblestone and at Electric Picnic, I’m eager to hear more from them too. This should be a great night.

Skipper’s Alley in a chipper. Why not.

This night from State.ie and Hope Promotions is an absolutely incredible line up on October 4th, bringing together the best of all worlds, from hip hop to punk rock, for one great night in The Grand Social. I am a big fan of the band Fierce Mild and got along to their EP launch in this same venue a few months back before the referendum (check out Equal People). Young Hearts Run Free, Nialler9 and more besides will be DJing on the night too.

What can be said about Hope Promotions? Bringing Jawbreaker, Green Day and other bands to Dublin in the early 1990s, Hope is a huge part of the history of the punk scene in this city. As you can see, this is a fundraiser for a very good cause. Just how we like them. Be sure to support this one.

Last weekend was a busy one for sports desks around the country with an All- Ireland football semi final, the All-Ireland hurling final, Ireland versus England in the eggball and one that might have gone under the radar in some quarters, the third and (until the draw for the Leinster Senior Cup was made) last Bohemian FC versus Shamrock Rovers derby of the season. The weekend also marked the 125th Anniversary of the foundation of Bohs and fan group ‘The Notorious Boo Boys’ started proceedings off on the Friday night in style.

Refugees Welcome/ Our Bohemian City. Credit: Paul Reynolds

Around thirty members of the group made their way to the Ha’penny Bridge at 1:25 AM on Saturday morning to mark the occasion, unveiling a banner first saying “Refugees Welcome” and a second saying “Our Bohemian City,” no doubt a nod to the game the following day. The banner drop didn’t go unnoticed on the night, with one Twitter user posting “Just witnessed a bunch of football hooligans stage a protest for refugees on the Ha’Penny Bridge. Bizaare but lovely.” I’m not sure the NBB would describe themselves as ‘football hooligans’ but the sentiment was there! The above image was also shared hundreds of times across social media platforms, with Panti Bliss herself getting in on the act.

125 Not Out. Credit: Extratime.ie

The game the next day was always going to have something relating to the historic weekend, and the NBB started each half with a display. As the players came out for the first half, a crowd cover showing the ever aggravating Hooperman having his head knocked off by Dennis the Menace with a cricket bat was unveiled with a message saying “125 not out.” The second half saw a return of the “Our Bohemian City” message banner, with some accompanying “atmosphere enhancers…”

Our Bohemian City. Credit: Extratime.ie

Credit: Paul Reynolds

Credit: Paul Reynolds

Credit: Paul Reynolds

Venezuelan Bohs (!!) Credit ©INPHO/Colm O’Neill

The game itself could have gone either way, with the crowd suffering a bit due to the kick off time (15:00 on a Saturday afternoon) and the clash of so many other sporting events, as well as the Electric Picnic being on. Despite that, both sides played host to visiting from as far away as Venezuela; the Copa90 video covering the last derby inspired a group of Toulouse fans to come to the game with their own Bohs banner! A goal apiece was probably a fair result, with one of the moments of the day coming after the game from Bohs midfielder Keith Buckley who, when picking up his bike from where he had locked it, encountered a Luas rammed full of Bohs fans who serenaded him with his own chant. He responded by posting the selfie below on Twitter, with the caption “Gettin’ me bike at the luas and see these nuts singing my name ! selfie of the year that’s why I love this club.”

Keith Keith Buckley, he will tackle you… Credit: Keith Buckley.

The weekend finished off on the Sunday with a Family Day in Dalymount Park, with a Bohemians Legends team taking on an Irish Legends team. Plenty of old faces were to be seen on and off the pitch, with Glen Crowe proving to be Bohs hero once more, slotting the ball home to make it one nil. The anniversary programme isn’t over yet, with two more events to come.

On Thursday 1 October, a History Ireland Hedge School will take place at Dalymount Park with the title, Dublin in 1890 – when Bohemians were born.This will be a panel discussion with historians on the social, cultural and political conditions of Dublin in 1890 when a group of students met to found Bohemian Football Club and will feature, amongst others, our very own Donal Fallon. Tickets available here for a paltry €5. Two days later, on Saturday 3 October, Bohemians will lead a Tour of Bohemian Graves at Glasnevin Cemetery. This will leave at 11 am from the Finglas Road entrance of the cemetery and end at the Prospect Square entrance. Tickets available here for €4.

Haughey on the campaign trail (Magill)

Charles J. Haughey could be all things to all people. When he emerged on stage during The Late Late Show special celebrating The Dubliners, he told Gay Byrne that what appealed to him most about the band was that they came from his part of the world, the northside of Dublin. Yet Charlie had been born in Castlebar, the son of two veterans of the revolutionary period from Derry, one of whom later joined the Free State army. Beyond any connection to the northside of Dublin though, another thing arguably linked Charlie and the band he was celebrating on Gay Byrne’s platform that night – they could both sell a record or two.

Charlie’s Song, released in 1981, is today better known as ‘Arise and Follow Charlie’. It’s a record not many people would boast of owning in a collection today perhaps, but there are certainly thousands of copies of it in houses up and down the country, and it’s an interesting relic of twentieth century Irish cultural history. Recorded by The Morrisseys, it was the soundtrack to the 1981 General Election campaign. Writing in the Kilkenny People in June 1981, a reporter stated that:

Touring with Charlie is not only exhausting – it can be hazardous, with all those high-powered cars burning up country roads as entourage and security men dash at breakneck speed from one town or village to the next. It is not for one with a musical ear either. After a couple of dozen pays, Charlie’s Song loses whatever appeal it may have had initially – except perhaps for the tone deaf.

The cover for Charlie’s Song (https://rockroots.wordpress.com/2012/12/19/charliessong/morrisseys-charlies-song-cover-a/)

The excellent rockroots blog, which aims to build an archive of often overlooked Irish singles, notes that Charlie’s Song was the brainchild of Donie Cassidy, founder of CMR records, who had a strong background in the showband scene. Cassidy wrote the song with Dublin folk singer Pete St. John, and as rockroots note the lyrics of the song “apparently did nothing to embarrass Haughey, who appointed Cassidy a campaign manager for this and four successive general elections.” Interviewed about the song at the time, Donie Cassidy said “it’s got all the ingredients of a hit. Strong lyrics, a catchy air, the best group around and, of course, it’s based on the most popular man in the country.” The “strong lyrics” Donie spoke of included:

Young and old we all approve
He’s kept the Country on the move
He’ll help the Nation to improve
So Rise and Follow Charlie

With Charlie’s song we’ll sing as one
With Charlie’s song we’ll sing along
With Charlie’s song we’ll march along
We’ll Rise and Follow Charlie

In his biography of Haughey, Ryle Dwyer notes that during the election campaign “Haughey ran a high-profile, presidential-style campaign”, and that the song was an important dimension of this. Haughey traveled by helicopter, and Gene Kerrigan in Magill wrote that it was the unpredictable nature of the man that made him exciting for journalists to follow on the campaign trail – “You don’t know when he might lash out and clock someone or suddenly take a flying leap and start biting the furniture.”

Haughey on the campaign trail (Magill magazine)

The 1981 election was bitter, and not only between the two leading parties. Haughey encountered protest from supporters of H-Block prisoners, some of whom were standing for election to the Dáil. Bobby Sands, the first hungerstriker to die during the 1981 hungerstrikes, had succeeded in obtaining a Westminster seat, and campaigners hoped to do the same in the Irish parliament. As Dwyer notes, in Leterkenny the Taoiseach “suffered the indignity of being hit on the head with an egg, and when he tried to leave the town his car was blocked by protestors who kicked and pounded on it while the Gardaí strove to clear the way for him.” In Dun Laoghaire, there was an attempt to dump a can of paint on him. Gene Kerrigan wrote at the time of the frequent protests Haughey encountered from such activists, but also the routine developed while seeking votes:

The formula was always the same -shake hands, how are you, shake hands,kiss a woman, how are you. A tall dark-haired young man carrying a Polaroid camera followed Charlie everywhere. Again and again he took pictures of Charlie shaking hands with or kissing a punter – There’s a nice picture of you with the Taoiseach.And on election day you can go out and vote for the man whose picture is on your mantlepiece.

In The Irish Times, Olivia O’Leary reported of an old woman watching Haughey work a crowd and asking “my God, are they all gone mad? What is he but God’s creature like the rest of us, except he has a salary.” The refusal of RTE to play Charlie’s Song, for fear of bias, was attacked publicly by a number of figures in the Fianna Fáil party, including a young Bertie Ahern. A performance of the song on The Late Late Show was cancelled, leading to further complaints in the national press.

A young Bertie Ahern, “chairman of the Fianna Fáil Youth Committee” complains of RTE’s refusal to play the song.

Recorded by Tipperary folk group The Morrisseys, it was not alone a commercial success, but one that opened many doors, as Donie Cassidy of CMR Records was destined to become a Senator in Leinster House in 1982. Ultimately however, the song couldn’t see Charie over the line – the election resulted in a Fine Gael-Labour minority government, and the loss of six FF seats. The Anti H-Block candidates succeeded in winning two seats, and over 29,500 first preference votes.

Haughey, of course, would return to power in 1982, though not for long. He would regain the position in March 1987, holdng it until 1992. His political career has been tarnished by corruption, which is a story for another day, though perhaps best summed up by one letter writer to The Irish Times in 2006 who wrote that “It is customary not to speak ill of the dead. In the case of Charles Haughey there is no need. The unvarnished truth is sufficient to tarnish his reputation forever.”

Last week, I posted an image on our Facebook page (give us a like, go on) of a road sign in Temple Bar that had been modified via some well-placed stickers to become a tribute to The Clash album cover London Calling. Almost 300 people liked the image, and my thanks to those of you who pointed out there and on twitter that it was the work of Clet Abraham.

Temple Bar.

A painter and sculptor by trade, Clet’s sticker work is to be found all over the cities of Europe. Born in Brittany, he said in a recent interview that “it literally takes 10 seconds” to transform a dull street sign into what you see here. We’ve spotted a few more around the city too:

I noticed a Facebook post getting quite a few shares this morning on my timeline, in relation to Varahagiri Venkata Giri, the fourth President of India. The Sinn Féin 1916 National Commemorations page, which has been posting some great little historical nuggets, posted an image of Giri, along with a brief history stating:

The fourth President of India Varahagiri Venkata Giri was a member of Sinn Féin and an Irish Volunteer in 1916 whilst studying law at U.C.D. and was expelled for his activity.

At the time Giri came to power in India in 1969, the Irish Independent wrote that he was “a founder of the Indian Labour Movement, and is known to many as the Jim Larkin of India.” Giri, the paper noted, was a student at University College Dublin during the Irish revolutionary period, “taking his LLB and becoming a barrister, before being deported by the British.”

‘Jim Larkin of India’ – a 1969 edition of the Irish Independent.

Giri’s name appeared in the Freeman’s Journal in June 1916, in the aftermath of the insurrection, where it was noted that he was called to a bar, described as the “oldest son of Varahagiri Venkata Jagiah, of Berhampore, Madras Presidency, India.” He was one of several Indians reported to have been called to the bar in that edition of the newspaper. To Giri, it would have meant little – he had already received an order from the authorities to leave the UK by July 1st!

Of his time in Ireland, we can learn much from his memoir My Life and Times, which was published in 1976, and which Colm Kenna drew on for an interesting An Irishman’s Diary column in 2008. In it, he recalled being lectured by Thomas MacDonagh, who would later be executed for his role in the insurrection that was to come. Giri recalled that “his classes were very popular and his cottage at the foot of the Dublin mountains was a centre of literary and revolutionary thought.” Trade union leader James Connolly made a particular impression on Giri, who recalled meeting him on “several occasions”, remembering that “the plight of workers in Ireland at that time was miserable. I saw grinding poverty and squalor in the areas of Dublin inhabited by the working class.”

In Dublin, Giri was active within the Dublin India Society, which drew support from the dozens of Indian students in the Irish capital. In the aftermath of the struggle of Indians in South Africa for equal rights in 1914,  his society in Dublin prepared a pamphlet entitled The South African Horrors, which was well received. The cause of the Indian people received sympathetic coverage in Irish nationalist newspapers, including Arthur Griffith’s Sinn Féin, as well as The Irish Volunteer.

Engagements between Irish nationalists and Indian nationalists can be found in the Bureau of Military History statements, which recorded the memoirs of participants in the 1913-21 period. A particularly intriguing story of international espionage and plotting is contained in the witness statement of Robert Brennan, a senior figure in the Sinn Féin Press Bureau during the War of Independence. He recalled being introduced to two Indian men here, who presented him with a most interesting proposal:

The first was a very big and prosperous gentleman, (Mr. A.) who told me he belonged to the constitutional wing of the Indian Nationalists. He owned a lot of chain stores in India. He assured me he was willing to fall in with any  plan the second Indian, whose was Bomanji, and I agreed to. He did not know what Mr. Bomanji had in mind and he did not want to know. – The less he knew the better. He then withdrew and Mr. Bomanji came in. He was a small, quick, intelligent gentleman and he told me at once that he belonged to the militant group in India. His plan was twofold. Firstly, the Indian Moslem League and the All Indian Congress Party were, for the first time – holding their annual conventions in the same town and on the same date. It had been agreed between the leaders that at a pre-arranged signal, a motion could be put forward simultaneously, in both conventions that the rival sects would join hands for the purpose of ending the British occupation. They were then to meet jointly and set up a Provisional Government for India and, thereafter, carry  on on Sinn Fein lines. Our part was to send one or two advisers who would, behind the scenes, guide the movement.

It was necessary that these advisers should get to India as soon as possible before the day set for the Conventions. The other plan of Bomanji’s was to prepare for a guerilla war against the British. For this purpose, he needed a number of Irish guerilla leaders, twenty or thirty to start off with. They would ostensibly be employed in the chain stores owned by Mr. A. but their real work would be to train companies of selected men in the science of guerilla warfare.

In subsequent decades, there remained strong sympathy for India in Irish nationalist circles, which was reflected in the pages of newspapers like An Phoblacht in the 1930s. Indian speakers were common at republican events in Ireland, and Brian Hanley has written in his history of the IRA in this period that “during 1931 the organisation even attempted to bring Mahatma Gandhi to Ireland for a speaking tour.The presence of Indian speakers was thought by the IRA to have been useful when promoting the ‘Boycott British’ campaign during 1932.” The following advertisement frequently appeared in An Phoblacht during the period, encouraging people to support the Indian Store on Dame Street:

An Phoblacht.

3 September 2015, The Sugar Club.

We’re very happy to present the poster for the second Dublin Songs & Stories night we’re hosting. Once again, the night is an eclectic mix covering all from traditional Irish music to the history of forgotten youth cultures and movements. We’re again grateful to our buddy Johnny Moy in The Sugar Club for helping to pull it all together. There are legends here and there are up and comers we’re very excisted by.

The first night was a sell out, raising funds for Pieta House in the process. This time, we’re supporting the Rape Crisis Centre.  Tickets are available here, and all help in promoting this night (via blogs, the press or anything else) is very much appreciated.

The poster had been produced by practice&Theory, and nicely compliments the poster for the first night which is below. The last poster drew on the work of Jim Fitzpatrick and Maser, two participants in that line-up. This time, it’s a nod to ADW – who recently reinvented Dublin’s rather ill-fitting city motto and coat of arms!

Dublin Songs and Stories (Part I), way back when!

I recently picked up this postcard, which was sent from Dublin to Clones in Co. Monaghan during the War of Independence. Congratulating “my dear Harry” on the occasion of “your magnificent victory”, I can’t help but think and ponder what Aunt Mary might have been referencing!

I love little historical artifacts like this, as they give great insight into life at the time. That someone could buy a postcard showing a Volunteer in front of a tricolour with the words “the spirit still lives on in the men of today” and post it without interference is interesting in and of itself.

Stamped ’17 January 1920′ on reverse.

Political postcards were common in the Ireland of the early twentieth century, in fact within weeks of the 1916 Rising postcards depicting the destruction of the “Sinn Féin Rebellion” as they incorrectly christened it were in hot demand.

In Ulster, some of the more colourful postcards depicted what life would be like under Home Rule, often with grass growing over the streets and the place in tatters. A particular favourite comes from the enjoyable Fadó Fadó blog, showing a Unionist nightmare of Carrickfergus. Notice the graffiti on the wall proclaiming “Major McBride’s Irish Militia”, in reference to John MacBride who had fought against Britain in the Boer War. John Redmond takes a kicking too, with the statue pedestal telling us that “Redmond Rex Hibernie.”

Anti Home Rule Posrtcard (http://irishmemory.blogspot.ie/)

Dublin Songs and Stories, an event we organised back in June in conjunction with Johnny Moy and all at The Sugar Club, was a roaring success. As well as being a great night of talk and music, featuring everyone from street artist MASER to the unrivaled Barry Gleeson, we raised almost two thousand euro for Pieta House in the process.

There was a belief on the night that we should do it again, and we have decided we will try and carry the night into the future. This time, we’re hoping to donate any takings to the Rape Crisis Centre, a hugely important service in the city that deserves financial support and which has seen its funding ravaged in recent times. Once again, we’re getting together a mix of musicians, historians, story tellers and people we think are worth hearing.

Tickets in advance are recommended, the last night was near a sellout. You can get them here. It kicks off at 8pm in The Sugar Club once again. The event page is up now too, be sure to click attending if you’re coming along.

BP Fallon, by Maser.

BP Fallon has certainly lived a colourful life, and has more than a few stories to tell. I’m always amazed by where he shows up! He has managed Johnny Thunders, and photographed everyone from Jerry Lee Lewis to Public Enemy, Emmylou Harris to Iggy Pop. From DJing on the radio as a teenager to becoming publicist to acts like Led Zepplin and T Rex, he’s even rubbed shoulders with The Beatles along the way. Steeped in the Dublin music scene and now immortalised by Maser in Temple Bar (see above), he’s a perfect addition to this kind of night.

ADW

We’re long term fans of ADW, posting a lot of his work on the site over the years, from his ‘tribute’ to Bertie Ah€rn above to his recent new take on our rather ill-fitting city motto and coat of arms, declaring that “Obedientia Civium Urbis Felicitas.” He has used the city as a canvas over the years, and his work is thought-provoking and humorous, just how we like it.

Steve Averill

At our first Dublin Songs & Stories night, we were very fortunate to have Pete Holidai from The Radiators From Space join us. The Rads are a band that have long fascinated us, and in 2012 Sam had the pleasure of interviewing the late and great Philip Chevron. As well as keeping the spirit and passion of the Rads alive through the Trouble Pilgrims in recent times, Steve Averill is a graphic artist responsible for producing all of U2’s album covers, which have become truly iconic.

Skippers Alley album cover

We recently had the good fortune of catching John Flynn of Skippers Alley in the very same venue we’re taking over, opening for folk miscreants Lynched at what was a night of fantastic music. John is a part of Skipper’s Alley, a young band bring a great energy to traditional and folk music in this city at present. When I heard him perform As I Roved Out that night I made it my mission to rope him into our next night! Thankfully, he agreed. I’m very excited about this one.

Ailbhe Smyth

Ailbhe Smyth has been active in some of the social movements we have written about on this blog for decades, campaigning in a wide range of feminist and LGBT campaigns for change in Irish society, witnessing some landmark moments along the way. In light of the recent referendum, for which she served as an advisor to the Yes Equality campaign, we want to sit down with Ailbhe and ask what’s changed and what hasn’t, and to talk about radical movements in Dublin in recent decades.

Mick Pyro, the front man of Dublin band Republic of Loose, is someone I’ve had the good fortune to see perform before. His unique vocals, and the bands feelgood sounds, earned them a cult following, and the admiration of many in the Irish music scene and press, including Sinead O’Connor. Like ourselves, he likes a bit of Adidas.

“There was one club in the city, as far as I was concerned, and it was Sides.”

As An Talamh tells the story of the rave scene in Dublin historically, taking in venues and nights like Sides and the now legendary raves in the Mansion House. It is the story of Power FM, the Banana Boys, bedroom promoters and those who kept a vibrant rave scene alive in a changing city, among other things.We’re going to chat to James Redmond about this project, and show a few clips to give a taster.

The Cricket Bat That Died For Ireland.

Think of trying to tell the history of the Easter Rising in a few objects, what would you pick? A copy of the 1916 Proclamation? The flag that flew from the GPO? These, of course, are hugely important historical artifacts. The Cricket Bat That Died for Ireland, the blog of Brenda Malone, however is concerned with the more overlooked items in the collection of the National Museum of Ireland. Take the bat itself, shot in Elvery’s during the Rising, he has the bullet to tell the tale. Other items highlighted by the fascinating blog include the last letter (or so he thought) or Eamon de Valera, who believed he would be executed for his role in the insurrection.