(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