Squash – like Cricket, Golf, Rowing, Rugby and Tennis – was an avidly middle-class sport in Ireland for most, if not all, of the twentieth century. These sports were reserved almost exclusively for middle-class men who had the leisure time and spare cash to fund such pastimes.

Squash evolved out of an older game called rackets and was first played at the prestigious Harrow School in England around 1830. The world’s first squash courts were built there in 1864. From the outset, the game was  “exclusive to the well-to-do and upper middle classes ; squash players either belonged to an athletic club or had private courts built on their estates” according to historian Robert Crego.

Squash court, c. early 20th century. Credit – Getty Science

Coombe Hospital, made up of employees in the hospital, had their own courts on the premises. As late as the mid 2000s, Coombe had a team in the Leinster Veterans League.

Fitzwilliam Lawn Tennis Club had their own courts at Wilton Place where they were based from 1880. In 1969 they moved to a four and a half acre site bounded by Winton Road and Appian Way. The club is still active and is a member of the Leinster Squash league.

Squash court, Fitzwilliam Lawn Tennis Court in 1973. Photographed by John Donat (1933-2004). Credit – architecture.com.

Guinness, made up of employees of the Brewery, had their own courts at St. James Gate. Employers built a sports ground in front of the brewery providing a cricket pitch, bowls green, tennis courts and net ball facilities. Employees also had access to a swimming pool and a gym. Their squash club does not seem to be still active.

Leinster Cricket Club had their own court at their club in Rathmines. Founded in 1852, they also have tennis, squash, table tennis, bowls and cricket facilities. Their squash club is no longer a member of the Leinster league.

Mater Hospital, made up of employees of the hotel, had their own courts on the premises. The club is still an active member of the Leinster League.

Squash team. UCC, 1970s/1980s. Credit – http://squash.ucc.ie/

Old Belvedere Rugby Club had courts at their grounds on Anglesea Road. Founded in 1930 as an exclusive club for past pupils of Belvedere College, the club became ‘open’ to all players in 1976. The club is still an active member of the Leinster League.

Introduction

What links Captain William Bligh of Mutiny on the Bounty fame, Brendan Behan, Green Day and early morning techno gigs? One address – 1 George’s Quay, Dublin 2.

1 George’s Quay, 2016, Google Maps.

On the southside of the city between the new Rosie Hackett Bridge and Butt Bridge, this well-known and loved early-house pub closed in July of this year and re-opened a month later as a Starbucks.

The pub was situated on the corner of George’s Quay and Corn Exchange Place (formerly White’s Lane). Its address was 1 George’s Quay but the location was often mixed up for Burgh Quay.

As The White Horse, it was a popular haunt from the 1950s to the 1970s for the city’s journalist and literary set due mainly to its close proximity to the Irish Press building. In the 1980s and 1990s, its upstairs ‘Attic’ venue played an important role in Dublin’s rock and alternative music scenes. A relatively unknown Californian punk band called Green Day played there to less than 40 people in December 1991 at a gig organised by the pioneering Hope Collective.

Most people would probably say that the pub lost its true charm after a massive refurbishment job in 1998. However, up until recently as The Dark Horse, it played host to an array of techno, reggae and other ‘underground’ gigs. Its closure sees the city’s number of early houses drop to eleven.

19th century history:

Captain William Bligh, who was in command of the infamous HMS Bounty in 1789 when its crew famously rebelled, arrived in Dublin in September 1800 and stayed for about a year. A number of accounts have him staying in lodgings above the tavern at 1 George’s Quay. During his time here, he conducted a survey of Dublin Bay and recommended the construction of the Bull Wall. There was apparently a plaque outside the pub confirming the validity of this historical claim but it has long since disappeared.

In this wonderful scene from 1820, you can clearly make out 1 George’s Quay. It is the brown building in the mid right of the engraving with a prominent chimney. The neo-classical Custom House (opened 1791) is on the left and the Corn Exchange (opened 1816) with its distinct granite facade is on the right.

The Custom House viewed in 1820 from Burgh Quay showing the Corn Exchange on Burgh Quay and ships moored along the quays. Engraved by Henry Brocas.
Credit – magnoliasoft.net

In this version of the above drawing, published on the National Library of Ireland website, it is possible to zoom in and make out that the name above the building is ‘White’s Spirits Stores’:

Zoomed in version of the engraving from the NLI website.

This corresponds with William Phipps’ book The Vintner’s Guide (1825) which lists a Philip White at 1 George’s Quay:

White, Philip. 1 George’s Quay. The Vintner’s Guide (1825) by William Phipps

In a 1846 commercial directory, a vintner Eliza Fagan had taken over the business. In Thom’s Dublin Street Directory (1862), the premises was owned by a “wine & spirit dealer” by the name of William Bergin. Denis Bergin, presumably his son, sold the pub in 1880.

An Irish Times article (29 June 1880) described the premises as an “old – established wine and spirit concern” situated in this “great leading thoroughfare and commercial district, close by Corn Exchange, and the immediate shipping traffic, which … always leaves it one of the most desirable houses of its kind in the city”.

The public house had “recently undergone a complete change, having been taken down and rebuilt in its present modern form at an outlay of several thousand pounds.”

No detail was left out in the newspaper sale advertisement:

The exterior has a most substantial and appropriate appearance. The shop has three entrances, with folding doors to each, panelled with diamond-cut glass. There are six large-sized plate glass windows, with zinc blinds and bronze gas bars to each.

The interior is fitted up to modern style and in keeping with mercantile utility ; range of bar fixture the entire length of shop, in architectural form, with massive column supporters, surmounted by deep, concise,elaborately carved and finished, with eight-day clock in centre ; presses and lockers under for bottled wines, malt drinks and mineral waters : range of counters with return ends and four-fly partitions panelled to match doors and in keeping with the wainscoting round the shop : five large-sized oval spirit casks, in oak and gold : several five-light gasoliers in bronze, a very superior six-pull porter machine …

The upper portion of the house forms a most comfortable residence, 5 sitting and bedrooms, kitchen, 2 pantries, lavatory …

20th century history:

The 1901 census shows that James Ennis (50), a “Tea and Spirit Merchant” from County Meath, lived in the building with his sister Ellen (35). They employed two commercial assistants – William Byrne (30) and John Byrne (23). Both from County Carlow and possibly brothers. A servant Mary Monaghan (50) from Meath also worked for the Ennis siblings. All five individuals in the house were Roman Catholic and unmarried.

James Ennis died in 1905 and the pub was taken over by businessman John McGrath.

In the 1911 census, John McGrath (33), a Licensed Vintner from County Monaghan was living there with his wife Mary (23), from Dunishal, County Wicklow, and their two Dublin-born daughters  Lizzie (3) and Mary (11 months). They employed two shop/pub assistants James Fitzpatrick (18), from Ferns, County Wexford, and Robert Leggett (21), from Dublin. A domestic servant Kate Kavanagh (17), from Thurles, County Tipperary, also worked in the house.

As this wonderful photograph from May 1915 shows, the pub was only separated from the Tivoli cinema by a small laneway. The title ‘J. McGrath’ is clear above the door and on the top storey.

Tivoli Theatre with P. McGrath’s (later White Horse Inn) in background, 31 May 1915. Photographer: Robert French. Credit : National Library of Ireland

After the Easter 1916 Rising, John McGrath made two successful claims to the Property Losses (Ireland) Committee (PLIC). This body was established in June 1916 to assess claims for damages to buildings and property as a result of the destruction caused by the Rising.

McGrath’s first claim was for £7 11s 7d of stock including sugar, biscuits and cigarettes taken by Crown forces at his pub. A payment of £6 6s 7d was recommended by the Committee. The second was for £3 1s for damages to the building including broken bedroom windows. Full payment was recommended by the Committee.

John McGrath, File ref. no. PLIC/1/1263. Property Losses (Ireland) Committee

John McGrath emigrated to the Bronx, New York with his family in the late 1920s and died there in 1937.

The Irish Press connection:

The Tivoli cinema building beside the pub was originally known as The Conciliation Hall and was built as a meeting place for Daniel O’Connell’s ‘Loyal National Repeal Association’ in 1841. After his death six years laters, the building was used a grain store before re-opening as the Grand Lyric Hall in 1897. After a period of staging variety shows, it was relaunched in 1901 as the Tivoli cinema.

Closing in 1928, the imposing building was bought by the Irish Press and converted into the newspaper’s headquarters.

“A night shot of people gathered outside the Tivoli Theatre on Dublin’s Burgh Quay, circa 1920. The White Horse Inn can be seen in the background.
Credit – RTE

The White Horse’s heyday:

The pub was known as Galvin’s for a period in the 1930s before its owner Jerry Galvin died in June 1935.

It was bought by James P. Candon from Boyle, County Roscommon and J. Kerley and re-opened as The White Horse on Friday 26th September 1941.

A large advertisement published in the Irish Press on the day before its opening offered potential customers “the best drinks in town .. sandwiches and snacks … first-class service, civility and attention”.

A second advertisement announcing the opening of The White Horse (Evening Herald, 26 September, 1941)

At “Dublin’s newest and cosiest bar”, the owners were clear from the outset that men were welcome but the rule was – “ladies not served”.

Advertisement announcing the opening of The White Horse Bar. The Irish Press – 25 Sept 1941.

The ‘Ladies Not Served’ line really jumps out for the younger reader and while there’s no doubt that most pubs were men-only at this time, very few advertised to this degree. Judging by the newspaper archives anyway. An interesting Irishman’s Diary (20 July 1935) published six years before the above advertisement noted that the slogan was popularly used in the late 1920s and early 1930s but times were a-changing (albeit very slowly).

The Irish Times, 20 July 1935.

Back to The White Horse and later in the 1940s, the windows of the bar along with a number of nearby businesses were broken by a unemployed 21 year-old from Kerry called Denis Flanagan.

White Horse Bar windows smashed. The Irish Press – 13 June 1946.

In June 1948, James P. Candon sold his stake in The White Horse. A strong union man, he later went onto become president and then secretary of the Irish National Union of Vintners and Allied Trade Assistants. He passed away in 1969 at the age of 51.

Candon sold the pub for £15,000 to Michael ‘Mick’ O’Connell (c. 1901-1970) a farmer turned publican from Croom in County Limerick. At the time, O’Connell lived at Ashbourne House in Howth.

It was during O’Connell’s stewardship that The White Horse became the favoured watering hole for journalists, authors and those working in the newspaper trade. He was known fondly as the “Boss O’Connell”.

White Horse advertisement in the Limerick Leader (21 August 1948)

It was related by Bill Kelly in his book ‘Me Darlin’ Dublin’s Dead and Gone‘ that writer Benedict Kiely often told the story about the time that fourteen different people invited him for a drink as he walked between O’Connell Bridge and the White Horse bar, a distance of less than 75 yards.

Brendan Behan was a regular during the 1950s and 1960s in the White Horse along with The Pearl, The Palace and other nearby spots. As was Brian O’Nolan (‘Flann O’Brien/ aka Myles na gCopaleen), Seamus de Faoite and many others.

While Behan’s drinking days have become more and more celebrated as time passes, it was often a very depressing affair. As illustrated by Tim Pat Coogan in his 2008 memoir in which he writes about his last time drinking in Behan’s company:

(It was) about a year before his death in 1964 … in the White Horse beside the Press building. I was acting as Terry O’Sullivan’s stand-in on ‘Dublin’s Diary’, and intended procuring a few Behanisms to enliven the column.

Instead I found myself consoling Beatrice, his wife, as she gazed miserably but helplessly at Brendan standing at the bar with two well-known Dublin soaks. Every so often he would tell the barman to give him a ten-shilling note from the till. Then he would roll up the note, suck it for a while like a lollipop, and then spit it out. There was a ring of ten-shilling notes around the trio’s feet.

I offered to get the barman to stop but Beatrice told me it was useless. All he would do was go to another pub and indulge in some similar caper, accompanied by the soaks, and probably there’d by more like them at the next venue.

The interior of the The White Horse on 1st March 1964.
Credit – Terence Spencer, The LIFE Images Collection.

Another regular patron was the late, great sports journalist, Con Houlihan. In conversation with Keith Duggan in The Irish Times (25 Oct 2003) he spoke about the importance of The White Horse and the surrounding area:

…  geographically, Burgh Quay was the focal point of Dublin. It was an intimate community with certain pubs for certain people

I suppose the Dublin I knew was bound by Mulligan’s pub and you had perhaps 10 more around it. All great meeting places.

First and foremost, you had The White Horse, it would open around half six in the morning if you wanted an early drink. It was unique in that (Brendan) Behan could drink there as long as he stayed in a certain corner and not go around bothering people too much. And you found all kinds of humanity there. Bowes on Fleet Street was another.

The Swan on Burgh Quay, or the Mucky Duck as we called it, was a journalists’ pub but the Butterlys sold the licence after the Stardust Fire in 1981. And The Pearl Bar was frequented by a coterie from The Irish Times, all good people but a niche group. You had Kennedys, a very respectable pub. It was like a village and I loved it. You felt safe at night. Change can come like a dam and in Dublin it burst overnight. And there is a great sense of loss about that now.”

A barman’s job was sometimes dangerous, especially if you were dealing with unruly youths who thought they were Dublin’s answer to The Beatles, as this 1966 story demonstrates:

Irish Independent, 20 June 1966.

Owner Michael O’Connell, then living at 68 Offington Park in Sutton, passed away at the age of 69 in March 1970.

Michael O’Connel obit. The Irish Press – 10 March 1970.

After his death GAA correspondent Pádraig Puirséal wrote about him affectionately in the Irish Press on 13 March 1970:

The “Boss” O’Connell, God rest him, was a big, patient, understanding man, who could cope with any emergency in the White Horse from an unexpected newspaper strike to Brendan Behan (and God rest him too) suddenly deciding to burst into “ar thaobh na greine Sliabh na mBan”, or especially if there happened to be a few G.A.A. characters in the neighborhood, the “Lament for Johnny Thompson”…
It was in a way, odd that Mick O’Connell with the massive frame from the limestone county of Limerick, should have been so much identified with so many sidelights of literary Dublin … for to me he always seemed a man of the open air as, on the too few occasions we had time for private chatter, he talked of his youthful days around Croom, of horse and points-to-points, of running dogs and hurling men.

Mick O’Connell’s son William (aka Bill) took over the reins of the Dark Horse after his death.

In the 1970s, the bar was a meeting spot for an array of organisations including the Irish Boxers’ Mutual Benefit Society. A newspaper advertisement in the Irish Press (29 October 1970) looking for a new barman specified that the individual must be a “union member”. Different times.

Former Irish Press journalist Hugh McFadden in an email to the author (9 August 2016) recalled his memories of the White Horse:

As far as I remember the O’Connell family still owned the ‘Horse’ in the early-to-mid 1970s. It was an ‘early house’, of course, meaning that it opened about 7.30 am in the morning, as it had a special licence to serve the dockers and shift workers on the quays.

The shift workers included staff of the adjacent Irish Press, especially those who worked on the Evening Press whose shifts started around 7.30 am. The downstairs bar would usually be quite busy around 8am-9am in the morning. There were very very few women to be seen in the downstairs bar at any time, just the occasional older woman (‘Dicey Riley’ type). The upstairs lounge was not busy during the day, although it had its own customers in the evening and later became a venue for music sessions.

The pub did have its literary associations, not alone the connection with the Press (the novelist and broadcaster Ben Kiely was one of the Press journalists who drank there, and so did the Kerry short-story writer Seamus de Faoite, among others. The novelists and Irish Times columnist Brian O’Nolan (‘Flann O’Brien/ aka Myles na gCopaleen) often drank there in the 1950s and 1960s. He also drank in the Scotch House. Several of the Irish Times Cruiskeen Lawn columns are set in the White Horse, especially ones about the early opening hours. It was a favourite watering hole for many of the Irish Press printers, as well as some of the journalists.

 

My late friend Shay McGonagle, the Press journalist and cartoonist, drank there frequently. See my chapter (‘Boogie on Burgh Quay’) in the book The Press Gang, edited by Dave Kenny (New Island Books) in which there is a photograph of Shay McGonagle and myself taken in the upstairs lounge of the White Horse around 1976.

1970 street scene – from right to left – Corn Exchange Building, the Irish Press Building and The White Horse.
Credit – dublincity.ie

Des Derwin remembers that The Socialist Workers Movement and New Liberty, a rank and file group in the ITGWU, met in the top room of the pub for a while around 1981.

Frank Hopkins has commented saying that he used to play Chess upstairs on a Monday night while Alan MacSimon also has informed us that the bar staff kept a set of dominos as well for anyone who wanted to play.

After the H-Blocks riot on Merrion Street on 18th July 1981, MacSimon calls to mind that

Groups of Gardai had chased protesters back to the city centre and were using their batons on anyone they thought might have been the march earlier. A few fleeing protesters arrived into the bar and told their, possibly exaggerated, stories. Staff decided to lock the doors. A few minutes later Gardai turned up, demanding to be let in. But the doors stayed closed for about an hour, until the Gardai had moved on.

In March 1984, the bar was put up for sale but the offer was withdrawn after receiving no bids.

White Horse Inn for sale. The Irish Press – 2 March 1984.

Allen Family and The Attic:

The pub was eventually sold in July 1987 to husband and wife team Len and Ger Allen.

Exterior of The White Horse, 11 May 1988.

[As a brief side note, an Irish bar manager Noel Grehan (35) from Ballinameen, near Boyle County Roscommon died of a heart attack in London in June 1989 less than 24 hours after he was beaten up by intruders. Grehan had worked for ten years at the White Horse in Dublin. He was found dead by staff at the Three Compasses pub in Queen Street, North London only hours after he had been beaten by two men and robbed of £400 as he was closing after Sunday night trading.]

From the late 1980s, the upstairs part of the bar became a gig spot known as The Attic. Music promoter Andrew Bass was brought in to book bands.

Robbie Foy later took over. He had previously managed Dublin group Light A Big Fire who were tipped for big things.

Stephen Rennicks in an article about 1980s Dublin band The Idiots described The Attic as a:

cheap to rent and very small venue (that) was an incredibly important place for certain bands of this generation to come together and share their music …

The Idiots were practically the house band at this time. They had a rehearsal room upstairs, drank and socialized downstairs and played live often at this midpoint between these two worlds. Their manager, Sinead, was also the house sound person for all the bands who played there as well.

Many people recall the floorboards that felt like they were going to give way at any second.

In an email to the author (10 August 2016), Niall McGuirk of the Hope Collective recalled:

Andrew Bass asked if I was interested in getting bands to play in the Attic (upstairs in the White Horse Inn). For £30 we’d get the room and a sound engineer. It sounded interesting to me but I didn’t want to become a local promoter. It has always puzzled me as to why music is so inaccessible to people who aren’t old enough to drink in pubs. Most folk start off in bands when they are under 18 but there is nowhere for them, legally, to play.

Back in the late 80s, Ireland’s bar owners had a strange interpretation of the licensing laws. They would allow “Minors” (Under 18’s) on their premises until 6.30 but only if accompanied by a legal guardian and, obviously, without serving them alcohol. The police drew a blind eye if minors were on the premises before that time. That “law” has since been rubbished but in 1990 the only way to have no age restrictions at a gig was to play it in the afternoon. So I asked if it could happen! The Attic’s manager, Lenny, agreed to try out Sunday gigs with no age restrictions, starting at 4pm. Again, licensing laws meant people weren’t legally allowed on the premises (even to set-up equipment) between 2.30 and 4 p.m. so sound checks had to be completed by 2.30. In response to Andrew’s suggestion to me, I thought the best thing to do was to have a series of afternoon benefit gigs leading up to Christmas.

They put on a host of cult Irish bands at the Attic including Therapy? and Whipping Boy in December 1990.

On a “wintry Sunday afternoon” in December 1991, an up-and-coming American punk band Green Day played in The Attic to about 40 people. Support came from Dog Day. Cover charge was £2 and the organisers lost £50 on the night.

Green Day, The Attic, December 1991.
Credit – Hot Press

Niall recalls in Please Feed Me: A Punk Vegan Cookbook (2004) that singer Billy Joe Armstrong and the rest of the band didn’t hang around in Dublin that evening:

Dublin wasn’t really the party city and Green Day left for Belfast straight after the gig, but not before getting some directions and food. They had enjoyed themselves so much in Belfast the previous night that they wanted to get back as quickly as possible.

One lucky gig goer was Pete Murphy who recalled in a 2015 article  in State Magazine:

I was in town doing some last minute Christmas shopping. I knew Niall was organising an afternoon gig for this band on Lookout Records, called Green Day. I knew their first couple of records, and I’d always support the Hope gigs when I could, so I took some time out to pop in and catch the show. Armed as ever with my trusty walkman recorder I headed in and, along with, I guess, 25 other people, caught a great gig. I still have that tape somewhere.

Thankfully those recordings eventually made it online to Youtube. As you can hear here, their setlist that day included an early version of crowd-favourite Welcome To Paradise.

As well as The Attic, The Hope Collective were also using Dublin venues like JJ Smyth’s on Aungier Street, the Underground on Dame Street (now Club Lapello strip club) McGonagles on South Anne Street (demolished) the New Inn on New Street, Charlie’s on Aungier Street (merged into Capitol Lounge) Fox & Pheasant on Capel Street (demolished) and Barnstormers on Capel Street (now The Black Sheep). A complete gig list is available here.

Around the same time, The Attic gig booker Robbie Foy was organising inventive Acid House nights around the city:

Robbie Foy/Acid House article. The Irish Independent – 28 October 1989.

Football and redevelopment:

The White Horse was a popular pub for football fans during this time as well. An array of soccer scarves from around the world was displayed in the bar downstairs. Shay Ryan, drummer with mid 1980s Dublin soul legends The Commotion, remembers the great atmosphere in the pub watching the Euro 1988 championship especially the England game.

Booker Robbie Foy was a diehard Shamrock Rovers fan as was owner Len Allen and barman Buzz O’Neill. Allen had played junior football as a goalkeeper for Baldoyle United and Oulton. As such it became a favoured spot for Rovers fans during this period particularly when the club played at the RDS from 1990 to 1996.

An etching of The White Horse, 1995.
Credit – Irish Independent, 13, June 1995.

ason Byrne and John Henderson organised the ‘Murphy’s Corduroy Comedy’ Club’ in the upstairs bar every Thursday night around 1997.

Stompin’ George, Dublin Rockabilly DJ institution, has informed me that:

J
Len and his wife moved to Wexford during the 90’s and took over a pub on the quays which he renamed ” An Capall Ban” beside the Talbot Hotel. It too became a great watering hole for both locals and us so called ” blow ins”.

Sadly signalling the end of an era, the Irish Press closed its doors in May 1995 with a loss of over 600 jobs.

The White Horse in its current incarnation soon followed.

No doubt spurred on by the growth of the so-called Celtic Tiger and the popularity of ‘modernizing’ pubs,  it was announced in the Irish Independent (7 May 1997) that the Allen family had lodged planning permission to “demolish and rebuild the well known early house and traditional music venue” . This refurbishment to the The White Horse cost well over £600,000. The plans were to reconstruct the premises to include a pub at ground floor level and apartments overhead. The author of that article noted that the knocking down of the 250 year-old building marks the loss “of yet another olde worde pub in the capital”.

The pub reopened around 1998 as a sleek, new modern bar and it was certainly noticed.

An unnamed journalist in The Irish Independent (27 April 1999) didn’t hold back on his opinions of the redeveloped pub:

Has any pub in history ever undergone a complete as transformation as the White Horse? It’s doubtful.

Short of turning into some sort of Episcopalian church it is hard to see how it could have moved further from what it used to be.

The old White Horse was described in terms such as, er, basic while the new version looks like it has sprung from the pages of a Habitat brochure.

(It used to be) dank and dingy, full of bibulous hacks from the doomed Irish Press – many of whom took advantage of the fact that it was an early house and started boozing at 7am – and housed upstairs a creaking venue for rock bands who couldn’t get a gig anywhere else.

The new incarnation is completely unrecognisable. It’s spacious and airy, full of immaculately polished wooden tables and shiny metal trimmings ; above all, it’s suffused with light, pouring through from every angle of its largely glazed exterior.

Back then, the White Horse had atmosphere. Can you say the same for the new place? The jury is out.

New decor, new clientele. Gone are the old men, the plastered journalists and the spotty, long-haired teenagers. In their place are smart folk , dressed in suits and designer leather jackets. Yuppies, though not of the strident variety.

Recent history:

It changed hands briefly in the early 2000s and was known as P. McCormack & Sons for a time. But the Allen family took back control and renamed it The Dark Horse around 2011. Len and Ger’s son Con Allen, a DJ, and daughter Lyn Allen, a fashion designer, put their own mark on the pub. Len Allen sadly passed away from cancer in 2007 and with the band Therapy? leading the tributes.

The Dark Horse was one of the very rare early-houses that encouraged partying and DJs. Promoter Bernard Kennedy started running early-morning dance gigs there around 2004.

Piece on the early-house DJ nights at the Dark Horse. The Irish Times, 17 August 2006.

From 2011 to 2015, Con Allen took up the mantle and ran an early-morning techno and house club called the Breakfast Club every Saturday. Doors would open at 7am and a mix of all-night ravers and early risers would come to dance to talented local and international DJs. Entrance was €10 and two bouncers on the door prevented any trouble. All the windows were covered with black curtains to provide punters with an artificial feeling that it was still Friday night. Sweaty clubbers were kicked out into the disconcerting sunshine and reality at 2pm. Some went home while the more wired would go around the corner to Ned Scanlon’s on Townsend Street.

From September 2011 to August 2012, our friend Freda at Poster Fish Promotions ran the Saturday night slot at the Dark Horse Inn. Some of the most memorable nights included DJ Mek of legendary Irish late 90’s Hip-Hop, Captain Moonlight, Irish Jungle DJ Welfare and reggae MC Cian Finn.

This period saw one of my favourite DJ gigs ever featuring one TD, two councillors and a host of great comrades and friends:

Punky Reggae Party (Vol. 11) – Benefit for the Campaign Against the Household Tax. Saturday March 31 2012.

Conclusion:

The Dark Horse’s last post on their Facebook page was in March 2016 and the pub closed its doors in July.

The closed Dark Horse Inn, July 2016.
Credit – Publin.

It has re-opened in the last few weeks as a Starbucks coffee shop.

Starbucks cafe at 1-2 George’s Quay, August 2016.
Credit – Paul Guinan

There are now forty plus Starbucks in Dublin with more than twenty in the city centre alone. They only make up a tiny percentage of the company’s 23,768 stores (2016 estimate) worldwide but twenty is a lot for a central part of the city which only stretches in each direction for a couple of kilometres. Is there really a need for two opposite each other on Westmoreland Street?

Starbucks has moved into an array of premises including the the old Bewley’s café on Westmoreland Street, the clothing shop Counter Propaganda on Liffey Street, Sawers fish mongers (estd. 1959) on Chatham Row off Grafton Street, the clothing store and coffee shop Raglan on Drury Street, Marco Pierre’s White Steakhouse and Grill on Dawson Street, Coopers Restaurant on Leeson Street and the Bia Cafe on O’Connell Street.

Starbucks in the surrounding area of O’Connell Street, 2016.

It would be disingenuous to simply portray this as a big, bad American multi-national ripping apart a historic pub and putting in a cloned version of their coffee shop. The historic heart of the White Horse was almost totally torn out during the demolition and expansion work in the late 1990s.

But I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels unsettled by the sheer amount of chain coffee shops, souvenir shops, clothing stores and fast food restaurants that are proliferating in the city often at the expense of independent establishments.

Especially if it means another space like the Dark Horse is taken out of circulation that was available for people who wanted to put on a reggae dub night or tech-house morning session. Something a bit out of the ordinary.

Dublin is fighting a uphill battle to preserve its independence and identity. Temple Bar, once known as an independent area with cheap rents in the 1980s and then a tourist magnet from the 1990s, seems to have completely lost that battle. It now has a McDonalds, a Starbucks and a Costa Coffee while its arts space Exchange Dublin, the bike shop Square Wheel Cycleworks and record shops like Borderline and Cosmic have closed their doors in the last few years.

Promoting progress while safeguarding heritage is a complex responsibility. You have to tread carefully. Nobody wants to sound like a cliched Sean Dempsey in the song ‘Dublin In The Rare Old Times‘ (1979) who I’m guessing would be that loud old drunk man who likes to remind people how Parnell Street and Moore Street are unrecognisable from his youth. But I also think it’s perfectly fine to be alarmed by the rapid spread of a coffeehouse chain like Starbucks in our city who are regularly criticised for violating labour laws, opening stores without planning permission and tax avoidance.

So goodbye to the White Horse and to the Dark Horse. Thanks for the memories.

[Thanks to the following people for help with this article : Eanna Brophy, Hugh McFadden, Dunster, Freda Hughes, Fearghal Whelan, Niall McGuirk, Alan MacSimon, Des Derwin, Stompin’ George,  and Shay Ryan]

A 1985 edition of Inner City Magazine containing two advertisements, one photograph and two reviews of Dublin pubs.

Front cover of Inner City Magazine (Vol. 3 / No. 19, 1985)

The first advertisement is for The Sunset House at 1 Summerhill Parade in Ballybough. It shows two older woman named Ellen and Carmel enjoying a glass of Guinness. The pub was the scene of a fatal shooting in April 2016 and closed down. It was recently taken over by Paul Gannon, the brother of Social Democrats councillor Gary, and re-opened as The Brendan Behan.

Advertisement for The Sunset House

The second advertisement is for the Hill 16 bar at 28 Gardiner Street.  Offering “best drinks – pub grub”, it shows a barman pulling pints behind the counter.

Advertisement for the Hill 16 Bar

A photograph in the magazine shows a burnt out property immediately next door to the Hill 16.

Photograph of Hill 16 beside burn out property.

The issue also includes reviews by Tony Ivory of Patrick Conway’s at 70 Parnell Street, closed since February 2008, and J. J. Whelan’s at 69 Summerhill, which is currently known as ‘Cuchulainn’s at Croke Park‘.

Ivory described Conway’s as one of the “best known and most popular haunts” in the city centre. There is no television and the Guinness (£1.33 pint) is “usually good”. However, the writer did complain that the toilets were not sufficient for the amount of punters and the cigarette machine didn’t stock his favoured brands.

The review of J. J. Whelan’s focused on the high standard of the Guinness (£1.27 pint) which Ivory called “one of the best that can be had anywhere in Dublin”.

Reviews of Conways, Parnell Street and J. J. Whelan’s in Summerhill

Introduction

Konrad Peterson/Konrāds Pētersons (1888-1981) was a Latvian-born revolutionary, socialist and civil engineer who lived for most of his life in his adopted home of Ireland.

Konrad in Dublin, ca. late 1910s. Credit : Brady Collection via Sandra Bondarevska.

At the age of only 17, he participated in the Russian Revolution of 1905. Forced to flee to Dublin in its aftermath, he was active in socialist and Irish Republican politics in Dublin during his time living in the city from 1906 to 1919. Returning home to a newly declared independent Latvia, he was witness to the Nazi and Russian invasions of his home city during the Second World War. He returned to Ireland in the mid-1940s to work with Bord na Móna and lived in Athy, County Kildare where he died in his 90s.

Peterson’s story is a fascinating one that has largely been forgotten. Especially in labour history and republican circles in Dublin. Sandra Bondarevska within the Latvian community and local Athy historian Frank Taaffe has done much to help ensure his memory hasn’t been totally neglected.

Note: his first name is sometimes spelt ‘Conrad’ and his surname ‘Petersen’. For the purpose of continuity, I will spell it as Konrad Peterson which is the most commonly used form and the spelling which is on his grave.

Early life (1888-1905):

Peterson was born in Riga in the Russian Empire (now Latvia) on 15th October 1888. He studied at Tilo (Tilava) primary school and then at the Mangali Maritime school from which he was expelled for refusing to speak only Russian.

According to nekropole.info, his father ran a tavern in the suburb of Zasulauks outside Riga city.

Sandra Bondarevska in an unpublished history article states that Konrad had been been a member of Revolutionary movement in Latvia from a young age and had “had close ties with the famous social democrat and renowned poet Rainis, who had emigrated to Switzerland with his wife Aspazija after the events of 1905.”

During the 1905 Russian Revolution, it is believed that Konrad participated in two major events in Riga. The first was the 10,000 strong workers demonstration on 13th January in protest at the Bloody Sunday massacre. Three days earlier in St Petersburg, Russia, over 1,000 unarmed demonstrators were shot dead by soldiers of the Imperial Guard as they marched towards the Winter Palace to present a petition to Tsar Nicholas II of Russia.

In September 1905, Peterson was involved in the daring raid of Riga Central prison which involved the rescue of two imprisoned comrades. His involvement is in the revolutionary movement is covered in Fēlikss Cielēns memoir ‘Laikmetu main̦ā’.

John Langins (History of Science professor, University of Toronto) met Peterson in later life and retold in his memoirs how:

Conrad took part in the bloody demonstration in January. Jumping over the wall, one Kazaks tried to spear him (in the) the bottom but (the) spear (went through his) thick coat out the back.. (Konrad was) later was an active combatant in Riga and in the countryside. These revolutionary instincts remained with Conrad (his whole) lifetime.

In wake of the brutal repression following the revolution, Peterson was smuggled out of Riga in December in a cargo ship and traveled to Ireland via Scotland where he had family.

Langins memoirs elaborates how:

Konrad fled from the terror of the Tsar. (He) hid (in a) ship that traveled to Scotland with a few comrades. Some were concealed (amongst) potatoes and some Linos. Those (in) potatoes (were) found, and right there on the ship (were) shot, but those who had Linos, was moved to one (friendly) small cabin, where they spent several days and nights in meetings, motionless on one bed … When (they) jumped down from the board in Scotland, they almost could not walk and was accepted as heroes of the English trade unions.

Dublin (1906-1919):

Arriving in Dublin about 1906, he moved in with his uncle Charles Peterson, of the well-known pipe firm Kapp & Peterson, who lived on Leinster Road, Rathmines.

He was enrolled at Padraig Pearse’s famous school St. Enda’s in Rathfarnham. In the year 1908-1909, he is listed as being a pupil in Fourth Class, Division II.

Peterson would have been about 20 years of age in 1908 (!) but as he had only been in Ireland for two years, with presumably little or no English, it makes sense that he would be in a class for much younger children.

His english much have improved greatly as on 3rd May 1910, he is listed as taking part in a debate between the Irish Women’s Franchise League and the Socialist Party of Ireland.  The resolution was “That an adult Suffragist should support a Bill immediately enfranchising women on the same terms of men”. Speaking in favour were Mrs. Cousins, Mrs. Bac, Miss B. Bannister and Mr. Pike of The Nation newspaper. Speaking against were Mr. Ryan Loughran and ‘Konrad Petersen’. Presumably both were representing the Socialist Party of Ireland.

Whether Peterson actually believed in that viewpoint or was speaking against for argument’s sake is unknown.

Newspaper ‘Votes For Women’, 6 May 1910.

In the 1911 census, the Peterson family were living at 114 Leinster Road, Rathmines, Dublin 6. Konrad, aged 21, was listed as a scholar. He listed his religion as a “Free Thinker” as did his uncles Charles (60) and John (45), both pipe-makers. Charle’s wife was a Dublin-born Catholic called Annie Peterson (nee Forde).

Peterson family. 1911 census return, 144 Leinster Road. Via census.nationalarchives.ie

The Peterson family home was just a few minutes walk from ‘Surrey House’ at 49b Leinster Road, Rathmines. This was the home of Constance Markievicz and a hotbed of revolutionary activity. Markievicz became friendly with Konrad and his uncle Charles.

Around this time, he enrolled as a Engineering student at the Royal College of Science for Ireland (RCScI). This college later absorbed into University College Dublin (UCD) as the faculty of Science and Engineering.

Peterson continued his activity with the Socialist Party of Ireland and the milleu surround it. In 1911 he offered his advice and help to Irish Republicans organising protests against the visit of King George V and Queen Mary to Dublin. In her Witness Statement (No. 909) to the Bureau of Military History, Sidney Czira (aka ‘John Brennan’) recalled:

It was suggested to us by Conrad Peterson who was a student in the College of Science and who had some experience of shock tactics in Czarist Russia – he was from Riga – that we should adopt the methods used by demonstrators in Russia i.e. fold all the leaflets in two and catching them by the corner, fling them into air if we saw the police approaching. They would fan about the crowd and be picked up.

Sidney Czira (nee Gifford) was an officer of Cumann na mBan in Dublin and sister of Grace Gifford, the widow of Joseph M. Plunkett who was executed after the Rising.

He was certainly active in labour politics in Dublin in 1913 but it is not known to what extent he participated in the turbulent events of the Lockout.

In this wonderful picture from around 1913 published in Fearghal McGarry’s book ‘The Abbey Rebels of 1916: A Lost Revolution‘ you can see Konrad Peterson, Constance Markievicz, Helena Molony, Michael O’Gorman and George Doran dressed in costume for a performance or fancy dress party.

Peterson pictured in c. 1913. Fearghal McGarry, The Abbey Rebels of 1916: A Lost Revolution (Gill & Macmillan, 2015)

C.S. Andrews wrote that during this time Peterson:

formed close links with many of the literary and theatrical figures of Dublin … including, in particular, the famous Daisy Bannard and the man who she afterwards married, the Republican journalist Fred Cogley (‘Man of No Property, p. 188).

Peterson graduated in 1913 with an Engineering degree from the College of Scienc . Afterwards, as retold in CS Andrew’s book ‘Man of No Property’ (p. 188), he worked on a number of engineering projects. These included a survey, carried out by a group of private entrepreneurs before the First World War, into the possibility of harnessing the Shannon for Electricity Production. The project came to nothing and the idea remained dormant until revived by Dr. TA. McLaughlin in the 1920s.

On May 4th 1915, he was granted naturalisation by the British government. He was listed as ‘Konrad Peterson, from Russia. Resident in Rathmines, Co. Dublin’.

Around this time he married Helen Yeates from Dublin. From the process of elimination, I believe this is our Helen Yeates, born 9th February 1893 to Joseph and Bridget Yeates living at 10 Beresford Place. By 1911, eighteen-year old Helen was living at 107.1 Amiens Street.

Peterson was living and working in Dublin during the 1916 Easter Rising and was friends with many of its leading personalities including Connolly and Marchievicz. According to The Irish Press (24 May 1951), Peterson “helped in the organisation of communications for the Rising”. But there is no more reliable sources or references to back up claims he took an active part during Easter Week.

Many will know the story of the Finn and Swede who fought in the GPO making references to Russian and British imperialism. Interestingly, there is also some evidence to suggest that a handful of Russian revolutionaries may have visited Dublin in the immediate aftermath of the Rising.

In February 1918, Peterson was present at large meeting that took place at the Mansion House to celebrate the Russian Revolution. The Irish Times (9th February 1918), reported that those present wished “to congratulate the Russian people on the triumph they have won for democratic principles“. During the proceedings, “The Red Flag” was sung and red and republican flags were waved.

Flyer for another 1918 event in the Mansion House. Credit – http://www.whytes.ie/.

The Irish Independent (5th February 1918) wrote:

Mr. Conrad Peterson who announced himself as a Russian Social Democrat spoke strongly in support of “the great struggle for peace, liberty and bread”.

Those present also included Cathal O’Shannon, Dr. Kathleen Lynn, Countess Marchievicz and Mrs. (Maud) Gonne-McBride.

In June 1919, Peterson was listed as a committee member of the ‘James Connolly Birthday Celebration’ in the Mansion House. Tickets were one shilling and all proceeds were to be devoted to the establishment of a ‘Connolly Memorial Worker’s College’.

Peterson listed second row in the middle. Republished in ‘Songs of Freedom: The James Connolly Songbook’ (PM Press, 2013), page 33.

Latvia and Sweden (1919 – 1945):

Peterson left Dublin with his wife Helen sometime after June 1919 and returned to his native Latvia which had been since declared an independent republic. Upon his arrival, it is believed that he was honoured as a hero of the 1905 Revolution.

One can only imagine the culture shock for a Dublin woman Helen Yeates to move from Dublin to Riga, with presumably very little Russian or Latvian, in 1919.

Konrad in Riga, Latvia pictured soon after his return from Dublin, c. 1919. Credit Brady Family via Sandra Bondarevska.

On 1st September 1923, Helen gave birth to a daughter Izeult Pamela Peterson.

[On an important side note, Konrad’s sister-in-law Annie Peterson (nee Forde) was an active member of Cumann na mBan in Dublin in the early 1920s. She lived with her son Conrad Henry and daughter Isolda at 53 Kenilworth Square, Rathgar. Éamon de Valera’s presidential office was moved to this address in 1921 when his house in Blackrock was raided. It was in this house that Arthur Griffith presented Lloyd George’s proposals for the Anglo-Irish Treaty to de Valera four days before the Treaty was signed in London.]

In 1929, Peterson visited Ireland with journalist Patrick Smyth (aka ‘Quidnunc’) writing in his An Irishman’s Diary column in The Irish Times (19 June 1929):

I happened to meet during the week a visitor to Dublin whose name will be remembered by many of his old associates in the College of Science – Mr. Konrad Peterson, who is now Director of Public Works under the Government of Latvia.

The piece mentioned that Peterson had previously lived in Dublin “and was for several years associated with Labour politics in this city”. Smyth obviously thought very highly of him as he remarked that his “cheerful and vigorous personality has had much to do with the extraordinary progress” of the Latvian economy!

While in Ireland, Peterson visited the Shannon hydroelectric scheme and took much interest in its progress as a similar project was under consideration for the River Dwina in Latvia. Peterson also lauded the progress made in “the construction of roads in the Irish Free State”. In regard to Latvia, he said the “political future” of the country depended on the “adoption of constitutional form of government by Russia”.

Image of Peterson in The Irish Times, 19 June 1929.

Peterson, then a high official in the Latvian government, visited Dublin again in 1937. The Irish Times (11th August 1937) stated that Peterson had a special interest Ireland’s peat industry and one of the factories under his control was the State Peat Works at Liepaja, Latvia which produced some of the country’s largest quantities of peat insulation plates.

During his time in Dublin, he met his first cousin Isolde. A daughter of his uncle Charles who had first put up him in Rathmines Road when he first arrived in Ireland thirty years previously.

(l-r) Konrad Peterson, Isolde Peterson (cousin), unknown, unknown. Dublin, c. 1936. Credit : Brady Family via Sandra Bondarevska

At the outbreak of war in 1939, Peterson was in charge of the Latvian government department dealing with bog development.

During World War Two, his country was invaded first by the Nazis in December 1941 and then by the Russians in October 1944.

When the Germans were forced to evacuate, he decided like thousands of others, to seek refuge in Sweden. Traveling with his wife Helen and daughter Pamela, their the hazardous journey across the Baltic in an open boat was safely accomplished with the help of two friends. (‘Man of No Property’, p. 188).

In Ireland, former IRA volunteer turned civil servant C.S. Andrews was put in charge of turf development when Fianna Fail had come to power in 1932 and in a few years later became managing director of the newly-established Bord na Móna .

In August 1945, Andrews was sent on a delegation to Sweden to learn more about their peat industry. He takes up the story in ‘A Man Of No Property’ (p. 188):

We were in the office of one of these peat moss factories when the discussion was interrupted by the arrival of a heavily built, middle-aged man who addressed us in a loud, cheerful voice speaking thickly accented English ‘Are you boys from Dublin? Do you know Daddy Or and the College of Science? We were astonished at this apparition. Daddy Orr was a legendary and eccentric Professor of Mathematics in the College of Science who was alleged to have believed himself to be the square root of minus one. It was surprising, to say the least, that his fame has spread to an obscure peat moss factory in a remote corner of Sweden.

Andrews had by chance bumped into Konrad Peterson. The Irish delegation took him and his wife to dinner in Malmo “and to say that his life story kept us entranced until the small hours would be an understatement” recalled Andrews.

During this time, Bord na Móna were developing a bog at Kilberry, near Athy, for peat moss production. As this was a specialised process in which the Irish government were inexperienced, Andrews asked Peterson if he would be wiling to move to Ireland to take charge of the project.

Peterson readily accepted and him and his wife and daughter moved to Dublin in circa 1946.

Dublin and Kildare (1946 – 1981):

The family first moved in with Peterson’s cousin Isolde who lived in a house ‘Allsa’ on Winton Avenue, Rathgar Dublin.

Isolde Peterson pictured in The Irish Times (16 May 1942).

On 4th March 1948 in The Irish Times, the engagement was announced between Konrad and Helen’s daughter Pamela Peterson and Dermot Murphy. Dermot was the second son of Professor and Mrs. J. Murphy from Glanville, Newcastle, Galway.

Later in 1948, Konrad Peterson spoke at the inaugural meeting of the Dublin University Fabian Society which was focused on the current political landscape in Eastern Europe. Described as a “Latvian refugee” in The Irish Times (2 November 1948), he told the audience that “in the police state there was no freedom of speech … There was one party – the Communist Party – and God help anyone who tries to put up an opposition”. He described the regimes in Eastern Europe as “new slavery” not “new democracies”.

Peterson in later life. via lv.wikipedia.org.

Peterson was obviously hostile to Stalin and the Soviet Union but a report in The Irishman’s Diary the following day is very interesting as it refers to Peterson being a member of “left wing party that was not Communist” in Latvia. So it does seem he retained some of his radical Left politics.

Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, he was well-established as manager of Bord na Móna’s peat moss factory at Kilberry, County Kildare.

Peterson pictured in The Irish Press, 22 August 1956.

Konrad’s long-devoted wife Helen died sadly on 22nd November 1959 at St. Laurence’s hospital in Dublin and was buried in Glasnevin Cemetery.

Grave of Helen Peterson, Glasnevin. Credit – Sandra Bondarevska.

In the early 1960s, Konrad’s cousin Isolde Peterson was a founding member of Amnesty International along with Sean MacBride, Helmut Clissmann, Sybil Le Brocquy and others.

Konrad finished his career in Bord na Móna’s “experimental research station, developing peat moss as a horticultural fertiliser. “

After his retirement, he moved for a time to Canada with his daughter Pamela and son-in-law Dr. Dermot Murphy before moving back to Athy where the three lived in White Castle Lawns.

Konrad in his 90s. Credit : Brady Collection via Sandra Bondarevska.

Konrad Peterson died in St. Vincent’s Hospital, Athy aged 93 years on 16^th January, 1981. He is buried in St. Michael’s Cemetery, Athy, Co. Kildare.

Conclusion:

No obituaries followed his death in any English-speaking newspapers that I could find. It is bitterly disappointing that he was never interviewed by any journalists or historians about his long life and the extraordinary world events that he was witness to.

As he had no grandchildren, that line of his direct family died out. His grave in Athy became neglected and it wasn’t until March 2013 that things began to change. A group of Latvians living in Ireland including journalist Sandra Bondarevska and Latvian ambassador Peteris Elferts organised a trip to St. Michael’s Cemetery to clean Peterson’s grave which by then was illegible.

He deserves nothing less. John Langins, who knew Peterson in Canada in his later years, wrote:

he loved Ireland and often told me about the English violence in Ireland. He believed that Ireland was the saddest example across the English colonial history, much worse than their behavior in Africa and elsewhere. He (also) compared the Irish and Latvian situation, considering (their) very similar colonial situations.

2013 grave cleaning of Konrad Peterson, St. Michael’s Cemetery. Credit : http://baltic-ireland.ie/

From a daring young revolutionary in the Russian Revolution of 1905 to managing a Bord na Móna’s peat moss factory in Kilberry forty years later – Konrad Peterson lived a remarkable and long life.

If anyone has anymore information, particularly on his time in Dublin (1906-19), please leave a comment or get in touch.

References:

CS Andrews, Man of No Property (Lilliput, 2001)
Frank Taafe, kildare-nationalist.ie (12 March 2013)
Entry on nekropole.info and lv.wikipedia.org
The Irish Press (24 May 1951; 22 Aug 1956)
The Irish Times (09 Feb 1918; 29 Sep 1923; 19 June 1929; 11 Aug 1937; 02 Nov 1948; 03 March 1948; 04 March 1948; 09 May 1951; 23 Nov 1959)
The Irish Independent (5 Feb 1918)
Votes for Women (6 May 1910)

Family Tree:

Konrad Peterson (1888-1981) m. c. 1915 Helen Yeates (1893 – 1959)
daughter Pamela Peterson (1923-1989) m. 1948 Dermot Murphy (?-?)

On a spring evening in 1942 in the North Dublin suburb of Clontarf, a tragic shooting led to the deaths of Una Ennis (aged 19) and her boyfriend John Prendergast (aged 30).

Nearly seventy-five years later, here is the story retold for the first time online. We understand this is a sensitive topic for the two families concerned and hope the chain of events can be recounted in a compassionate, factual way.

Headline in The Irish Times, 13 April 1942.

Ennis family

Una Ennis was born in 1922, worked as a typist and lived at Whitefields Lodge with her family in the grounds of Phoenix Park. Her father, retired Major-General Thomas Ennis, was superintendent of the Park.

Photograph of Una Ennis. Credit : Daniel Seery (Relative of Una)

A little bit about his background.

Thomas Ennis (1892-1945) joined the Irish Volunteers in 1914, fought in the G.P.O. during the 1916 Easter Rising and was interned in Frongach, North Wales. Upon returning home, he helped re-organise his Irish Volunteer company from 1917 onwards. He was active with E Company, 2nd Battalion, Dublin Brigade, IRA between 1919 and 1922 during which he was a founder-member of Michael Collin’s ‘Squad’.

As Oscar Traynor’s second-in-command during the burning of the Custom House in 1921, he was was shot twice in the leg and badly wounded. Joining the Free State Army in February 1922, he was in command of Government Troops as they battled anti-Treaty IRA volunteers during the Battle of Dublin (28 June to 5 July 1922) marking the start of the Cvil War. He resigned from the Free State army in May 1924 and later became superintendent of the Phoenix Park.

Major-General Thomas Ennis (with Thompson) and Commandant McCrea disembarking from the S.S. Arvonia at Victoria Quay, Cork City during the Battle of Cork (July-Aug 1922). via NLI

His brother Peter Ennis was also a veteran of the 1916 Rising and War of Independence. He became Chief of the Republican Police and during the Civil War was Chief Superintendent of the State’s Intelligence Department (Oriel House).  At the foundation of the Garda Síochána, he became the first superintendent in the Detective Branch and retired from the force in 1941.

Prendergast family

John ‘Jack’ Gerald Prendergast was born on 11th May 1911 to parents Thomas and Margaret (nee O’Sullivan). They lived at Dock House, Spencer Dock, North Wall where Thomas worked as a lock keeper.

He was known to his friends as ‘Jack’ but also ‘Sean’ or ‘Jimmy’.

Prendergast enrolled at University College Dublin (UCD) to study engineering in 1930 but left in his first year to join the Civil Service.

Several newspapers reported that he traveled to Spain and fought with the International Brigades in the Civil War for a period of three years. More on this later.

Tragedy

On Sunday 12th April 1942, John Prendergast left his home in North Wall at 12.45pm. His father said he “appeared to be in normal spirits” (Irish Independent, 14th April). 

Maureen Ennis, sister of Una, said that John Prendergast called to their house in the Phoenix Park about 3pm and stayed for an hour. Maureen had known Prendergast “for some time” and “knew that he was keeping company” with her sister. She believed the couple “appeared to be in the best of spirits” (Irish Examiner, 14 April)

The couple probably took a bus or a tram some of the way to Clontarf where they were spotted walking together about 5pm. It’s a distance of over 9km and it’s unlikely they would have been able to walk it in an hour.

They were seen stopped and talking together on the Howth Road near the junction with St. Lawrence’s Road.

Witnesses then heard two shots ring out.

Howth Road near the junction with St. Lawrence’s Road. via Google Maps.

John had taken out a Luger ‘Peter the Painter’ pistol from his coat and shot his girlfriend Una through the heart killing her instantly. He then turned the gun on himself and a bullet pierced his left chest.

An eye-witness Miss Mary Hogan, 2 Fleming Road, Drumcondra saw Sean “stagger towards the girl and let himself down on the path beside her”.

Another witness, unnamed, told The Irish Times (13 April 1942):

I heard a shot, looked around, and saw a man staggering – apparently it was the second shot. The man fell, and then I saw the woman lying on the pathway near him. I ran over, and saw that both of them were finished. A gun was lying beside them. It was a parabellum a German make which was used a great deal during the ‘Black and Tan days’.

Passerby placed the girl’s handbag under her head and an ambulance was called for from a nearby house.

In an eerie sense of coincidence, Oscar Traynor, Thomas Ennis’ former IRA comrade, was passing in his car immediately after the shooting. Traynor, the then-Minister of Defence, was on his way home from a semi-final football match. He saw “two people lying on the ground with a cluster of people around them” (Irish Times, 13 April). He immediately stopped his car to see if he could be of any assistance. It is unknown whether he knew the girl was his old comrade’s daughter.

Officers from the Detective Branch, Dublin Castle arrived on the scene and took charge of the gun and spent shells. Two unexploded cartridges were found in Prendergast’s coat pocket.

The couple were rushed to Jervis Street hospital but were pronounced dead on arrival.

It was later revealed that Una’s parents did not approve of John and did not give their blessing for any possible engagement.

Scene on the Howth Road, 1942. The Irish Independent, 13 April 1942.

Howth Road today near St. Lawrence’s Road. via Google Maps.

Aftermath

At the subsequent inquest, John’s father Thomas Prendergast said his son’s health had not been good since he had returned from fighting in the Spanish Civil War. In The Irish Examiner (14 April 1942), he was quoted as saying his son “was worried that he could not gain weight” and that he suffered from depression and a bad case of pleurisy.

The verdict returned by the jury was that Prendergast “was of unsound mind” when he killed his girlfriend Una and himself. The coroner offered his deepest sympathies to both families.

Una’s funeral took place on 14th April 1942. Mass was celebrated by Rev. John Meagher at the Church of the Nativity, Chapelizod followed by burial in St. Fintan’s Cemetery, Sutton.

Amongst those in attendance were W.T. Cosgrave T.D.; Joseph McGrath (businessman and politician); Michael MacDunphy (secretary to the President); Lieutenant-General Daniel McKenna and Lieutenant-General P. MacMahon.

John’s funeral took place on 15th April 1942. Mass was celebrated by Rev. J. Doherty at St. Lawrence O’Toole’s Church at Seville Place, North Wall followed by burial at Glasnevin Cemetery. It was noted in the newspapers that “many University students attended”.

All in all it was a dreadful affair. Two young lives ended on a quiet suburban road.

Jack Prendergast and Spain

A number of newspaper reports reported that Jack Prendergast fought in Spain.

The Irish Times (13 April 1942) wrote : “During the Spanish Civil War, he fought for the Basques on the side of the Government, and reached the rank of Captain in the International Brigade”. The following day’s edition wrote : “How a young Dublin student, a former member of the International Brigade in the Spanish Civil War, shot his sweetheart on the Howth Road, was told yesterday”.

The Irish Press (14 April 1942) reported that his father told the subsequent inquest that “except for a visit to Spain (he) had always lived in Dublin” and that his ‘Peter the Painter’ pistol had “been brought home from Spain”.

However, I have been unable able to find any corroborating evidence to support any of these claims. I have contacted several historians with a particular interest in the Irish who fought in the Spanish Civil War and am looking forward to their responses.

A James ‘Jim’ Prendergast from Dublin did fight with the International Brigades but he was born four years later and lived until the mid 1970s. It’s definitely not the same person.

James ‘Jim’ Prendergast entry into Fighting for Republican Spain 1936-38 by Barry McLoughlin. This Prendergast died in 1974 so can’t be the same individual involved in the 1942 shooting.

Introduction:

Thomas Farrelly (20), of 30 Mary’s Lane, was shot and killed by the British Army in Dublin’s North Inner City in August 1920. A neighbour Thomas Clarke (19), of 16 Green Street, was seriously wounded in the attack.

It occurred during a turbulent month within a turbulent year. On 7th August, an IRA Flying Column’s ambushed a six-man RIC foot patrol near Kildorrery, County Cork. Two days later, the Restoration of Order in Ireland Act received royal assent giving Dublin Castle the authority to replace the criminal courts with courts-martial and to replace coroners’ inquests with military courts of inquiry. On 12th August, Terence McSwiney, Lord Mayor of Cork was arrested and began his hunger strike.

Planned visit of Archbishop Mannix:

During the summer of 1920, the outspoken Cork-born Dr. Daniel Mannix (1864-1963), Archbishop of Melbourne was undergoing a tour of the United States. He shared a platform with Eamon de Valera at Madison Square Gardens in New York telling the audience of 15,000 people that Ireland should be given the “same status in postwar planning as the other small nations of Europe”.

He openly supported the actions and aims of those behind the Easter Rising proclaiming :

I am going to Ireland soon and I am going to kneel on the graves of those men who in Easter Week gave their lives for Ireland.

On 31st July 1920, he boarded the transatlantic liner Baltic at New York for his long journey to Queenstown (Cobh) in his home county of Cork. The ship had made it so close to the Irish coast by 8th August that Mannix could see the lights of Cobh and the flames of huge bonfires of welcome on the hilltops.

But the British government had other ideas and the ship was intercepted by the Royal Navy. Mannix was denied entry to Ireland, arrested and brought to Penzance, Cornwall. Padraig Yeates, in his brilliant book ‘A City in Turmoil‘, wrote that Mannix was prohibited from addressing any public meetings in any part of England with large Irish immigrant populations.

Mannix remarked with characteristic irony: “Not since the Battle of Jutland had the British Navy scored a victory comparable with the capture f the Archbishop of Melbourne without the loss of a single British sailor.”

A summer’s night in Dublin

Bonfires to welcome Archibishop Mannix to Ireland had also been lit across Dublin city including one on Greek Street in the Markets area of the North Inner City.

A large Irish tricolour with the wording ‘Welcome Dr. Mannix’ was draped across the street by supportive locals.

Crowds and tricolour to celebrate the visit of Mannix. The Evening Herald, 11th August 1920.

On that summer’s night late on 10th August, a small group of about ten young men were sitting around the dying embers of the bonfire at the corner of Greek Street, Mary’s Lane and Beresford Street. Newspaper articles reported that they were singing Irish nationalist songs. During the singing of ‘The West’s Awake’, a truck full of British Army soldiers from the Lancashire Fusiliers pulled up.

Location of the bonfire and shooting from 1913 Dublin Map.

At the time, Dublin was under a strict military curfew and people without the necessary permits could not be outdoors from midnight until five in the morning.

At the following inquest, local witnesses like Joseph Eccles of Church Street said : “No challenge was given and nothing was said by the military” before they opened fire.

Thomas Farrelly ran in the direction of his home and was about twenty yards from the front door when he was hit by a volley of bullets. He was carried into his mother’s house and laid on the kitchen floor. According to the Sunday Independent (15th Aug 1920), Farrelly exclaimed “oh mother! oh mother!” and soon died in her arms.

Thomas Farrell (sic). Evening Herald, 11th August 1920.

Another young local man Thomas Clarke was shot and wounded in the knee. He limped into the same house where he collapsed on the floor but luckily recovered from his injuries.

Farrelly was rushed to Jervis Street Hospital in an ambulance but was pronounced dead on arrival.

Joseph Clarke. Evening Herald, 11th August 1920.

Funeral

Dr. Mannix sent a telegraph to the Lord Mayor of Dublin:

Just now I can only use this means of thanking you and all my friends in Ireland for their welcome to Irish waters. Kindly convey my heartfelt sympathy to the relatives of the murdered man Farrell. God rest his soul and comfort those who mourn him” (Irish Times, 13 August 1920)

Thousands attended his public funeral which took place on Friday 13th August 1920. The Evening Herald (13th August) reported that “all shops for a large area around were closed and blinds in private houses reverently drawn”.

The Irish tricolour flag with the message “Welcome Dr. Mannix” was draped over his coffin. Thomas Farrelly apparently had helped to make this flag which was hung near where the shooting took place.

Funeral of Thomas Farrelly. Irish Examiner, 17th August 1920.

The hearse was drawn by four black horses from Halston Street Church to Glasnevin Cemetery. Thousands lined the route from North King Street, Church Street, Mary’s Lane, Little Mary Street, Capel Street, Parliament Street, Dame Street, College Green, Westmoreland Street and Parnell Square.

The Herald stated that the scene from Dame Street to the Cemetery was “particularly impressive as the long line of Volunteers, members of the Citizen Army and numerous Trade Unions marched four deep behind the hearse “. A slow, death march was played by the bands of the United Labourers’ Union and the Irish National Foresters.

Funeral of Thomas Farrelly. Priests in attendance. Irish Independent, 14 August 1920.

A number of clergy visiting the city from America and Australia, who had planned to meet Archbishop Mannix, joined the procession. Several hundred casual dockers employed on ships docked at the Port also left work to take part in the funeral.

A significant amount of politicians attended including TDs including W. T. Cosgrave, J. J. Walsh, Phil Shanahan and Richard Mulcahy.

The prayers at the church and graveside were recited by the Very Rev. Canon Grimley.

Two friends of Farrelly, Christopher Reilly and John Deane, who were with him on the night he was killed led the procession carrying a large Irish tricolour with a black cross in its centre. This was made by John Farrelly, an uncle of the deceased.

Coffin of Thomas Farrelly. The Freeman’s Journal, 14th August 1920.

Some of the floral tributes. Irish Independent, 14th August 1920.

A lorry was needed to carry the amount of wreaths and flowers that were donated by friends and neighbours of the Farrelly family.

Thomas Farrelly worked as a van driver for a local firm in the Corporation Market and this is reflected in the messages of sympathy.

A selection of the inscriptions included:

“With deepest sympathy from E. Fagan and E. Browner”
“With deepest sympathy from Mrs. Connor, Mrs. Conway and families”
“To the one who gave his  life for his faith and country from two friends”
“With deepest sympathy from his friends, Mrs. Mary Bradshaw and Miss Maisie Mulvaney”
“With deepest sympathy from the friends of Brunswick Street”
“With deepest sympathy from Miss Daly, South City Markets”
“From his comrade, John Tyrrell”
“With deepest sympathy from Mrs. McKenna and Mary Jane McMahon”
“In frond remembrance from Dick and family”
“From Mrs. and Miss Lilly Corry, 87 North King Street”
“From his friends Mrs. Kelly, Mrs. Gibney and Miss. Mooney”
“With deepest sympathy from the neighbours of Church Avenue”
“In loving memory from his friends on Stafford Street”
“With deepest sympathy from Nancy and John Deane”
“In loving memory from his pals of Smith Street”
“With deepest sympathy from the Stafford Celtic A.F.C.”
“With deepest sympathy from Daisy Market, per Mrs. Byrne and Mrs. Quigley”
“With deepest sympathy from Kathleen Curran and his friends of the Corporation Market”
“From Patrick Fagan, in loving memory of Thomas Farrelly who died for his faith and for his country”

Mary Farrelly. 12 August 1920, Irish Independent.

Aftermath

In the weeks following his death, collections were made in the area to help financially support Thomas Farrelly’s grieving mother. Due to some reprehensible characters collecting money unofficially, Michael J. Nolan of the Corporation Market had to write to the newspapers to inform all sympathisers that they should only donate directly to himself, another worker in the Market or two local priests.

18 August 1920, Irish Independent.

An inquest took place into the shooting at the City Morgue presided by the City Coroner Louis A. Byrne. A large military operation took place with two armoured cars with guns trained on the morgue stationed on the opposite side of the street.

Military security around inquest Irish Examiner, 17th August 1920

After local witnesses and members of the Military gave evidence, the jury, after an absence of only fifteen minutes, returned the following verdict:

We find that the said Thomas Farrell died on the 10th August, 1920, from shock and haemorrhage, caused by the bullets fired by guns from the military without justification, and we strongly condemn the action of the military in empowering youths to endanger the lives of the citizens. We desire to place on record our deepest sympathy with the relatives of the deceased. (Irish Times, 21 August 1920)

In a tragic state of affairs, an uncle of Thomas by the name of James McCormack (27)  was shot dead just ten weeks later. He was employed in a fish and chips shop at 100 North Brunswick Street, Dublin 7 owned by another uncle John Farrell(y) who made the Irish tricolour with black cross for Thomas’ funeral.

Two unknown men in civilian clothing came into the shop at 9pm on Saturday 23rd October and shot dead James McCormack who was working at the time. No arrests were made. A report by Dublin Castle suggested that he was killed for “disobeying an order not to serve soldiers”. This was “emphatically repudiated” by Catherine Farrell, wife of the owner John Farrell, who said the culprits were “complete strangers” to her and to the people of the area. She was making it clear that it was not local IRA volunteers. She told the Freeman’s Journal (25th October 1920) that “Nothing was ever said to us by anyone who we served”.

Murder of James McCormack, cousin of Thomas Farrelly. The Freeman’s Journal, 26th October 1920.

Farrelly family

Born in April 1900, it has been difficult to trace Thomas Farrelly through the Census returns. The major issue is the variation in spelling between Farrell and Farrelly.

We know at the time of his death in 1920 Farrelly was living with his widowed mother Mary, his brother (15), a younger sister (17) and an older sister (24).

In the 1901 census, I think this Farrell family is the best match. Mary-Ann Farrell (26) was living at 4.3 Ashe Street, The Coombe with her husband Patrick (27), a general labourer, and three children – Catherine (10), Mary-Ann (5) and Johana (2).

In the 1911 census, I believe the same family are living at 2.3 Moore Place and are using Farrelly as their surname. Mary Farrelly (37), “dealer in fish”, was living with her husband Patrick (36), a “market porter” and six children – Mary (15), Thomas (11), Annie (8), John Joseph (5), Kathleen (3) and Michael (4 months).

It’s possible that husband Patrick passed away sometime between 1911 and 1920 and the children’s ages including Thomas match up.

What do you think?

Conclusion

Thomas Farrelly was one of 270 non-combatant men, women and children killed by the British Army in Ireland in a fourteen month period from 1st January 1920 to 28 February 1921. He was listed and named in an address to the Congress of the United States in May 1921.

His memory should be not be forgotten in the streets where he grew up in Dublin.

If you have any further information on either on Thomas Farrelly or Thomas Clarke, please drop me an email or leave a comment.

(Note : I have earlier looked at the Drugs and Dublin in the 1960s here)

In light of the Dáil recently passing a bill to make cannabis available in Ireland for medicinal use, we thought we would share this enlightening newspaper article from nearly fifty years ago.

On the 31st of January 1968, a 22 year-old “bearded young man” was caught with £5 of Cannabis resin in Rice’s pub beside St. Stephen’s Green. He was a part-time actor who had recently failed his final English literature university exams.

Rices, 1984. Credit – @PhotosOfDublin.

In front of District Justice Farrell in April, he told the court:

In my opinion, I have done no wrong in so far as I consider it to be inevitable that cannabis resin will be legalised within the next few years, and taking into account that it is a non-addictive drug and that I have not at any stage given it to anyone who had not previously taken the drug and who was old enough and intelligent enough to know what they are doing.

He went on even further talking about “more enlightened times” while also refusing to name his friend and supplier.

I have answered clearly and truthfully all questions, with the exception of one – what my source is.

 

Were my source one of those infamous people who capitalise on the weakness of others by selling such habit-forming drugs as could ruin the lives of those indulge in them, I would have no qualms about giving you such information …

 

However in view of the fact that this is not the fact, and neither my source nor I make any profit from Indian hemp, and bearing in mind the certainty that in more enlightened times which are fast approaching, the charges brought against me now will seem ludicrous as would a charge of possessing cigarettes containing nicotine at the present time. I consider myself a victim of circumstances.

Detective Sergeant Dennis ‘Dinny’ Mullins, who made the arrest accompanied by fellow Drugs Squad member Garda Con Murphy and Garda Christopher Keane from Dundrum station, told the Court about the drug’s effects:

It exhilarates, makes you happy, forget your troubles, and some say it gives a clearer insight into things, a writer, clearer thoughts for example.

The Irish Times, 2 February 1968

The young man felt giving his friend’s name would not help the police:

When questioned I have, and shall continue, to refuse to reveal my friend’s name. In doing so, I have taken into consideration both the responsibility one has to the State and the loyalty one owes to a friend. The revelation of my friend’s name would not help in anyway to bring the Gardai nearer in their search to any ring, as such, which may exist for the sale of either cannabis or other more dangerous gigs.

In order to avoid a “fairly severe fine” and prison sentence, the student agreed to give up the drug and was given a remand for three months.

The drug was handed over to the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland to be used for “experiments”.

He also made an appeal to the journalists present in the court not to reveal his name or address as this would “undoubtedly lead” to problems finding employment and accommodation. Interestingly, The Irish Times compiled with his plea but the Irish Press and the Irish Independent refused.

As this individual, if hopefully still alive and healthy, would be 70 years old – we feel reprinting the article with his name shouldn’t have any damaging effects.

We’d love to know what happened to him. So if you know a William or John O’Sullivan who studied English Literature and born about 1948 – get in touch!

The Irish Independent, 2 February 1968.

Red Action was a small, militant, socialist group founded in England in 1981 after several activists were expelled from the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) for continuing to be involved in direct action against neo-Fascists (‘squadism’). The group were known for their commitment to street-level anti-Fascist and Irish Republican politics throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Some key members went onto form the Independent Working Class Association (IWCA) in 1995.

The Dublin branch of Red Action was founded in 1990 and remained active until 1997. During this period, they were heavily involved in a range of community campaigns (anti-Water charges, anti-Bin Tax, anti-Drugs etc.) as well as pro-choice, Irish republican and international solidarity issues. They also formed the backbone of Anti-Fascist Action (AFA) which was established in 1991.

For the first time online, here are issues 3 and 4 of their newsletter both published around 1992.

Red Action (Dublin), newsletter no. 3.

Images of Red Action (Dublin), newsletter no. 3.

Issue 3 of Red Action Dublin’s newsletter had articles on the following:

– pro-choice activity and the work of the Dublin Abortion Information Campaign (DAIC).

–  the anti-extradition campaign of Belfast republican Angelo Fusco. The Dublin Anti-Extradition Campaign (DAEC), with a postal address at 29 Mountjoy Square, met every Tuesday at 16 North Great George’s Street.

– the rise of the far-right in Europe, the work of AFA and the political failings of the SWP.

– the work of the Irish Nicaragua Support Group of which Red Action members were involved with.

– a short piece on the emergence of militant anti-abortion group Youth Defence (YD)

Link to download : red-action-no-3

Red Action (Dublin), newsletter no. 4.

Images of Red Action (Dublin), newsletter no. 4.

Issue 4 of Red Action Dublin’s newsletter had articles on the following:

– the results of the 1992 X Case abortion referendum and the work of the Alliance for Choice group.

– how the Left fared in the 1992 General Election with a look at the results of the Workers Party and Sinn Fein.

–  the recent activity of Portobello Unemployed Action Group (PUAG) including pickets of RTE and their relationship with the more mainstream Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed (INOU).

– small bits on anti-fascist and Irish skinhead politics.

Link to download : red-action-no-4

I like McGrattan’s pub on Fitzwilliam Lane off Baggot Street. It’s a quirky place. A labyrinth of side rooms, with pool tables and a smoking area with a fireplace and blankets on offer. I’ve also been at a number of great birthday parties and memorable events upstairs.

But they’ve annoyed me by rebranding their exterior to claim that they first opened in 1798. Bad Bob’s in Temple Bar did something similar a few years back.

McGrattan’s, January 2017. Credit – Sam (CHTM!)

McGrattan’s sign, January 2017. Credit – Sam (CHTM!)

Their premises, 76 Fitzwilliam Lane,  was originally a motor sheet-metal workshop owned by R. Thomas & Sons in the first half of the 20th century.  It was taken over by the National University of Ireland (NUI) graduate club and opened up a social venue called The Graduate Club in 1964.

The Graduate Club at 76 Fitzwiilliam Lane. The Irish Times, 15 January 1964.

Conversion cost £5,000 and it turned the ‘panel beating workshop’ into a licensed premises with amenities for bridge, chess as well as a cafeteria and patio garden. Subscription was 3 guineas a year which included membership of the Graduates’ Association.

It functioned as The Graduate Club until 1975 when it was taken over and turned into a nightclub called Barbarella’s.

Barbella’s advertisement, 1977. Credit – Brand New Retro.

Ulick O’Connor in Magill magazine reviewed Barbellas in 1978:

(Here) are the most naked girls you can see in Dublin. What holds up the tiny pieces of silk that cover them only an expert in structural engineering can explain. They float along with their tiny trays, indifferent to the gaze of hearty males who have been able to distract their girlfriends’ attention, to steal a look. Then, oh golly! At 12 p.m. a girl plunges into the blue fountain in the centre of the club and writhes around to frothy airs.

Upstairs the food is excellent and the service by two brothers attentive. The chef is also a brother so you have a direct line of communication if you have a complaint, which I have never had. This is a cleverly designed club, which suggests glamour. As you go in there are superb photographs by Louis Curzon of gorgeous girls, to hint at exotic times later on. If you glance overhead you are under a ship’s rigging so it is easy to imagine slipping a way to the Andes blue from the gloom and wet outside .

It was put up for sale in 1983 and rebranded as Alexander’s nightclub for a number of years. The property was sold again in 1988.

McGrattans. The Irish Times, 29 January 1988.

In November 1989, it was reopened as a bar and restaurant called McGrattan’s in the Lane.

McGrattan’s. The Irish Times, 30 November 1989.

This is what the exterior of McGrattan’s looked like a couple of years back. All the available evidence suggests that the bar is 28 years old and not the 219 years they claim!

McGrattans, 2012. Credit – Mcgrattans.ie

If anyone has any further information to support or debunk the 1798 year of establishment – please leave us a comment.

This Saturday sees a historical public meeting on the life of Dublin-born Trotskyist and Saor Éire activist Peter Graham. He was tortured and shot dead in a flat off Stephen’s Green on 25 October 1971 aged 26. A cloud of mystery, silence and betrayal still hangs over the incident to this day.

The talk will be chaired by Alan MacSimoin (Stoneybatter & Smithfield People’s History Project) and the main speaker will be historian Rayner O’Connor Lysaght who was a close friend of Graham’s. It takes place at 4.30pm in The Cobblestone pub, Dublin 7.

Peter Graham pictured in The Irish Times (05 Dec 1968)

Growing up in the Liberties at 46 Reginald Street, Graham attended Bolton St. College of Technology and later worked as an electrician within Córas Iompair Éireann (CIÉ) where he was a shop-steward for the Electrical Trade Union.

A founding member of the Young Socialists, he helped organise a picket of the French Embassy in June 1968 in solidarity with the student and workers revolt and a picket of the Department of Labour in opposition to proposed anti-Trade Union legalisation in October 1968.

He was later involved with Saor Éire and the International Marxist Group in London. On his return to Dublin, he became active with the Revolutionary Marxist Group and helped established the Irish Section of the Fourth International.

On 27th October 1971, he was brutally beaten with a hammer and shot in the in the flat he shared with his comrade O’Connor Lysaght at 110, St. Stephen’s Green.

Photographs showing the flat where Peter was killed and the pub in which he drank in that evening. The Sunday Independent, 31 October 1971

Bob Purdie (1940-2014) wrote that Graham was “falsely suspected of diverting money from a bank robbery” by rogue elements of Saor Eire who “tortured him in an attempt to make him confess.”  Liam O’Ruairc in a 2005 piece went further and said that he “had been assassinated by two of his own comrades from Cork (including Larry White, himself later killed by the Official IRA in Cork in 1975) in a dispute over money.”

No-one was ever arrested or charged with his murder.

Death notice of Peter Graham. The Iris Times, 28 Oct 1971.

His funeral was attended by hundreds of people including Bernadette Devlin MP, Eamonn McCann and Michael Farrell. The oration was given by Tariq Ali who was pictured beside Charlie Bird (former member of the Young Socialists) giving the clenched salute.

Charlie Bird and Tariq Ali at the funeral of Peter Graham. Credit – irishrepublicanmarxisthistoryproject.wordpress.com

Leading Saor Eire member Mairin Keegan died of cancer in January 1972 and another activist within the organisation, Liam Daltun, took his own life in London the following month.

In December 1972, three members of the League for a Workers’ Republic (Basil Miller, Carol Coulter and Paddy Healy) wrote a letter to the Irish Press denouncing a recent tabloid article in the British Press which slandered the three Saor Éire activists who died in the 1971-72 period .

The Irish Press, 18 Dec 1972)

In May 1973, eight imprisoned members of Saor Éire released a statement severing their connections with the organisations due to the activity of “undesirable elements” within the movement. They particularly made reference to the “cloud of mystery” which still hung over the murder of “sincere and dedicated revolutionary” Peter Graham.

The Irish Times, 21 May 1973.

Sixty years ago, thirty-eight young IRA recruits from Dublin and Wicklow were arrested at a training camp.  The raid took place in May 1957 while the group were drilling in the Glencree Valley near Enniskerry in County Wicklow.

Amongst those picked up were Sean Garland (1934-), Seamus Costello (1939-1977) and Proinsias De Rossa (1940-). The average age of the three men was just nineteen.

The arrests occurred a year into the ill-fated Border Campaign (1956-62).

“A group of IRA men before embarking on an operation” in the 1950s.
Credit – http://laochrauladh.blogspot.ie/

The addresses of the men arrested offer an interesting insight into the backgrounds of those individuals involved.

Traditional Northside working-class areas like East Wall, Whitehall, Arbour Hill and Finglas are well represented. While south of the Liffey, the neighbourhoods of Inchicore, Ballyfermot and Crumlin in the South-West are particularly prevalent.

There are also a few addresses that stand out as not being representative of the stereotypical working-class IRA Volunteer including Dartmouth Square in Dublin 6, Tivoli Terrace in Dun Laoghaire and Islington Avenue in Sandycove. Ballsbridge also initially jumps out but further research reveals that Turner’s Cottages, where was one of the arrested men lived, was a rare working-class “slum” in the hear of Dublin 4.

Anthony Gill and Sean Garland lived less than a minute walk from each other in the North Inner City. Seamus Fay and Eamonn Ladraggan were neighborours on Merchant’s Road in East Wall. While brothers Patrick and Phil O’Donoghue gave the family address in Ballyfermot.

Northside Dublin:

• Sean Garland, 7 Belvedere Place, Dublin 1
• Anthony Gill, 555 North Circular Road, Dublin 1
• Partholan O’Murchadha, 1 Leinster Avenue, North Strand, Dublin 3
• Eamonn Ladraggan/Ladrigan, 19 Merchant’s Road (Bothar na Gannaide)*, East Wall, Dublin 3
• Seamus Fay, 55 Merchant’s Road (Bothar na Gannaide)*, East Wall, Dublin 3
• Seamus Doran/O’Dorain, 31 Sullivan Street, Arbour Hill, Dublin 7
• Patrick ‘Paddy’ O’Regan, 1 Goldsmith Street, Phibsboro, Dublin 7
• Seamus O h-Eadaigh, 110 Falcarragh Road, Whitehall, Dublin 9
• Patrick McLoughlin, 183 Larkhill Road, Whitehall, Dublin 9
• Proinsias De Rossa/Frank Ross, 14 The Rise, Glasnevin, Dublin 9
• Martin Shannon, 46 Griffith Drive, Finglas East, Dublin 11
• Padraig MacBhardaigh, 126 Glasnevin Road, Dublin 11

* Thanks to Stephen Donnelly who  originally suggested that this was a misspelling of Bóthar na gCeannaithe (Merchant’s Road) which checked out.

Southside Dublin:

• Liam Healy, 22 Luke street, off Poolbeg Street, Dublin 2
• Tadhg Connellan (Tim Conlon), [22] Turner’s Cottages, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4
• Donal O’Shea, ?, Dartmouth Square, Dublin 6
• Sean Ryan, 1 Spencer Street (South), South Circular Road, Dublin 8
• Gordon O’Holain/Hyland, 17 McMahon Street, South Circular Road, Dublin 8
• Thomas Montgomery, 25 Wolseley Street, off Donore Avenue, Dublin 8
• Peter Pringle, 17 Woodfield Cottages, Inchicore, Dublin 8
• Michael Mann, 57 Tyrconnell Road, Inchicore, Dublin 8
• Patrick O’Donoghue, 95 Lally Road, Ballyfermot, Dublin 10
• Phillip O’Donogue, 95 Lally Road, Ballyfermot, Dublin 10
• Eamonn Mac Aonghusa, 178 Landen Road, Ballyfermot, Dublin 10
• Liam O’Rourke, 2 Thomond Road, Ballyfermot, Dublin 10
• Desmond ‘Des’ Webster, 50 Curlew Road, Drimnagh, Dublin 12
• Frank Delaney, 150 Benmadigan Road, Goldenbridge, Dublin 12
• Seamus/James Fagan, 171 Windmill Park, Crumlin, Dublin 12
• Sean O’Nolan/Nolan, 67 Bangor Road, Crumlin, Dublin 12
• Bernard S. Ryan, ?, Tivoli Terrace, Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin
• Liam Egan/Mac Aodhagain, 3 Islington Avenue, Sandycove, Co. Dublin

Wicklow:

• Desmond Byrne, 41 O’Byrne Road, Bray, Co. Wicklow
• Michael Fortune, 5 Brennan’s Parade, Bray, Co. Wicklow
• Daithi O’Ceallaigh/Kelly, ?, Adelaide Road, Bray, Co. Wicklow
• Joseph McElduff, 20 Beach Road, Bray, Co. Wicklow
• Seamus Costello, Roseville, Dublin Road, Bray, Co. Wicklow
• Seoirse Doyle, Killincarrig, Greystones, Co. Wicklow
• Patrick Phelan, Kilquade, Co. Wicklow
• Proinsias Wogan, Atha na Scarlien, Enniskerry, Co. Wicklow

Peter Pringle recalled the raid in his 2012 book ‘About Time: Surviving Ireland’s Death Row’:

In May 1957, while on a weekend training exercise, I was among thirty-eight volunteers who were surrounded and arrested by armed detectives. We were on a night trek along the Glencree Valley in County Wicklow. During the night, I noticed the lights of a lot of traffic on the roads above us on each side of the valley and knew from my hiking experience and my familiarity with the area that this was very unusual.

My alarm bells went off as I wondered what trucks might be doing on those quiet roads, all travelling in one direction in the middle of the night. I instinctively felt that we should leave and move up to the high ground above the road. I brought this to the attention of those in command of our column but they chose not to act.

When we reached the head of the valley with daylight coming on, we found that we were surrounded by armed detectives. I have no doubt that the traffic I had observed was the Garda and that that they had been informed of our location that night.

We were taken into custody to the Bridewell, a Garda station and holding centre in Dublin. We were each charged under Offences Against the State Act, 1939.

The men were charged with Section 32 of failing to give an account of their movements at a specific time and with membership of an unlawful organisation under Section 21. All of the accused men were remanded on bail at £25 each. The Irish Times (7 June 1957) reported that each man was sentenced to two-months imprisonment with hard labour. After this, most of the men were interned in the Curragh camp for a further two years.

What happened to the men?

Earlier that year, Sean Garland, Paddy O’Regan and  Phil O’Donoghue were among fourteen volunteers involved in the Brookeborough raid during which volunteers Seán South and Fergal O’Hanlon were shot dead.

Garland became a leading figure in the Official Republican movement and is still active with the Worker’s Party to this day.

O’Regan was active with the Republican movement throughout the 1960s.

O’Donoghue was active throughout the 1970s with the Provisional IRA and later became National Organiser of the 32 County Sovereignty Movement.

His brother Patrick O’Donoghue was sentenced to six months in 1960 when he was caught with a .45 Webley revolver and six rounds of ammunition found in a drawer in a house he was in with Tony Hayde.

Seamus Costello was also involved with the Officials until he broke rank and helped form the the Irish Republican Socialist Party (IRSP) in 1975. He was killed by a member of the Officials in 1977 as he sat in his car on Northbrook Avenue, off the North Strand Road in Dublin.

Proinsias De Rossa took the Officials side in the 1970 split and was active with the Worker’s Party until 1992. He became the first party leader of Democratic Left, a moderate wing of the party that split, and later merged with the Labour Party in 1999.

Martin Shannon was up in court again in 1961 for being a member of an ‘unlawful organisation’ and was later involved in the Official IRA. He was also editor of the United Irishman for a period in the 1960s.

Peter Pringle, father of left-wing Independent TD Thomas Pringle , became active with the Official IRA and later the IRSP/INLA for a short period in 1975. He was blamed for being part of a bank robbery in 1980 during which two Gardai were shot dead near Loughglynn in County Roscommon. He always denied any involvement in the crime and his conviction was overturned, due to discrepancies in the evidence, by the high court in 1995 after serving 15 years.

Liam Egan/Mac Aodhagain, and Seamus Doran/O’Dorain were up in court again in 1961 when they were arrested with Liam Boylan and Thomas Mac Golla. Ammunition was found and they also failed to give accounts of their movements.

If you have any further information on any of the other individuals, do let us know.

19 February 1959.

We were very sorry to hear the devastating news this morning that renowned Irish keyboard and piano player Pat ‘Fitzy’ Fitpatrick had passed away after a short illness aged 60.

Katmandu, c. 1980. Fitzy in blue and red jumper. Credit – http://www.spitrecords.co.uk/

Originally from Belfast, he studied at the Royal College of Music in London.

Fitzy’s 35 plus year music career saw him play with an array of the island’s best rock groups including Katmandu (1980s), The Music People (mid 1980s), The Fountainhead (late 1980s), Swim (1980s-1990s), The Blades (1983-2017), Something Happens (1990s-2010s) and Aslan (1990s-2010s),

He also worked with Van Morrison, Mary Coughlan, Phil Coulter, Anne Bushnell (RIP), Colm Wilkinson, the RTÉ Concert Orchestra and Lúnasa.

Brian Foley, bass player with The Blades and formerly of The Vipers, wrote:

He was classically trained and had attended the Royal College of Music in London. Still I suppose nothing could have prepared him for the nights of mayhem that ensued in ‘ The Baggot Inn’ ‘the TV club’ and many a country venue where Pat was confronted with the heaving masses of mods and disaffected youth that engulfed the stage during those raucous, riotous early gigs.

Not forgetting his early training he would throw in a snatch of Mendelssohn’s wedding march before the start of ‘the bride wore white’ or at a soundcheck he might play ‘the Liberty Bell March’ (theme from the Monty Pythons’ flying circus).

Once, he even gave us a tutorial on how alike the chords and structure of the mod anthem ‘Heatwave’ was to the old 1930’s song ‘the Charleston’!

That skinny kid from Belfast had music coursing through his veins. I remember one time out in RTE, we were sitting in the dressing room where there just happened to be a piano. Invariably, we would ask Pat; ‘can you play this song or that song’ and he’d play the requested song no problem. Then it would all get silly and we’d ask him to play different advertising jingles. Which of course he could. All note perfect!

Still, barely three weeks ago, even though he was very ill he insisted on playing with us in ‘Whelans’ and that was the measure of this beautiful man. A musician to the very end.

May his gentle soul rest in peace.

Though he was extremely ill, he managed to play his last gigs with The Blades in Whelan’s on 31st March and with Aslan in the Cork Opera House on 8th April.

Come Here To Me! offer our sincere condolences to his wife, family and friends.

Pat in action, Dec 2014. Credit – Mill Butler.

The brilliant resource ‘U2 & Dublin ’76 to ’80‘ published a photograph yesterday from the 1976 ‘Falling Asunder’ music tour which had never been digitised before.

The Boomtown Rats, Cheap Thrills, Nightbus plus Billy McGrath (tour organiser) and Phay McMahon (lights). July 1976

This groundbreaking ‘rock revue’ showcased The Boomtown Rats, Nightbus and Cheap Thrills  and was the first nationwide tour of Irish rock bands. A 29-seater bus toured all over Ireland in July 1976 taking in at least 15 different venues.

The ‘Much More Music Disco’ and the ‘Taylor Lightshow’ were part of the four-hour package. Admission was usually £1.

The Munster Express (16 July 1976) wrote

Each of these bands play a different and varied set musical set of which at least fifty per cent is original material. The Rats music has been described as a sound summit of Rhythm and Blues whereas others prefer the funky sound of Nightbus or the more pastoral mellow music of Cheap Thrills

JULY 1976
14th – Little Theatre, Gorey, Wexford
15th – Atlantic Ballroom, Tramore, Waterford
17th – City Hall, Cork
18th – Caroline Ballroom, Clonmel, Tipperary
19th – Town Hall, Killarney, Kerry
20th – Mount Brandon, Tralee, Kerry
21st – Glentworth Hotel, Limerick
22nd – Town Hall, Westport, Mayo
23rd – Hotel Ormond, Nenagh, Tipperary
24th – Teach Furbo, Galway
25th – The Crescent, Athlone, Westmeath
27th – ?, Newbridge, Kildare
28th – National Stadium, Dublin
29th – Town Hall, Dundalk, Louth
30th – White Horse, Drogheda, Louth

In terms of identifying the individuals pictured.

Front row (from l-r)

In the early 1920s, a criminal street-gang from Dublin’s North Inner city named the ‘Sons of Dawn’ terrorised citizens and business-owners . Amidst the backdrop of a violent guerilla War of Independence, it would seem that easy-access to firearms and a general breakdown in law and order helped the group to operate in an already strained and tense city. After a successful intelligence operation, the gang were finally caught in the midst of a robbery and arrested by the IRA.

The first mention of the ‘Sons of Dawn’ in the newspaper archives comes from January 1920. On the night of the 16th, three masked men robbed Roger Pollock on Ailesbury Road in Ballsbridge.  A half an hour later, the same group robbed another passerby John Connolly. At least one of the gang was armed with a revolver. As the Evening Herald (17 Jan) reported, the robbers told Connolly – before they took his money and pocket-watch  – that he had met the ‘Sons of Dawn’.

The Evening Herald, 23 January 1920

On the night of 22 January, a “well-known” but unnamed resident of Garville Avenue, Rathgar was held up by a gang of three men as he posted a letter close to his home. They helped themselves to his watch watch and a measly three shillings. The Irish Independent (24 Jan 1920) said that one of the gang told the victim : “If you are going to make anything about this. Say it was the Sons of Dawn. Good Night.”

Under the heading of ‘Murty’s Letter’ in The Irish Times (31 January 1920), a journalist described the ‘Sons of Dawn’ as a:

… a new order of Irish reformers and men of action, with a way of its own. Their plan of campaign is to wait around the corner on dark nights and when you go to post a letter in the letterbox , (they) demand your watch and your money at the muzzle of a gun. Or they may vary that programme by raiding a post office or burgularin’ (sic) a house and carrying off the safe and its contents…

The Nationalist and Leinster Times (7 Feb 1920) reported that the ‘Sons of Dawn’ had been active in Athy, County Kildare and had broken into a pub on William Street. It seems unlikely however that the Dublin ‘Sons of Dawn’ would travel up to 80km to undertake such a burglary. If anything though, it would seem to illustrate that a gang of robbers with a menacing name can prompt journalists farther afield to pin similar crimes on them.

The anxious and sleepless citizen, the late reveller in the mansion, the guardians of the city’s peace, paused a moment to wonder what daring marauder, what anarchist, what Son of Dawn, had ventured forth to shoot, loot, or be shot at.

This period saw the establishment of the Irish Republican Police (IRP) under the authority of Dáil Éireann. Liam O’Carroll, a Dublin IRA captain, described in his Witness Statement (no. 594) how the organisation undertook a:

a considerable amount of police work … in conjunction with the Dáil Courts … with a view of undermining the [Dublin Metropolitan Police] … The duties involved were varied and concerned a large number of personal cases, robberies, house-breaking and the like.

The brazen activity of the ‘Sons of Dawn’ brought them to the attention of the IRA in Dublin. Volunteers Sean Brunswick (BMH WS No. 898) and Nicholas Laffan (BMH No. 703) also make reference to this particular gang in their witness statements.

O’Carroll stated that the group were also known as the ‘Moore Street Gang’ and:

… usually met in a billiard saloon connected at the time with Woolworth’s of Henry Street, and Woolworth’s themselves had engaged Volunteer police to keep the premises under observation.

Downfall

An IRA Volunteer obtained information that the gang planned to rob a wholesale tobacco business owned by Patrick McEvoy known as Magill’s at 105 Capel Street (now the Outhouse LGBT community centre).

No. 105 Capel Street ‘Cosmon Ltd’ in 1978. It was previously known as Magill’s. Credit – Dublin City Council Photographic Collection

At around 10.30pm on 22nd September 1920, four members of the ‘Sons of Dawn’ robbed Magill’s of tobacco and about 20 packets of cigarettes. As they were leaving the building through the back door, they were greeted by 16 armed members of the IRA. The gang of four were marched away blindfolded to a “house unknown” where they were placed in a cellar and kept until 9pm the following day.

Liam O’Carroll’s Witness Statement reveals that the gang was brought to the Colmcille Hall at 5 Blackhall Street in Smithfield. A brisky 10 minute walk from Capel Street. This building had been owned by the Gaelic League since 1900 and was used as the HQ of the 1st Battalion, Dublin Brigade of the Irish Volunteers/IRA from 1914 to 1922.

Advertisement for a Ceilidh dance in the Colmcille Hall, 5 Blackhall Street. Evening Herald, 16 November 1921

Besides being caught red-handed immediately after the robbery, the IRA searched the boys and found a photograph of the four of them with “The Sons of Dawn, 1919, 1920” and “The Boys of Dublin” written in ink on the back.

The four were named in the newspapers as :

• Thomas Corlett of Cole’s Lane [off Moore Street]
• James Gannon of Moore Street
• Matthew Reid, No Address Given
• Henry Thomas of Dominick Street [off Parnell Street]

They were tried before a five-person “Court of Republican officers” and found guilty of robbing the Capel Street premises along with other three businesses on Henry Street: Menzies and Co.,  Lipton’s Ltd. and Burton’s. The armed robberies in Ballsbridge and Rathgar were not mentioned.

The Evening Herald, 25 September 1920

Corlett and Gannon were sentenced to be flogged twelve times “on the bare back” and five years deportation.

Reid was sentenced to three years deportation and Thomas to 12 months deportation.

A press release of some sort was sent to the newspapers as the Evening Herald (25 Sep 1920) published details of the detention that only the IRA captors could have known. Such as how that one of the prisoners:

… broke down and wept while another asked to be shot rather than leave the country. He was given the option and quickly accepted the first order of the court.

The four boys were taken from the building separately and two IRA police officers were detailed to walk with each for half-an-hour (in circles no doubt) before they were let go on Green Street.

It would appear that the DMP picked them up in the following days as the Evening Herald (14 October 1920) reported that the same Matthew Reid and Thomas Corlett were charged with the break-in of Magill’s on Capel Street and sentenced to nine months imprisonment each. James Gannon and Henry Thomas do not appear to have been charged by the authorities.

So it would appear, despite assertions in the Witness Statements by former IRA volunteers, that the boys were not forced to emigrate from the country.

Copycats?

In October 1920, four houses were broken into in the neighboring villages of Kilternan and Jamestown in South County Dublin. The Freeman’s Journal (8 Oct) reported that the masked and armed men had left a receipt for their seized money with the signature ‘The Sons of Dawn’. Times were certainly changing as the chairman of the Rathdown Guardians told the newspaper that “this was a serious matter and should be referred to the Republican police”. It is unclear whether this was another ‘branch’ of the original ‘Sons of Dawn’ or a gang who wanted to use an already-established name.

The Sons of Dawn

So what else can we find out about the gang members? After a good bit of digging, I think I’ve been able to identity some background information on all four ‘Sons of Dawn’ boys. Their exact addresses in 1920 were as follows:

• Thomas Corlett, 34 Cole’s Lane. Born 18/05/1901.
• James Gannon, 38 Moore Street. Born 11/07/1899.
• Matthew Reid, 21 Upper Rutland Street. Born 04/02/1900.
• Henry Thomas, 38 Lower Dominick Street. Born 1891 or 1895.

Thomas Corlett was born on 18 May 1901 at 5 Rotunda Market to parents Alfred, a postman, and Alice Corlett (née O’Brien). Rotunda Market near Moore Street linked Denmark Street and Cole’s Lane which all vanished with the building of the Ilac Centre. In 1901, the family were still living at 5 Rotunda Market and in 1911, the family including Thomas (9) were living at 34.1 Cole’s Lane. At the time of his arrest in 1920, Thomas was still living on Cole’s Lane.

The Freeman’s Journal (16 Jan 1920) reported that a Thomas Corlett (18) was found not guilty of breaking into a bottling store on Henry Place and stealing four dozen bottles of stout and two dozen bottles of whiskey. This overlapped with the period during which the ‘Sons of Dawn’ were active. The ‘Irish Prison Registers 1790-1924’ reveal that Thomas was charged  with “illegal possession of a silver dish” (February 1920);  “breaking and entering” (September 1920) and “shop-breaking” (October 1920).

In September 1933, Thomas Corlett of 34 Cole’s Lane was fined £11 in the District Court, according to the Irish Press (15 Sep), for failing to comply with the National Health and Unemployment Insurance Acts. In October 1933, a Thomas Corlett was charged with breaking into the Catholic Church at Mount Argus, Harold’s Cross, Dublin 6 the previous August and stealing the contents of the collection box. The Irish Times (28 Oct) noted that Corlett was proprietor of the Technical Cafe, 36 Bolton Street. He was later acquitted after a witness was recalled and re-examined.

Thomas Corlett. Register of birth, 18 May 1901. Credit : http://www.irishgenealogy.ie

James Gannon was born on 11 July 1899 at 67 Patrick Street to parents Patrick, a baker, and Margaret Gannon (née Logan). In 1901 , the family including James (1) had moved to 2 Moore Street Market and by 1911, the family with James (10) had moved a few doors up the street to 38 Moore Street. At the time of his arrest in 1920, James was still living on Moore Street.

In August 1921, a James Gannon (21) was sentenced to three years “penal discipline” in the Borstal institution Clonmel, County Tipperary for breaking into two premisses in Dublin and stealing clothes and alcohol. The Evening Herald (4 Aug 1921) noted that the man’s mother was a “dealer in clothes”. This individual is the same age as the ‘Sons of Dawn’ James Gannon whose mother was a “Second Hand Clothes Dealer” according to the 1911 Census. The same newspaper article described the boy as having lost his father in the First World War and falling into “bad company” while his mother was “not aware he (was) suspected of being concerned in other criminal enterprises”. It would appear that his arrest and interrogation by the IRA was not enough to put him on a moral and law-abiding path.

James Gannon. Register of birth, 11 July 1899. Credit : http://www.irishgenealogy.ie

Matthew Reid was born on 4 February 1900 at 15 Hill Street off Parnell Street to Charles, a labourer, and wife Mary Reid (née Hand). In 1901, the family including one-year-old Mat were still living at 15.4 Hill Street. By 1911, the Reids including Matthew (11) had moved to 56.1 Bow Lane West in Kilmainham, Dublin 8. (Matthew’s mother’s name has changed but everything else matches). When Matthew was arrested in 1920, the newspapers did not provide his address but it would appear it was 21 Upper Rutland Street as the ‘Irish Prison Registers 1790-1924’ shows that Matthew Reid, who was born at 15 Hill Street, was charged with”breaking and entering” (September 1920). In July 1916, the same Matthew Reid was arrested for “larceny”. His address at the time in 1916 was 4 Belmont while 15 Hill Street was listed as his birthplace.

Matthew Reid. Register of birth, 4 February 1900. Credit : http://www.irishgenealogy.ie

The ‘Irish Prison Registers 1790-1924’ reveal that Henry Thomas lived at 58 Lower Dominick Street in 1920. His birthplace was listed at different times as Dublin, Liverpool and London and there are conflicting years of birth.

In 1901, the Thomas family made up of Albert, a butcher, his wife Mary and son Albert (8) were living at 2.2 Sandwith Place near Pearse Street. In September 1910, Henry was charged with ‘obscene language’. The records show that he was living at 49 Summerhill and was born in Church Street. In November 1910, he was arrested for ‘loitering and house-breaking. The Summerhill address corresponds with the the 1911 census which shows that Henry (16) was living with his family at 49.7 Summerhill. In May 1917, Henry was arrested for ‘larceny’ of a ‘gold ring’ worth £8. The family had moved to 7 Lower Dominick Street while his birthplace was listed as ‘Liverpool’. In March 1918, Henry of 58 Lower Dominick Street was charged with stealing a sum of money. His birthplace this time was listed as Arran Quay. In December 1918, Thomas was charged with stealing a blouse worth £3. His current residence was 58 Lower Dominick Street while his birthplace was listed as Sandwith Street, Dublin (which corresponds with 1901 census).

If you think you might be related to any of the four boys, we’d love to hear from you. Did a grand-parent or grand-uncle or an elderly neighbour ever talk about the Sons of Dawn?

Next time I’ll be looking at another Dublin criminal outfit who were also tracked down and captured by the IRA in the same time period.

The Winter Garden Palace was situated on the corner of 106 St. Stephen’s Green West and 24 Cuffe Street for over 200 years.

From the newspaper archives, it seems that the business was in operation from at least 1866. Described as the ‘Winter Garden’s Gin Palace’, its first proprietor was James Brady.

The Winter Garden Palace, The Irish Times (31 March 1866).

It received a glorious review in The Irish Times in April 1866. The unnamed writer wanted to put on record that a  Gin Palace was just for the “idle, the drunkard or the spendthrift”. The Winter Garden Gin Palace  on St. Stephen’s Green could boast of a “public bar, a large saloon and smoking room”. Its walls were decorated with beautiful scenic canvas drawings and in one corner there was a model of “one of the Gothic windows of Muckross Abbey”.

The Winter Garden Palace, The Irish Times (6 April 1866).

Philip Little, who first began his publican career in Dublin in 1863, appears to have re-opened the Winter Garden Palace under his own patronage in August 1877.

The Winter Garden Palace, The Irish Times (20 Aug 1877).

In the 1880s, the pub was referred to as a favourite meeting spot for the Invincibles (Fenian-splinter group)

The 1901 census shows that Phillip Little (65), a “Grocer and Spirt Merchant” from County Cavan, lived in the property with his wife Bridget Little (62) from County Kildare and their four children. On the night of the census, a visitor Mary Molloy and her son were in the house. Little employed a domestic servant (housekeeper) and six young male grocers assistants. Five of whom were from his home county of Cavan.

Proprietor Philip Little was a Dublin Corporation councillor from 1884 and seeked re-election in the 1905 election. He described himself as a Home Rule Irish Nationalist, a friend of the Labouring Classes, a supporter of social housing and in favour of more public libraries and expanding Technical Education.

Philip Little, election address. Evening Herald, 3 Dec 1904

The 1911 census shows that Phillip Little (75) lived in the house with his wife Bridget Little (70), a son, a daughter and two grandsons. The employed a coach-man, cook and maid. While five male groces assistants worked in the Little’s Winter Garden Palace.

During the 1916, Easter Rising, a number of building’s overlooking St. Stephen’s Green were commandeered by rebel forces. These included Little’s public house (Winter Garden Palace) at the corner of Cuffe Street and the Royal College of Surgeons at the corner of York Street. The pub was occupied by an eight-man team, a mix of Irish Volunteers and Irish Citizen Army, under the command of James Kelly. Most of them had retreated from Davy’s pub at Portobello and from Leeson Street bridge.

Philip Little put in a claim into the Property Losses (Ireland) Committee, 1916 for £189 5s 8d. This was a result of damage to his business from rifle fire, the looting of goods and the use of his property for barricades. A payment of £158 was recommended by Committee. Among the list of goods that Little claimed for included one feather mattress, 42 pieces of “best china”, six silver spoons and one gents suit.

The Winter Garden Palace was put up for sale in 1919 and sold in 1920 to a Daniel O’Neill.

The Winter Garden Palace, The Irish Times (04 Dec 1919).

Here is a wonderful photograph from RTE’s Archive of the exterior of pub from around 1920:

A British soldier stands outside the Winter Garden Palace pub, owned by Philip Little circa 1920. Credit – RTE

In the 1920s and 1930s, the pub was under the ownership of Matthew Redmond. In 1935, a Belfast-man was found in the business during holy-hours. The individual after arrest claimed in the District Court that he had been punched in the right eye by a policeman and was “left in a cold cell naked for half-an-hour”.

The Winter Palace Garden, The Irish Times (07 Nov 1935)

The following year, publican Matthew Redmond was fined for allowing alcohol to be consumed in his pub from 11pm to 12 midnight.

The Winter Garden Palace, Evening Herald (4 Feb 1936)

By the early 1940s, the pub had been taken over by Peter Cullen. He ran it until his death in 1957.

A view of The Winter Palace Garden, owned by Peter Cullen, in 1952. Credit -bureauofmilitaryhistory.ie

Another view of The Winter Palace Garden, this time from St. Stephen’s Green looking up to Harcourt Street. The pub’s sign is visible at the end of the street on the right-hand side.

The Winter Garden Palace, 1952. Credit –
bureauofmilitaryhistory.ie

Peter Cullen’s widow Monica ‘Mona’ Cullen (d. 1998) managed the business until it was acquired together with other properties in the area by a Compulsory Purchase Order in 1966

The pubs demise was lamented by many newspapers of the time.

The Winter Garden Palace, Evening Herald 27 April 1967.

The building lay derelict for nearly 10 years.

A view of The Winter Palace Garden from Cuffe Street, 1969. Credit – Wiltshire Photographic Collection / NLI

It was proved to be a long-lasting eyesore, slowly wasting away.

The Winter Garden Palace, Sunday Independent (31 March 1974)

The building was finally demolished in 1975 and residential Cuffe Street was re-developed into a a six -lane dual carriageway. The historic Bricklayers’ Hall was also pulled down for the same reason. A gaping hole on Cuffe Street still remains to this day.

The derelict Winter Palace Garden, c. late 1960s/early 1970s.

Check out our music history section for lots more articles on the bands, venues and records of the late 1970 and early 1980s Dublin music scene.

The Resistor EP front. Credit – Sam (CHTM!)

The Resistor EP back Credit – Sam (CHTM!)

After a number of years of searching, I finally got my hands today on a rare Dublin New Wave 7″ from The Resistors.  All thanks to the wonderful photographer Wally Cassidy who is helping to sell his friend’s record collection.

Titled ‘EP for Jeanie’ and released in 1980, it was the the one and only output from the band’s own label ‘Break Records’. The contact person for the record company listed on the single is Marcus de Cogan who was Ents officer of UCD Student’s Union  in 1976/77.

The Resistors, who were active from 1978 until 1983, were described by music journalist Neil McCormack at the time as playing “reggae tinged new wave pop”. The band comprised of:

• Peter McEvoy – Vocals
• Paul O’Reilly – Guitar
• Pat Hamilton – Guitar
• Tim McStay – Keyboards
• Valentine – Bass
• Brian ‘Bun’ Curran – Drums

Three of the band had previously performed together in The Noise Boys (1978-79).

All three songs on ‘EP for Jeanie’ were composed by keyboardist Tim McStay.

The Resistors live. Credit – Bert Versey (via http://u2theearlydayz.com/)

The record was produced by Brendan ‘Brenny’ Bonass who had played guitar with a host of Dublin beat/blues/rock bands in the 1960s and 1970s including The Inmates, The Uptown Band, The Stellas, The Chosen Few, Rockhouse and Stepaside.

It was engineered by Ken Kiernan, who had co-founded Keystone Studios in 1977 and played guitar and keyboards with Pulling Faces, and Brian Masterson, who had co-founded  Windmill Lane studios in 1978, and played played bass with jazzy-rock groups Jazz Therapy and later Supply, Demand and Curve .

The record featured saxophonist Dave McHale, formerly of Stagalee, The Boomtown Rats amongst others, who sadly passed away in 2009.

The front cover photograph was taken by Colm Henry.

Side A

‘Jeanie’ is an up-beat track with strong two-tone and mod revival influences.

Side B

‘Takeaway Love’ is a decent power-pop tune.

More of the same with ‘End Of The Line’

The band’s second single ‘That’s It‘ (1983) is probably even more rare with not a single copy ever sold on Discogs since 2000. It’s a collector’s item as Phil Lynott produced the b-side. Luckily, I was recently passed down a copy and will get around to digitising it as soon as possible.

In terms of music history, we’ve generally been more focused on punk, soul, reggae and rockabilly but Come Here To Me! has looked occasionaly at the city’s rave, dance and club culture. For example, we’ve examined legendary 1980s gay-disco Flikkers;  iconic DJ Paul Webb; the 1998 techno tune ‘Northwall’; a general overview of sources for the history of Dublin’s dance culture; a look at the after-party scene in 2011 and a reference to the early-morning techno gigs in The Dark Horse (now a Starbucks).

Soundtracksforthem.com was an Irish group blog active from 2006 until 2010. It was a wonderful mix of music, politics, film and art. The architect was one James Redmond (aka Reddy). Highly influential to the development of Come Here To Me!, Soundtracksforthem.com gave a deserved platform to a gang of mischief makers and friends of ours with enigmatic nicknames like ‘Chief’, ‘Krossphader’ and ‘Cogsy’.  From 2010 onwards, Reddy transferred his work and energy into Rabble magazine and I take great pleasure in remembering those early organising meetings and first number of issues. But all during this time, Reddy was working away on researching, producing and editing a documentary film called ‘Notes on Rave in Dublin’.  Premiered at the Dublin International Film Festival 2017 over two-sold out dates in February, the film explores the glorious, early days of the underground dance music scene in Dublin.

One of those interviewed in the documentary is Simon Conway. Throughout the 2000s, Simon ran the much-lauded Electric City nights and Selectah Records. I first got to know Simon through his wonderful Forza Italo disco nights in the Odessa club. Along with the Con Artist thinking-man’s football nights in the Sugar Club and the Out to Lunch takeovers of Tengu, Simon somehow also has time to run The Yacht pub in Ringsend which is one of the best boozers in the city. Full stop.

These two powerhouses – Reddy and Simon –  have joined forces to bring you a solid night of entertainment this Friday 1st December across two venues.

Things kick off in Liberty Hall at 7pm with three presentations from individuals working on some exciting cultural projects:

• John Byrne will talk about a forthcoming compilation called Quare Groove which unearths a collection of Irish Groove, Punk-Funk, & Electro tracks from the 1970s to 1990s. It’s due out on Allchival (All City) in January 2018.

• Ciaran Nugent of Power FM will chat about his many years of collecting flyers from the golden era of Dublin clubbing.

• Garry O’Neill, editor of the vital ‘Where Were You? Dublin Youth Culture and Street Style 1950 – 2000, introduce his new book which focuses on the history of record shops in Dublin.

This will be followed by a panel discusison, hosted by music journalist and DJ Kate Butler, with author Kevin Barry, DJs Liam Dollard, Francois Pittion and Aoife Nic Canna who were at the forefront of things in the late 1980s and 1990s and Sunil Sharpe who is Ireland’s most significant contemporary Techno export.

Event poster.

Around 9pm, ‘Notes on Rave in Dublin’ will be shown on the big screen.

But the night doesn’t end there. Oh no. The party is moving next door to The Wiley Fox (formerly The Pint). Here, a collection of the city’s best DJs will be spinning tunes until the wee hours.

Upstairs:

Breen (Vision Collector/DDR) x Sias (Repeater Collective/DDR) x Melly (Repeater Collective/DDR)
+
DJ Kit-Kat Tennis League

Downstairs:

Garry O’Neill / Francois + more TBC

Tickets for the screening –  €12. Tickets for the after party – €12. You can pick up a combo deal for €20. Available from Eventbrite.ie

Number 98 Parnell Street (previously Great Britain Street) is a “terraced two-bay four-storey house” built in circa 1810. It served as the Healy family grocers from the mid 1800s until the early 1960s.

Unusually the proprietor James Healy was a Dublin-born publican as can be seen here for the 1901 census for the family.

1901 Census Return form for James Healy and family, 98 Parnell Street.

It was taken over  by well-known Dublin hurler Mick Bermingham and was under his stewardship until around 1982.

An advertisement for Mick Bermingham’s, 98 Parnell Street. Credit – Munster Express, 3 September 1971.

The pub was known as The 98 in the late 1980s; The Thornbush in the 1990s and then operated as Zagloba for the growing Polish community in the mid 2000s.

Its most recent carnations – the Dublin Supporters Bar and The Dubliner- were known for its cheap drink offers and all-day karaoke.

Dublin Supporters Bar, 2011. Credit – Paolo Trabattoni.

Dublin Supporters Bar, 98 Parnell Street pictured in 2013. Credit – Broadsheet.ie

In the last couple of months, it has closed, revamped and re-opened as The Luggage Room Bar. Going for the budget hipster look, it offers ‘student nights’, ‘pitcher Wednesdays’ and ‘Brazilian parties’.

The Luggage Room Bar, Halloween 2017. via Facebook.

(In terms of crime and Dublin, we’ve previously looked at 18th century gang violence; Joy-riding in Dublin from 1918-39; War of Independence bank-robberies; the 1920s ‘Sons of Dawn‘ who were rounded up by the IRA; Animal Gang violence in 1942; vigilante violence in Dublin (1970 – 1984)  Bugsy Malone gangs of the 1970s and Triad gang violence in 1979) 

Introduction

The 1950s and 1960s are interesting decades in relation to crime in Dublin. They are the bridgeway between the Animal Gang street violence and bookmaking rackets of the 1940s and the emergence of modern organised crime from the late 1960s onwards.

One individual who was active through both eras was Charles ‘Charlie’ Ainscough. He was better known by his nickname ‘Henchico’. A relation of his explained to me via email that the name ‘Henchico’ derived “from the mispronunciation of Liberties people of the name Ainscough”. It is pronounced ‘Ainscow’ in its correct form.

His nom-de-guerre ‘Henchicho’ has been variously spelled as ‘Henseco’, ‘Henshcough’ and ‘Hinchito’ in contemporary newspapers. As well as ‘Henchicoe’, ‘Henchekow’, ‘Henchecote’ and ‘Henchcoat’ on different online platforms by reminiscing Dubliners. ‘The Hench’ is another nickname remembered by others on Facebook

Throughout his 25+ year criminal career, Henchico was involved in street-fights, shootings, stabbings, hatchet-attacks, house-robberies, larceny, pimping and various other illegal enterprises. He was in and out of prison his whole life. A feared figure, Henchico’s life of crime only came to end with a sudden fatal heart attack in 1968.

Family Background

The surname Ainscough is of “Old Norse, Scandinavian origin” and is a “locational surname deriving from a now ‘lost’ place in Lancashire, England.”

The ancestors of Henchico moved from England to Dublin in the 1860s to take up employment as coopers in the Guinness Brewery, St. James’s Gate, Dublin 8. At its height, Guinness employed up to 300 coopers who made a thousand new wooden casks a week and repaired thousands more. It took a seven-year apprentice to become a qualified cooper and they were the most highly skilled tradesmen in the brewery.

Cooper in the Guinness brewery, late 19th century. Credit – http://3.bp.blogspot.com/.

Henchico’s father, Charles Ainscough Sr., was born on 29 November 1892 at 3 Wyle’s Cottages to James Ainscough and Mary-Ellen Ainscough (neé Deane). Wylie’s Cottages, later known as Behan’s Cottages, were situated off Lower Basin Street and James Street in the shadows of the Guinness brewery. 

In 1901, the Ainscough family living in Dublin 8 were the only Ainscough family on the whole of the island. The head of the family James Ainscough (38), a London-born Cooper, lived with his Liverpool-born wife Mary-Ellen Ainscough (36) and four sons and four daughters including Charles Sr.

1901 Census Return. Ainscough family, 3 Behan’s Cottages.

James Ainscough died on 1 February 1904 according to the online Guinness archive. The same resource reveals that his son Charles Ainscough Sr. joined Guinness as a ‘Tariff Cooper’ on 16 August 1909 aged 17.

At the time of the 1911 census, the Ainscough family were still living at 3 Behan’s Cottages. Widow Mary-Ellen (46) lived in the home with three daughters, one daughter-in-law and three sons including Charles Sr.

1911 Census Returns. Ainscough family, 3 Behan’s Cottages.

Henchico’s uncle Henry Ainscough was listed as the main inhabitant householder the 1913 Electoral Register:

1913 Electoral Roll. Henry Ainscough, 3 Wylie’s Cottages (aka Behan’s Cottages).

Henchico’s parents Charles Ainscough Sr., of 3 Behan’s Cottages, and Christina Ainscough (neé McCann), of 32 Usher’s Quay, married on 7 November 1915 at St.f Audoen’s Church, Dublin 8.

1915 marriage cert of Henchico’s parents

Their son Henchico (Charles Jr.) was born around September 1925.

Here is a Google Map illustrating the various addresses in the city connected to Henchico throughout his life.

• Purple – Friends/Family/Hang-out spots
• Green – Enemies/Rival Gang Members
• Black – Sites of robberies and incidents

1940s

By the 1940s, the Ainscough family had moved from Behan’s Cottages around the corner to 2 Newport Street. This is the sole address associated with Henchico for the rest of his life.

Derelict Cottage, Newport Street (1980s). Credit – Dublin City Council Photographic Collection

At the age of only 16, Henchico took part in the infamous Tolka Park battle on 23 March 1942 between members of the southside Ash Street ‘Animal Gang’ and the rival northside Stafford Street (now Wolfe Tone Street) ‘Animal Gang’. The brawl took place during the semi-final football game between Mountain View and St. Stephen’s United in the Junior Combination Cup. Knives, crowbars, flagpoles, rusty swords, iron bars and chair-legs were used in the trouble, according to historian Kevin C. Kearns.

Henchico and many others were arrested and found guilty of “conspiring, assault and malicious wounding”. He was the youngest person to be charged and was sentenced to eight months hard labour. His co-accused, as revealed in the Irish Press (26 March 1942), were:

Southside (Ash Street gang)

• Laurence McCabe (26), Ash Street
• James Walsh (21), 4 Ash Street
• John Weldon (19), 68 Meath Street
• Patrick Walsh (18), 4 Ash Street
• Charles Ainscough (16), 2 Newport Street

Northside (Stafford Street gang)

• Joseph Gahon (23), 15 Lower Dominick Street
• John Early (22), 38 Stafford Street (now Wolfe Tone Street)
• John Kelly (22), Strafford Street (now Wolfe Tone Street)
• Thomas Grant (20); 7 Ormond Square
• John Manley (18), 15 Stafford Street (now Wolfe Tone Street)
• John Leonard (17), 17 Little Mary Street

Following his release from jail, Henchico moved to England and joined the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the height of World War II. The young Dubliner made the newspapers, not for daring Spitfire bravery, but for a drunken argument that resulted in the shooting of an officer. In 1944, Henchico was charged in a court in Brackley, Northamptonshire with attempted murder following the shooting of a New Zealand-born Flying Officer named Jack Bryan Small at a RAF base in the Midlands. Newspapers reported that Henchico was known to his comrades as the ‘Singing Irishman’. As recorded in the Banbury Advertiser (24 May 1944), he was sentenced to five-years penal servitude.

The Northampton Mercury, 17 March 1944.

Henchico was only around 20 years old when his father Charles Sr. died in 1946. Needless to say this would have not helped the mindset of an already troubled youngster.

It is unclear how much jail time Henchico served but he was back in Dublin by 1948. That year Henchico was sentenced to 12 months in jail with hard labour for breaking into a number of shops on Lower Abbey Street. As reported in The Irish Times (3 July 1948), his conspirator was Patrick Carr (22), a tailor, from Tonguefield, Kimmage.

A year later, an interesting detail was given away in The Irish Times (28 Nov 1949). An article about a car/van collision in Crumlin revealed that one of the injured parties was “Charles Henseco” aged 23, a “cart driver”, of 2 Newport Street. This confirmed in print for the first time that this very unusual nickname was directly connected to Charles Ainscough of that address.

1950s

In 1950, Henchico was fined £20 for interference with the mechanism of a motorcar in Sutton. The Irish Times (5 July 1950) revealed that he had been previously sentenced to five years imprisonment for armed robbery in England but this is likely to have been mixed up with the RAF officer shooting incident.

In 1951, Henchico and three other men were arrested and charged with breaking into the home of Roy and Maureen Black at 19 The Rise, Mount Merrion and stealing goods worth over £2,000. The gang also robbed clothing from 3 Wilfield Park, Ballsbridge. The Irish Times (25 Jan 1951) listed the other individuals involved as:

• Thomas Dowling (21),no occupation, of 23 St Enda’s Road, Terenure
• William Kelly (19), no occupation, of 64 Bridgefoot Street
• Joseph Enright (23), labourer, of 27 Island Street

Later that same year, Henchico was found guilty of breaking into the premises of Resnick’s clothing factory, Upper Dominick Street and stealing £116 in cash. He was sentenced to 20 months hard labour. The Irish Press (12 May 1951) noted that Henchico, aged about 25, had already seven previous criminal convictions.

In July 1951, Henchico was convicted of housebreaking offences “involving property valued at several thousand pounds” and sentenced to threeyears penal servitude. His companion Cyril Francis Laverty (20), no business or fixed address, received 20 months hard labour while Thomas Dowling (21), no occupation, of 23 St Enda’s Road, Terenure received 18 months hard labour. According to the Irish Press (17 July 1951), Henchico was already serving a 20 month sentence which would run concurrently with the three years imposed on him for this latest offence.

The Irish Press, 14 July 1951.

Henchico’s mother Christina Ainscough died in March 1952, leaving him parentless.

In May 1956, Henchico was charged with breaking into two jewellery shops – Patrick D. Leamy, 3 South Anne Street, stealing goods worth £1,369 and Gerald Campbell, 32 Lower Ormond Street, robbing £83 worth of stock. Henchico was sentenced in October to two years imprisonment for these offences.

Brendan Raynor (19), of 229 St. Attracta Road, Cabra admitted that he was involved in the robbery and was sentenced to 11 months. Following his arrest in Birmingham, he told the local police that : “I won’t say anything until I get back to Dublin and see ‘Hinchito’”–  The Irish Times, 2 July 1956. The other members of the gang: James Corrigan (20), of no fixed address, received 10 months and Michael Jones (20), of no fixed address, was sentenced to 10 months.

Evening Herald, 30 June 1956.

The Irish Independent (6 Oct 1956) reported that Philip Wyatt (19), of Cashel Road, Crumlin was found ‘not guilty’ of having £400 worth of jewellery, knowing it to be stolen from Patrick D. Leamy’s shop. He told police that he had been asked to deliver the jewellery wrapped in a sock and handkerchief to a man in a pub on St. Augustine Street named “Charles Ainscough or Henshcough”. The Evening Herald spelt it ‘Hinchito’.

Irish Press, 5 October 1956

In May 1958, Henchico and two other men broke into Margaret Gregory’s shop in Newtownkennedy, County Wicklow and stole goods worth £106. Henchico was sentenced to three years in jail. James Wilson (26), of 51 Queen Street, received two years while William McLoughlin (24), of Paul Street, got one year. The Irish Times (13 Nov 1958) noted that James Wilson had been sentenced to 14 years imprisonment in 1952 for the shooting of  a man during an armed bank robbery in Cornmarket, Dublin and was released in late 1957.

On 17 February 1959, The Irish Times reported that Henchico was sentenced to a further 12 months imprisonment after pleading guilty to a another 11 charges of housebreaking.

1960s

The Irish Times (16 Feb 1960) reported that Henchico had pleaded not guilty to breaking and entering a shop at 43 Pimlico in the Coombe during the previous November and stealing cigarettes and goods worth £15.

In June 1962, Henchico was involved in the larceny of 18 cases of whiskey worth £303 from the British and Irish Steam Packet Co. Ltd., North Wall and £688 worth of clothing from Alpha Bargains, 67 Aungier Street. The Irish Press (4 Dec 1962) reported that he was sentenced to 15 months in jail.

A series of violent incidents in 1962 broke the cycle of robberies and break-ins that had been occurring since the late 1940s.

On 2 June 1962, Henchico was assaulted by three men outside 23 Nicholas Street between Patrick Street and Christchurch. The Northside culprits were:

• James Martin (34), of 25F St. Michan’s House, Greek Street – three months imprisonment
• Joseph Larkin (29), of St. Jarlath’s Road, Cabra – 1 month suspended sentence
• John Davis (28), of Alfred Byrne House, Greenville Street – 1 month suspended sentence

The Irish Times (19 Sep 1962) reported that two Gardaí  had witnessed Henchico “talking to a number of youths” on the path on Nicholas Street when a van pulled up. Three men emerged and attacked Henchico who was brought to Adelaide Hospital where he received seven stitches.

On 8 July 1962, William Moore, of 106 Kylemore Road, Ballyfermot, was attacked with a hatchet by Henchico on the Ballyfermot Road. Moore received four stitches to a cut above his eye. The Irish Times (25 Oct 1962) reported that Henchico was convicted and sentenced to 12 months imprisonment. The judge told him that he was lucky, due to the seriousness of the incident, that he was not standing in the dock charged with manslaughter or murder.

On 16 September 1962, Leo Tougher, of Glenealy Road, Crumlin, was stabbed by Henchico “from his hair to the opening of his lip” outside the Rob Roy café, Harrington Street in Portobello, Dublin 8. He had to undergo an operation to remove his left eye.

Evening Herald, 16 October 1962.

The Irish Press (18 Sep 1962) reported that five young men were arrested in relation to the vicious assault:

• Charles Ainscough (38), 2 Newport Street
• Edward Simpson (22), Clogher Road, Crumlin
• Terence Lynch (22), 2 St Audeon’s Terrace, Christchurch, Dublin 8
• Thomas Quinn (22), Usher’s Island
• Nicholas Muldoon (18), Rosary Road, Maryland, Dublin 8

The group was charged with maliciously wounding with intent to “disfigure and disable” Leo Togher, amongst other charges. Garda Lugs Branigan described it as a case of “gang warfare” in the Dublin District Court. It was brought up in Court that Henchico had 24 previous convictions dating back to 1941. It is also worth noting that how much older Henchico was compared to his gang of four juveniles, the youngest of whom was 20 years younger than him.

Later in the same year, The Irish Times (17 Nov 1962) reported that Henchico was found not guilty by a jury of receiving 5,000 cigarettes knowing them to be stolen. The article noted that Henchico was a patron of the Last Post café, 12 Ellis Quay.

Last Post, 12 Ellis Quay, Dublin, 1988. Credit – David Jazay / Slate.com

In folk memory, this late-night café was a popular rendezvous spot for Henchico and his gang. On a side note, the restaurant was owned by Polish Holocaust survivor Jan Kaminski who also ran The Baggot Mews restaurant.

The Evening Herald reported on 15 February 1965 that Henchico pleaded guilty to receiving 18 men’s suits and other clothing that had been stolen from a Ballyfermot cleaning firm.

Life of crime comes to an end

Throughout the 20th century, Benburb Street in Dublin 7 was one of the centres for street prostitution on the northside of the city. Kevin C. Kearns, in his 2014 biography of famed policeman Lugs Branigan, described Henchico as a “runty small-time kingpin” who used to hang around Benburb Street with his cronies “like a fly circling a rubbish heap”. Henchico was apparently “cunning and convincing enough to be rarely caught” for his crimes but this is somewhat contradicted by the sheer amount of court-cases reported in the newspapers. Former policeman John Collins called him a “small, little guy, in his thirties or forties … who knew everyone, all the scumbags in Dublin”.

Many of the policeman who talked to Kevin C. Kearns admitted that Henchico was “unique – an impressively ‘shadowy’ figure” who was “involved in all sorts of illicit dealings”. They described him as a “pimp” who the women on the street “feared … terribly”. He was called an “underworld figure”  byBernard Neary in his 1985 biography of Lugs Branigan.

Charles ‘Henchico’ Ainscough collapsed and died of a heart attack on 13 February 1968 near Benburb Street, Dublin 7. He was only 42 and it’s unclear whether there were any underlying health issues.

Death notice for Charles Ainscough (aka Henchico). Evening Herald, 14 February 1968.

Historian Bernard Neary noted that ‘Lugs’ Branigan was the one to discover his body. He brought it to hospital and then:

… reported the matter to the appropriate Garda authorities and before leaving the hospital removed all possessions including £700 in cash from the dead man and gave them to the night nurse, telling her to give them to nobody and put them in safe keeping for the investigating Gardaí.

The next day Jim called into Jervis Street and the nurse told him that after he left the dead man’s wife called and asked for the money, as her husband had forgotten to leave any money in the house and she had to put food on the table. “Did you give her any money?” asked Jim. “No, Sergeant, I did just as you told me”. “Good, for he has no wife, he never married”. “

Henchico’s removal Mass took place in St. Catherine’s Church, Meath Street and he was afterwards buried in Mount Jerome cemetery, Harold’s Cross.

Conclusion

Lugs Branigan’s comment that Henchico “never married” is of interest as there are strong rumours amongst people I’ve talked to online and offline that he was gay. He certainly wouldn’t have been the first gay or bi-sexual gangster. For example, Ronnie Kray in 1950s/60s London or Dominic Noonan in 1980/90s Manchester.  Historian John Gibney makes reference in a 2012 Irish Independent article to Henchico’s “soft, feminine voice”. A number of Dubliners online have spoken about the fact that the older Henchico wholeheartedly enjoyed the company of the younger boys who hung at his coat-tails and did his bidding.

It is no surprise that someone who was involved in crime for over 25 years is remembered in the folk memory of the city. I spoke online to Ken Donohue from the northside who many decades ago went out with a girl from Dolphin House, Dublin 8. That’s how he first heard of Henchico and his gang. Donohue told me that he would have to have his:

wits about (him) walking from Rialto [Dublin 8] to Bolton Street [Dublin 7] three times a week in case (he) came across them as you could get a hiding just for the sake of it, especially if it was known that you were a northsider .. he was a psycho – no question about that. His reputation would have been known around the north city but he seldom ventured over”

Declan Mulligan recalled on Facebook:

Growing up on Faussagh Road, Cabra in the late sixties early seventies, we knew all about Henchico and the Animal Gang. Around the block on St. Jarlath Road, where my granny lived, there was the famous Joseph Messey Larkin who had apparently battered Henchico in Nichols Street. And at about the age of 9 my Da decided that I needed to toughen up so he brought me over to Arbour Hill Boxing Club for lessons, where I was introduced to Mister James Brannigan, also referred to by those less respectful as ‘Lugs’ ! He gave me plenty of tips at the time.

While musician Brendan Bonass wrote:

When I was in a group called ‘Rockhouse with Fran Byrne, Paul Brady, we played in a place called ‘The Cavalier Club’ off Harcourt Street. Charlie Henchico’s name often came up. There was a suggestion that he was involved in the club somehow … There was always a hush when his name came up…

Henchico was somewhat unique in that he was feared underworld figure in an era that is associated with poverty, unemployment and emigration, but not necessarily criminality. ‘Dublin in the Rare Old Times’ is remembered as an age when doors were unlocked and the streets were safe for children and older people to roam freely.

If Henchico had lived, there is a strong possibility that he could have emerged as a serious player in organised crime in the 1970s. He certainly would have had the experience, the contacts and the reputation. I would argue that he should be seen as one of the major career criminals in Dublin of the immediate generation before the likes of Tony ‘King Scum’ Felloni and Christy ‘Bronco’ Dunne. Felloni started off with small-time blackmailing in the early 1960s to house-breaking and robberies in the late 1960s and finally to large-scale drug-dealing in the 1970s and 1980s.

Older Dubliners on Facebook, since this article was first published, have commented that they’ve heard the syaing “he’s some Henchio” being used as derogatory term for a “gurrier-wannabee hard man”.

Legendary guitarist and lyricist Pete Holidai, formerly of The Radiators from Space, released a 2014 single with The Trouble Pilgrims titled ‘Animal Gang Blues’. He references Henchico, his hatchet and policeman Lugs ‘Branno’ Branigan. I will leave you with those great lyrics:

Emerging from the shadows
With a high-pitched serenade
Henchico concealing
A sharpened hatchet blade
Smell the piss and poverty
Driving the despair
When Branno watches over them
No weapons to declare