Come Here To Me!

Statues have long been divisive in Dublin of course, and the statues of figures associated with the British Empire have long been targeted by Irish republicans. As we’ve featured on Come Here To Me before, statues of Irish nationalists in Dublin have on occasion been targeted by Loyalists too. Truly remarkable however is the statue of Seán Russell in Fairview Park, owing to the numerous attacks of a political nature upon it. Russell was a veteran republican who partook in the Easter Rising and the War of Independence, before going on to senior positions in the IRA in the 1920s and 30s. He died in 1940 upon a German U-Boat, on route to Ireland. Frank Ryan was also upon the U-Boat, and returned to Germany. Russell’s statue has been targeted by both the Right and the Left, and remains considerably controversial to this day.

Advertisement in various newspapers prior to the unveiling.

The Seán Russell statue was unveiled on Sunday, September 9th 1951. A march of over 1,000 republicans made their way to the monument from Parnell Square, where they were joined by members of the public. A Garda Special Branch report into the march noted that among the organisations and individuals present were in excess of 130 Dublin IRA men led by Cathal Goulding, Cumann na mBán, the ‘Girls Piper Band’ from Dublin, the Transport Workers’ Union Band and republican contingents from both Cork and the north. Members of the Dublin Corporation and the GAA were also identified by the Special Branch. Republican representatives from Clan na nGael in America were among the crowd and would play a leading role in the ceremony at Fairview.

When the march reached Fairview, where members of the public awaited it, numbers grew considerably. The report noted that:

The procession marched to Fairview via O’Connell Street, Amiens Street, North Strand, arriving at Fairview Park at about 1pm where the general public had already assembled in large numbers, many no doubt attending from the point of view of curiosity.

Nevertheless, the crowd at this period was not far short of five thousand people, including those on the paths and roadway outside the Park proper.

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A magnificent statue at St Michan’s Park opposite the Little Green Street Gallery caught my eye recently. The statue stands within a park which was once the location of Newgate Prison, which the statue tells us was “associated in dark and evil days with the doing to death of confessors of Irish liberty, who gave their lives to vindicate their country’s right to national independence.”

Around the monument, the faces of figures associated with the 1798 republican insurection are to be seen. Lord Edward Fitzgerald can be seen in the front of the monument, while the Brothers Sheares are found on each side. Lord Edward died of gunshout wounds at the Newgate Prison as the United Irishmen rebellion broke out, and today his body is to be found in Saint Werburgh’s Church. It’s a great irony that Major Henry C. Sirr, who led the arrest party to capture Fitzgerald, is buried in the grounds of that same historic church.

Henry and John Sheares are perhaps not as widely remembered today as Fitzgerald, though they are fascinating characters in their own right. The brothers, sons of a Parliamentarian, had witnessed the radical changes to society brought by the French revolution firsthand and were enthusiastic members of the United Irishmen. They were executed n July 14th 1798, as the rebellion raged, having been betrayed by spies inside the movement. The pikes featured have of course come to symbolise the 1798 uprising in Irish popular history.

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An historic church hidden away in Portobello (Dublin 8) is currently up for sale.

Rev. Patrick Comerford has written a bit about the building’s history:

The granite-block former Kingsland Place Church was designed by John McCurdy in 1870 for the Primitive Wesleyan Methodist Church, and opened in 1871. From the 1950s, the church was used as the Women’s Employment Exchange, and it stands as a reminder of another religious minority that has been lost to this part of Dublin.

It’s yours for €850,000 via Douglas Newman Good.

Kingsland Place Church. (Picture credit - http://revpatrickcomerford.blogspot.com)

I had to laugh seeing this advertisement for O’Connell’s Ale popping up frequently in An Phoblacht in the early 1930s. Daniel O’Connell of course was far from a militant republican, and one wonders how he’d feel on the pages of that organ!

Daniel O’Connnell Jr. had famously acquired the Phoenix Brewery in James’s street in 1831, which produced O’Connell’s Ale. It should be noted that O’Connell and the Guinness family were at times political rivals, something best captured by the 1841 ‘Repeal Election’, where O’Connell had stood against and defeated Arthur Guinness Jr. This period would see a sizeable boycott of Guinness, dubbed “Protestant Porter” by sections of the populace, though this was against the wishes of O’Connell himself.

John D’Arcy continued to brew O’Connell Ale after the family had ceased their role in brewing, and in time production moved to the Anchor Brewery in Usher Street. Watkins eventually took up the brewing of O’Connell Ale, and this advertisement was placed by them in the pages of leading newspapers in the 1930s.

While Arthur had failed to defeat O’Connell at the Ballot Box, I always wonder what O’Connell would think of the Guinness Empire today every time I see a Diaego truck pass his statue.

'Un assassinat politique' Le Petit Journal (Fallon collection)

This is a fantastic illustration from ‘Le Petit Journal’ showing the assassination of Sir Henry Wilson by Irish republicans in London, an event which would ultimately lead to the Free State moving in against republicans occupying the Four Courts premises in Dublin. Henry Wilson was assassinated in London on the June 22 1922, only hours after unveiling the Great Eastern Railway war memorial at Liverpool Street Station in London. Reginald Dunne and Joseph O’Sullivan were the two London volunteers responsible for Wilson’s death. O’Sullivan had lost a leg at Ypres in 1917 fighting for King and Country, while Dunne had also seen service in the Great War with the Irish Guards. Wilson was assassinated on his own door step, only hours after unveiling a memorial to those who died in the Great War, by two of its veterans. The men were hanged at Wandsworth Prison on August 10th 1922.

In August of 1929 a memorial was erected at Dean’s Grange Cemetery to Dunne and O’Sullivan, at a ceremony attended by over 500 people. In July 1967 the bodies of the two Volunteers were buried in Dublin in Dean’s Grange, following years of campaigning by the National Graves Association.

The attack on the Four Courts by the Free State attracted huge international media attention, and the images below come from the London Illustrated News of July 8 1922.

Documents from the Four Courts litter the streets.(Fallon collection)

Damage to the Four Courts. (Fallon collection)

The execution of Henry Wilson was not the only Irish interest story to make the front page of the Le Petit Journal. Below is their take on the execution of Michael Collins at Béal na mBláth.

'Les Convulsion sanglantes de I'Irelande' (Fallon collection)

Update: The folks at the Dublin Review of Books have linked to this piece on their site, and in the process have taken the time to translate the caption on the Wilson illutration:

Come Here To Me! does not translate the caption to the illustration of the shooting. It reads: “L’histoire du conflit entre l’Irlande et la Grande-Bretagne a toutes ses pages tâchées de sang. – Un nouveau chapitre dramatique vient d’y être ajouté. A Londres le maréchal Wilson a été assassiné a coup de revolvers par des fanatiques Irlandais. C’est un brave soldat et un ami de la France qui vient de disparaître.” (Every page of the history of the conflict between Ireland and Great Britain is stained with blood. – Another dramatic chapter has just been added. In London Marshal Wilson has been assassinated by the revolvers of Irish fanatics. A brave soldier and friend of France has died.)