Come Here To Me!

Last Sunday, nine of us made the trek from the car park of Montpelier Hill to the Captain Noel Lemmas memorial deep in the Dublin Mountains. While Ciaran is due to post up some pictures from this memorable journey, I thought it would be no harm to talk a little about Captain Noel Lemass and his isolated monument

Captain Noel Lemass (1897-1923) of the  3rd Battalion, Dublin Brigade IRA fought in the General Post Office (GPO) during the Easter Rising of 1916, took an active part 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. His younger brother Sean, who had a similar military career, would go on to become Ireland’s fourth Taoiseach.

After the fall of the Four Courts, Noel was imprisoned but managed to escape and make his way to England. He returned to Ireland during the summer of 1923 when the ceasefire was declared. Returning to work at Dublin Corporation, he asked the town clerk John J. Murphy if he would forward a letter to the authorities that he planned to write “stating that he had no intention of armed resistance to the Government”. (1)

In July 1923, two months after the Civil War ended, Noel was kidnapped in broad daylight by Free State agents outside MacNeils Hardware shop, at the corner of Exchequer and Drury Street.

Notice from Noel’s father in The Freeman’s Journal (16 July 1923)

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.

The Leitrim Observer of 20 October 1923 described that Civic Guards found his body:

clothed in a dark tweed suit, light shirt, silk socks, spats and a knitted tie. The pockets contained a Rosary beads, a watch-glass, a rimless glass, a tobacco pouch and an empty cigarette case. The trousers’ pockets were turned inside out, as if they had been rifled. There was what appeared to be an entrance bullet wound on the left temple, and the top of the skull was broken, suggesting an exit wound.

Noel was shot at least three times in the head and his left arm was fractured. His right foot was never found.

Meeting two days later, Dublin Council passed a strongly worded vote of sympathy with his family. Describing their fellow employee as an “esteemed and worthy officer of the Council who had been foully and diabolically murdered”, the Council adjourned for one week as a mark or respect.  (2)

It was believed that many that a Free Stater Captain James Murray was behind the murder.

His funeral was described by The Irish Times on 17 October 1923 as “ranking with some of the largest seen in the city in recent years”. The hearse was preceded by the Connolly Pipers’ Band and followed by members of the Cumann na mBan, Women’s Citizens Army, Sinn Fein Clubs, Prisoners’ Defence League, many recently released prisoners, representatives of various  bodies and numerous well-known Republicans including George Noble Plunkett (father of Joseph Plunkett), Constance Markievicz and Maud Gonne.

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

A year later, a memorial cross was erected at the spot where his body was found.

MJ Freeney, on a hill walking trip, wrote in the Sunday Independent on 24 July 1927:

Our road wound to the right and soon we a met sharp turn on our left. Having negotiated this, we found ourselves on the wild Featherbed Pass. Civilisation had been left far behind. Our only companions were rough mountain sheep and strange wild birds. Truly no lonelier spit could be found. And then a glance to our left. There in the wilderness was a cross. What strange object in such a place. We read the name – Captain Noel Lemass

The Irish Times of 12 September 1932 reported on the “first public commemoration” of the late Captain Noel Lemass which saw:

Omnibuses and motor cars .. (bring) hundreds to the scene, whilst still greater numbers made the journey on foot

The Chairman of the Noel Lemass Cumann of Fianna Fail (Mansion House Ward), George White, laid a wreath at the foot of the cross while The Last Post was sounded by Owen Somers. Joseph O’Connor of the 3rd Battalion delivered the oration:

Noel Lemass… joined the movement in 1916 and was wounded in O’Connell Street in that year, and in 1917 he assisted in reforming the organisation and served in it right up to the time of his death .. He was one of the typical young men in the Republican movement, animated by one great motive – the desire for freedom

In 1932, Sean Leamass (then Minister for Trade and Commerce) led the pilgrimage to the monument. Four years later, several hundred people traveled by bus and motor car to the ‘sequestered spot in the Dublin Mountains’ where the body of Noel Lemass was found.

As far as I can work out, there were annual pilgrimages to the spot in Featherfed mountain from 1932 until at least 1977.

Irish Press, 9 September 1935

Every year saw hundreds descend on the remote spot to pay their respects.

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While Dublin is a city of many plaques which mark historic locations, there are still a few missing which would help tell the story of the capital to natives and visitors alike. One of these locations to me is Vaughan’s Hotel on Parnell Square, a premises which had a strong connection to the Irish revolutionary period and Michael Collins in particular. Parnell Square plays a crucial role in Irish republican history. It was there that the decision to stage an uprising was reached prior to 1916, it was there that the occupation of the Rotunda occurred in 1922, it was there that An Phoblacht did (and does) have its headquarters, and it was even there that the Blueshirt movement had their offices in the 1930s.

Google Street View of the corner of Parnell Square where Vaughan’s was found.

Vaughan’s Hotel was acquired in 1953 by the Workers Union of Ireland, and remains a home of the trade union movement to this day. The sale of the building in 1953 attracted some controversy, owing to the strong connection between the premises and the War of Independence. The Irish Times reported on an auction of the hotels contents in November 1953, writing that:

Just how did a Hotel in the centre of the city come to be so closely associated with Michael Collins and the republican movement? Writing in one of his popular Irish Press columns, ‘Down Dublin Streets’, Eamonn MacThomais noted that Vaughan’s had first opened at no.29, at the corner on Granby Row and Lane, next to a premises owned by a surgeon doctor, and next to it was the Civil Service Institute. When Vaughan’s grew, it acquired the premises next to the Civil Service Institute, and both of these premises nestled between the two ends of Vaughan’s gave the cover or the impression of a respectable and law-abiding square! The Hotel had the added advantage of a long back garden running parallel with Granby Lane, and a system was developed whereby a “flowerpot in the back window told Michael Collins and his men to keep away from Vaughan’s Hotel.”

Vaughan’s as it appeared at the time

Many veterans of the revolutionary period discussed Vaughan’s Hotel in their statements to the Bureau of Military History. Frank Henderson told the Bureau how Vaughan’s was just one of a number of premises in the area republicans used, noting that: “As well as Vaughan’s Hotel there were James Kirwan’s publichouse in Parnell Street and Flynn’s in Moore Street, where I sometimes contacted the Director of Organisation and where I used see at the same time Michael Collins, Piaras Beasley and other G.H.Q. officers.”

Piaras Beaslaí wrote an article on the Hotel for the Irish Independent in 1966, writing that:

From the beginning of 1920 until November 21st – “Bloody Sunday”- hardly a night passed when some Directors and officers of the G.H.Q did not meet in the smoke room of Vaughan’s Hotel in Parnell Square, Dublin, partly to transact business, partly to relax and indulge in general conversation, which however, seldom lasted long without bringing in topics concerned with the struggle with which we were engaged.

A now iconic image of Michael Collins, taken at the funeral of Arthur Griffith.

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The Chelsea Hotel in New York has provided a bed to some of the finest minds and talents in human history, serving as an inspiration for Leonard Cohen, Dylan Thomas and others. From Simone De Beauvoir to Jack Kerouac, some of the most celebrated works of some of the most celebrated writers of the past were composed within its walls, and its beautiful facade and iconic ‘Hotel Chelsea’ sign have become a must see for many tourists to New York.

The Chelsea Hotel, New York. (2010,Wiki)

The front of the hotel has several plaques upon it, in honour of some of the figures closely associated with the premises. One of these plaques marks the connection between the Chelsea Hotel and Leonard Cohen, who has sung of the Hotel in his song named in its honour. Thomas Wolfe and Dylan Thomas are among other writers remembered in bronze. Among these great names is that of a Dubliner, Brendan Behan:

Brendan Behan plaque upon the Chelsea Hotel. Thanks to wheresmybackpack.com

The Behan plaque was photographed for wheresmybackpack.com, who took some beautiful images of the building you can see here.

Behan spent some time in New York, though the period was towards the end of his life. Clifford Irving wrote of Behan in America that “he was a vicious tank of a man rolling relentlessly through the minefield of America, crushing everything in sight until he blew up.” The New York media and art scene were both fascinated by the Dubliner, falling for his charm. Novelist Norman Mailer once asked Brendan if he usually had a police escort at home in Ireland, to which Brendan joked “I do, but I’m usually handcuffed to the bastards!” It was said that when in New York Brendan stuffed $80 in the pockets of Allen Ginsberg, hero of the Beat Generation types.

Brendan’s niece Rosemary visited New York in 2001, and followed in the footsteps of her uncle. Reflecting on that visit she noted:

I wasn’t overly impressed with the Chelsea, either. The hotel, a seedy red-brick Victorian building of more than 100 rooms, trades on its past, on a guest list of literati that included Dylan Thomas, Arthur Miller and William Burroughs. It wouldn’t be my choice as a base in New York. It has too little of the promise that Brendan loved about the United States and which he summed up in a sentence preserved in a plaque at the front door: “To America, my new-found land: the man that hates you hates the human race.”

But there is no doubt that he felt at home at the Chelsea. In a disorganised office, filled with piles of books and papers spread across several desks, Stanley told me: “Brendan would come in just as you did now and stand right there where you are standing. I would be on the phone to my wife and he would grab the phone off me and start singing to her.”
By his own standards, though, he was reasonably well-behaved. “We are interested in helping the artist and he respected that,” said Stanley. “He never abused the hotel or anyone in the hotel.”

Brendan Behan’s New York was published in 1964,though it was a ‘talk book’, far removed from the classic novels and plays the Russell Street native had produced before it. Behan’s best days as a writer had passed him as he succumbed to the drink, his untimely death robbing Dublin of one of its most celebrated voices, and as his brother Brian would recall “greater writers have graced the literary canvas than Brendan in Ireland’s history, but not greater characters– before or since.”

(Previously we’ve looked at Dublin’s oldest established restaurants, the city’s first Chinese restaurants and the city’s first Italian restaurants)

When did pizza first arrive in Dublin?

One of the first mentions in the newspapers comes from Monica Sheridan in The Irish Times on 07 April 1956. Explaining to her readers that pizza was “a sort of open tart made with tomatoes and cheese on a base of yeast dough”, she described it as becoming “frightfully fashionable all over Europe”. Sheridan doesn’t make any reference to any restaurants in Ireland where you could get pizza. However in Italy, she wrote:

It is sold (and very cheaply, too) in little restaurants known as pizzerie, where they have special open ovens. The pizze are prepared and cooked before your eyes, and a very appetising sight it is. They are eaten piping hot, at a sort of quick-lunch counter, or you can take your pizza with you and gnaw it on a bench.

Ostinelli’s at 17 Hawkins Street was offering pizza as early as 1957:

In The Irish Times on 20 July 1959, Moira Molony offered advice on ‘Giving a Party On a Shoestring”. She described pizzas as “absolutely scrumptious, but learning how to make the wafer thin pastry requires a practised hand”. Smartly, she advises readers to try “the concoction first on your family”.

A year later, the same paper reported on a “very gay reception” held by the Italian Ambassador at Lucan House (described as “the most beautiful embassy in Dublin”). At this soirée “Pizza, washed down with Ovrieto, was consumed in great quantities”.

The legendary Coffee Inn who operated from South Anne Street from 1954 – 1995 had pizza on the menu by 1962. This was confirmed by a comment left by Tex Browne:

It was a favourite haunt of art students and teenage would-be bohemians. The proprietor was a very patient Italian called Mario who allowed his young clients to congregate without let for the price of a coffee. You could have any pizza topping you desired as long as it was mozzarella and anchovies!

The Coffee Inn, South Anne Street, 1960s. Fáilte Ireland Tourism Photographic Collection, Dublin City Library & Archive.

A restaurant called Paycock at 32 Dawson Street offered the dish by January 1965 (Irish Press) with Bernardo’s at 19 Lincoln Place offering “pizza napoletana” by March 1967 (Irish Times).

The Irish Press, Jan 14, 1965.

The Honey Bee on Wicklow Street described itself the “ONLY ‘Spaghetti House and Pizzeria’ in Ireland'” when it was opened in July 1967. The owners were Dr. Dionisio Tullio and his Scottish-born wife Irene. Dr. Tullio who was from Gallinaro, Italy and served as a Lieutenant during the Second World War. The restaurant’s pizza chef was Joe Forte from Naples. Dr. Tullio’s son Paolo (1949-2015) was an award-winning chef and food critic in his own right.

Advertisement for The Honey Bee. Evening Herald, 4 July 1967.

By a the mid 1970s and early 1980s, a lot of Dublin’s American style restaurants started to offer pizza on their menus. Places like TJs Pizzera on Lower Grafton Street and Georgian Fare at 14 Lower Baggot Street.

The Irish Times, 21 July 1972.

Not forgetting Murph’s Gasworks Cafe at 21 Bachelors Walk (1976 – 1985), Thunderbird at 84 Grafton Street (1977 – early 1980s) and Solomon Grundy’s at 21 Suffolk Street (1978 – 1986).

Though now associated as a take-away, Mizzoni’s opened its first restaurant in Rathgar in 1974 and is still open today (as of 2018).

The Irish Times, 10 Dec 1975.

Flanagan’s at 61 O’Connell Street (1980 – Present) and the Bad Ass Cafe at 9-10 Crown Alley (1983 – Present) are the only two restaurants, who fit that bill, that are still open today.

Pizzaland which opened a branch at 52 Lower O’Connell Street in 1976 and at 82 Grafton Street the following year should also be mentioned at this point. They were part of a UK chain of pizza restaurants which was wound down in the mid 1990s.

The Chicago Pizza Pie Company, on Stephens Green where TGI Friday’s is now, was also a popular spot in the 1980s.

Pizzaland (beside Avis), St. Stephen’s Green, 1990. Credit – Dublin City Photographic Collection

Italian-run places also started to offer pizza in this period. Some of the ones that have come and gone include The Pizzeria at 12 St. Andrews Street (early 1970s), La Caprice at 12 St. Andrews Street (1976-?), Pizzeria Italia at 23 Temple Bar (1986 – 1996), Chew ‘n’ Chat at 112 Ranelagh (c. 1987 – 2007) Da Vinceno’s at 133 Upper Leeson Street (1988 – 2011) and Da Pino at 38-40 Parliament Street (1993 – 2010).

Advertisement for La Pizzeria, Evening Herald, 12 July 1972.

Of those still operating, Pizza Stop at Chatham Lane can definitely be described as the oldest operating Italian pizzeria in Dublin City having being on the go since 1982.

Writing in the Irish Press on 12 Jan 1989 critic Ruth Tooth described their experience:

We loved the atmosphere… The smell of garlic hits you in the minute you walk in the door. The kitchen is visible to all. It is clearly very popular and the business and bustle of the place makes for warmth and feeling of being totally at home.

Tooth’s guest described his pizza (medium Margherita for £2.95) as “one of the best he has ever eaten”.

(The three of us from Come Here To Me! and two close friends had a meal there a few weeks ago. All five of us were greatly impressed with the quality of the food. Four starters, five pizzas, nine beers and four expressos came in at €149.)

Pizza Stop, Chatham Lane (2010). (Pizza Stop Facebook)

The Independent Pizza Company at 28 Lower Drumcondra Road wasn’t far behind, openings its doors in 1984. They continue to receive glowing reviews.

In August 1987, self-confessed pizza addict Padraig O’Morain went on search for the best pizza in Dublin for The Irish Times. TJs’ pizza was described as “unexciting but nothing wrong with it”, the Pizza Calzoni at Flanagans was “unforgettable” and got the thumbs up, the Bad Ass Cafe was a given a glowing review, Pizzeria Italia was excellent while O’Connell Street’s Pizzaland was of average quality and on the expensive side. You wonder why he didn’t try Pizza Stop or Independent Pizza Company?

The late 1980s and early 1990s saw a rake of pizza places open that some of which are still in business today: Fat Freddy’s on Crow Street, Miller’s Pizza Kitchen at 9-10 Baggot St Lower, Pinheads at 104 South Circular Road (estd. 1989), Ristorante Romano at 12 Capel Street (estd. early 1990s?), South Street Pizza on South Great Georges Street (estd. early 1990s), Little Caesar’s Pizza at 5 Balfe Street (estd. 1991), Gotham Cafe at 8 Anne Street South (estd. 1993), UK chain Milano at 38 Dame Street (estd. 1995), the Steps of Rome at 1 Chatham Street (estd. 1995) and Cafe Topolis at 37 Parliament Street (estd. mid 1990s?)

Yum… Steps of Rome, Chatham Street. (Stepsofrome.ie)

The 2000s saw many pizzerias come and go. Some of those that were opened in this decade and that are still open include Ciao Bella Roma at 25 Parliament Street (estd. 2003), Enoteca Langhe in the Italian Quarter (estd. 2003), Bar Italia on Ormond Quay (estd. 2004), Bottega Toffoli at 34 Castle Street (estd. 2005), Taverna in the Italian Quarter (est. 2005), Paulie’s Pizza at 58 Upper Grand Canal Street (estd. 2010), Credo at 19 Montague Street (estd. 2010), Da Mimmo in Fairview (est.d 2010), Al Vesuvio at 73 Mespil Road and Manifesto at 208 Rathmines Road Lower.

Di Fontaines at 22 Parliament Street (estd. 2011 but based in Crow Alley for many years before that) deserves a mention for offering New York style slices until the wee hours.

2013 is the year I hope to try all the (great) pizzerias that I haven’t visited yet.

Questions for readers:

What was your first experiences of eating pizza in Dublin?

What’s your favourite pizzeria at the moment?

The Seahorses of Grattan Bridge. (Ci.)

Back in December we decided that the blog would make an attempt to fundraise for two worthy Dublin charities. We planned to do this in two ways. Firstly, we sold a limited edition print based on the cover of our recent book. For this, we owe huge thanks to Luke Fallon who designed the image, but we are also very much indebted to Mark and his team at Grehan Printers, who produced the top quality prints for the night.

This print was sold on the night of the booklaunch, and €400 was made which was then donated to the Simon Community. Simon do hugely important work for the homeless in Dublin, and against the backdrop of an awful winter were a very fitting charity.

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In early January, we done something totally new and embarked on a Come Here To Me! Walking tour of Dublin. Over two days, we took over 50 readers of the blog on a tour of Dublin which looked at the offbeat side of the capitals history. We owe huge thanks to all who came on these tours, and personally I want to thank Ci and Sam who found themselves acting as tour guides for the first time, but who were both fantastic in the role. These tours raised €540, which has been donated to ALONE.

ALONE do vital work on behalf of the elderly in Dublin, and the charity was established by Dublin firefighter Willie Bermingham, a hero of mine and a man who embodied all that is good, decent and honest about Dublin and Dubliners. Willie penned his own epitaph before his death, in which he wrote that he:

Joined the Dublin Fire Brigade in 1964 and spent a long time pushing for the pension. Favourite food, good old irish stew and lots of fish. For breakfast several mugs of tea at work. Also loves to eat lots of red tape to teach the bureaucrats a little manners.”

Thanks to everyone who supported these two efforts, which raised €940 in total. We hope that in the future we can use Come Here To Me! again to fundraise for deserving Dublin causes, and we thank everyone for their continued support.

A classic Dublin Zoo image (NLI)

Over the years, a few animals have managed to carry out ‘The Great Escape’, ditching the surroundings of the Phoenix Park for a life of freedom. In many cases, the escaped animals were captured and returned to the zoo, but on occasion they had to be killed. The below are just a few examples of animals who have the trip over the wall or out the gate, some didn’t make it beyond the park, while others made it as far as city centre shopping centres.

The bear who feasted on sweets, and passed out.

In March 1939, a bear escaped from its enclosure only to be discovered in the refreshment rooms of the zoo, thankfully closed to the public at the time. He had feast on cake, sweets and nuts, and was discovered sleeping in a cloakroom!

Irish Independent, March 16 1939

In September 1961 one of the two pelicans in Dublin Zoo escaped, and was spotted by many Dubliners “perched on houses and public buildings on the northside of the city.” Missing for three weeks, he was eventually recaptured. He was found in Drogheda, where he spent some time in the Civic Guard station before his return to the capital. This adventurer was following in the footsteps of an earlier pelican, who in September 1943 vanished from the zoo.

The stag who explored the Magazine Fort, February 1924.

In February 1924, a Wapiti stag spent a lonely night on a small island near the Castleknock gates to the park, having only arrived days earlier at the zoo from New Brunswick. Making short work of an eight-foot railing, he found himself occupying the small island instead. When approached, he darted towards the Magazine Fort, jumping its barbed wire fence with ease. After a long day of avoiding park authorities, the animal collapsed with exhaustion and died soon after his recapture.

Two cheetah’s in two weeks.

In August 1990, two Cheetah’s managed to escape from the zoo, only a week after one another. The second of these animals was shot dead, in an incident involving plain clothes Gardaí. When zoo vets fired two tranquillisers into the animal, it only seemed to become more agitated and Gardaí were required to kill it.

The incident was highly embarrassing for Dublin Zoo, coming so soon after another cheetah had escaped its premises. On a Saturday in August, the park was packed with families, and newspapers reported that children as young as twelve had witnessed the cheetah being shot five times at close range.

The Mary Street Raccoon.

In December 1942, a raccoon escaped from the Zoo and was later spotted wandering around Mary Street. His exploits were reported in The Irish Times on the 14th and 15th of December.

December 14th 1942

The following day, it was said he “continued to do the sights of Dublin”, and was “seen in various shopping centres.”

“To subvert the tyranny of our execrable government, to break the connection with England, the never-failing source of all our political evils and to assert the independence of my country- these were my objectives. To unite the whole people of Ireland, to abolish the memory of all past dissensions, and to substitute the common name of Irishman in place of the denominations of Protestant, Catholic and Dissenter – these were my means.”– Theobald Wolfe Tone

One of the oldest plaques in Dublin on street level must be that marking the birthplace and boyhood home of republican icon Theobald Wolfe Tone. The plaque is on the Axa Insurance building on what is today known as Wolfe Tone Street but was formerly Stafford Street.

Henry Boylan, biographer of Tone, has noted that:

Tone’s background and education in no way foreshadowed his romantic and tragic life. His father, Peter Tone, was a coachmaker and the son of a prosperous freehold tenant on the estate of the Wolfes of Blackhall, near Clane, in Co. Kildare. He called his first-born after the young squire, Theobald Wolfe.

Axa Insurance building (image credit: ratemyarea.com)

The National Library of Ireland have a fantastic image of Stafford Street from between 1880 and 1900, which was taken by Robert French. The street was crucially important to the development of Tone as a youngster, and he was also educated in a school on Stafford Street, noting in his memoirs that he learnt Latin and Greek at this school. In time Tone’s father would lose not only his home on Stafford Street but another property owned at Summerhill, with Tone noting in his memoirs that both ‘were sold much under their value’ in an hour of financial need.

44 Stafford Street, birthplace of Wolfe Tone (Image rights: NLI)

A plaque was placed on the boyhood home of Wolfe Tone by the ‘1798 Centenary Committee’, which was established to mark the centenary of the 1798 rebellion. Among those involved in the organising of events to mark this centenary were Maud Gonne, James Connolly and W.B Yeats. A beautiful coloured certificate associated with The Wolfe Tone and Ninety Eight Memorial Association recently came up for auction at Whyte’s in a lot of items connected to the centenary.

A certificate associated with the 1898 centenary. Notice the French tricolour appears alongside the harp of Ireland. (Image credit: http://www.liveauctioneers.com)

A leading-light in the United Irishmen movement which first consisted of liberal Protestants aligned to the constitutional reforms demanded by Henry Grattan, but which later turned to militant revolutionary republicanism, the combination of Tone’s writings and his romanticised role in the uprising of 1798 has led to him frequently being regarded as the ‘father of Irish republicanism’. The centenary of the uprising in 1898 was a significant moment for Irish nationalism, and as Yvonne Whelan has noted it “provided an opportunity for nationalists to commemorate what they saw as Ireland’s loyalty not to Britain but to Irish heroes and the struggle against British rule.”
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(Note: Other journalists featured on this blog so far include Paddy Clare and Alan Bestic)

Irish journalist Jack Smyth, who was held captive in a Nazi concentration camp for eight months, and his wife Eileen were tragically killed when their car plunged into the River Liffey on a cold December night in 1956.

Born in Galway, Jack began his career at The Connacht Tribune before leaving for London in the early 1940s to join Reuters news agency. Swapping a quiet civilian life and desk job for the dangerous life of a war correspondent, he underwent secret training as a paratrooper before being dropped with British airborne forces in the Arnhem landings of September 1944. In the thick of battle Jack, the only reporter at the frontline, wrote:

On this fifth day our force is still being heavily mortared, sniped, machine-gunned and shelled … When the Second Army arrives and relieves this crowd, then may be told one of the epics of the war. In the meantime, they go on fighting their hearts out.

Most of the airborne force, that Jack dropped with, were wiped out. Injured in the bloody battle, he was captured by the Nazis. For 17 days he was tortured under Gestapo interrogation and overall spent eight months as a Prisoner of War in a concentration camp before finally being released by American troops. On his return he told a friend and fellow journalist:

Jaysus, they beat the s*** out of me!. There was I, in British Army officer’s uniform, telling ’em I was a neutral and demanding to see the nearest Irish ambassador. Well, they were having none of that.

He wrote and published his experiences in a book, “Five Days in Hell”, in 1956. Lucky to get out alive, five of Jack’s fellow war correspondents and friends at Reuters had been killed in the War.

Cover of Jack Smyth’s 1956 book “Five Days In Hell”. Credit: market-garden.info

After Germany, Smyth traveled East and was aboard the last British cruiser to bombard Japan. Later, he was one of the first journalists to enter Tokyo and visit the ruined city of Hiroshima.

Leaving Reuters to take up the post of Managing Editor at The Waterford Star, he stayed there for sometime before joining the staff of the Irish News Agency in Dublin. Taken on as Assistant Editor of the newly fledged Evening Press, it was this capacity that he was involved in the sensational finding of the kidnapped Ashmore baby. He was appointed Managing Editor of the Irish Press in 1955, the year before his untimely death.

On the night of the 2nd of December 1956, Jack and Eileen were driving home to their house in Rathfarnham. He had to drop into the offices of the Press, on Burgh Quay, to help with the next day’s front page showcasing Ronnie Delaney’s sensational win at the Melbourne Olympics.

Driving from the office, the car accidentally entered the river at the junction of Lime Street and Sir John Rogerson’s quay. It was noted in The Irish Times on December 5 1956 that:

At this point there is a dockside warehouse, the gable end of which might be mistaken for a continuation of Lime Street and cause a driver unfamiliar with the area to overshoot the quay

The body of his 35-year-old wife Eileen Smyth, originally from Limerick, was found in the car when it was taken from the river on December 4th.

Jack’s body was unfortunately never recovered. He was 38. The couple left two young children behind.

A picture of Eileen and Jack after the announcement of their engagement. The Irish Press, July 13 1946

In a bizarre, tragic coincidence that occurred two-year later a relative, John Shannon, who was looking after the two orphaned Smyth children was also was killed after he accidentally drove his car into the Liffey. It was noted in the 1958 newspaper report that eight similar accidents had occurred around Sir John Rogerson’s quay over the last twenty years. Today, there is better lighting and more road bollards to prevent such disasters.

That accident in December 1956 was a very sad ending to the lives of a brave war correspondent and his devoted wife.