Jackie Griffith, a 21-year-old IRA member, was shot dead in July 1943 while cycling near the corner of Lower Mount Street and Merrion Square in Dublin city centre. Although only a young man, he had been active in the IRA for a number of years and had been linked to a series of armed robberies and shooting incidents. Griffith was ‘on the run’ after escaping from Mountjoy Jail eight months previously. He was killed by Special Branch detectives who fired at him with a Thompson submachine through the window of their moving car. The authorities claimed that Griffith shot at them first but the Republican movement always maintained that he was cut down in a clear ‘shoot to kill’ policy. He was the first IRA member killed on the streets of Dublin since Peter McCarthy in 1937 which was the focus of a previous piece.
John Laurence Griffith’s parents Benjamin Griffith and Mary Leonard were from contrasting backgrounds. Benjamin was Protestant and grew up in rural Waterford in comfortable surroundings as the son of a Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) Constable. Mary Leonard was Catholic, the daughter of a fisherman, and lived in the Dublin working-class village of Ringsend.
Griffith family
Jackie’s father Benjamin Griffith was born on 06 Oct. 1888 at Marble Lane, Waterford City to Cork natives John Griffith of Skibbereen and Grace Ann Griffith (née Swanton) of Knockroe, Ballydehob, who had set up home in Waterford by the 1880s.
In 1901, the Griffith family were living in the coastal village of Annestown near Tramore, County Waterford. John Griffith was the local RIC sergeant and the family (parents and seven children) lived in the RIC Barracks. There seems to have been a strong Church of Ireland identity to the village as it had both a Protestant church and a Protestant meeting hall but noticeably no public house.
John Griffith died of pleurisy on 22 November 1901 aged 57 leaving his widow Grace Ann with seven children ranging in ages from six to 16. Existing on her RIC widow’s pension, she was living in 1911 in a cottage at 64 Poleberry Street, Waterford City with two sons and a boarder. It is unclear where Jackie’s father Benjamin Griffith, aged about 22, was living at the time and I have been unable to find him in the Irish or British Census. His siblings were dotted around the county – Margaret, a domestic nurse and servant in Stillorgan, Dublin; Jane, a Draper Assistant, in Abbeyleix, County Laois and Emily Grace who went to live with an older brother in Killybodagh, County Armagh.
Leonard family
Jackie’s mother Mary Leonard was born on 27 Aug. 1899 at 18 Thorncastle Street, Ringsend, Dublin to James Leonard and Mary Leonard (née Cocoran). The pair had married seven years previously in St. Mary’s Church (Star of the Sea) in Sandymount. James, a fisherman, listed his home address as 2 Cambridge Road, Ringsend while Mary was from 55 Tritonville Road, Sandymount.
In 1901, the Leonard family were living at 407 Cambridge Road, Ringsend in a house that was divided up for three families. James’ occupation was listed as a sailor. (The street numbering seems inconsistent as six children born to James and Mary were registered at 14 Cambridge Road between 1900 and 1911). In 1911, the family (Mary, her parents and five siblings) were still living on Cambridge Road in a tenement house shared by four families.
By 1914, the Leonard family had established themselves at 13 Pigeon House Road. A scenic stretch of bungalows directly facing the River Liffey and Dublin Port.
Benjamin Griffith worked as a painter and lived at 70 Great Brunswick Street (Pearse Street) in 1921 according to his marriage certificate. This was ‘only’ across the bridge from Ringsend and perhaps is a clue to how he met the acquaintance of Mary Leonard. The pair married in St Patrick’s Church, Ringsend on 31 May 1921 in the midst of the War of Independence.
Jackie Griffith early years
The couple’s first child John Laurence Griffith – known by his friends and comrades as Jackie – was born in Dublin on 14 November 1921. The family moved to Hulme, Manchester when Jackie was young and Harry White noted in his memoir that he spoke with an English accent.
An article in Saoirse newspaper (no. 181, May 2002) states that Griffith joined Sinn Féin in Manchester aged 17 in 1938. It is assumed that he joined the IRA soon afterwards. In January 1939, the IRA launched its bombing campaign in England. Harry White (pg 78) stated that Jackie Griffith was appointed Operations Officer (or Officer Commanding) of the Manchester IRA following the arrest of Joe Collins (alias Conor McNessa) in May 1939. This suggests that Griffith was a capable and respected IRA officer or that Manchester had very few members who could fill the role or perhaps a combination of the two.
The Second World War broke out in September 1939 and Saoirse (no. 181, May 2002) states that Griffith was deported to Ireland in the same month. (There is no mention of this or other deportations in the contemporary press or subsequent articles.)
On his return to Ireland, Griffith was transferred to the IRA’s Dublin Brigade. In the 1919-1923 period, the IRA unit in Ringsend was organised as D Company, 3 Battalion, Dublin Brigade. By the late 1930s, the IRA was still divided up into battalions and companies but with a much smaller membership. Griffith lived with his grandparents in their home at 13 Pigeon House Road and he got a job in the nearby Irish Glass Bottle factory where he became an active trade unionist.
Arrest (Feb 1942)
On 25 Feb 1942, Jackie Griffith was arrested by Special Branch detectives in the process of collecting revolvers from Private John Regan, a National Army soldier. The pair were seen walking down Benburb Street, Stoneybatter and were followed to Oxmantown Lane, a cul de sac, where the police swooped. Detective Sergeant Michael Gill stated that Griffith attempted to fire a Colt automatic revolver a number of times but his gun did not go off. (The police claimed that the safety catch was on but the gun was loaded with six live rounds, one being in the breech.) Griffith attempted to make a break for it but halted when two shots were fired over his head. After being taken into custody, he was found with an additional three revolvers which had just been passed to him by Private John Regan. When the police raided Griffith’s grandparents home in Ringsend, they retrieved a further 28 revolvers; 211 rounds of Thompson sub-machine gun ammunition; 24 rounds of .45 ammunition and 20 rounds of assorted ammunition.
At the Special Criminal Court trial held in Collins Barracks on 13 March 1942, Griffith refused to recognise the court and a plea of not guilty was entered on his behalf. He was found guilty of attempting to shoot with intent to main; the possession of the revolvers; receiving three revolvers knowing them to be stolen; membership of an illegal organisation and possession of incriminating documents. Griffith was sentenced to ten years penal servitude.
The court heard that Private John Regan enjoyed a “very good record” during his 18 years in the army. He pleaded guilty to the larceny of nine revolvers during January and February 1942 from the “Surrendered Arms Store” at Islandbridge Barracks where he was stationed. He was sentenced to five years imprisonment with the court regretting that a heavier sentence could not be imposed. Regan was represented by Sean MacBride on behalf of Messrs Con Lehane and Hogan.
It was noted by Seamus Ó Mongáin in an interview with Uinseann MacEoin (ref Military Archives, UMCE-T-A-02-15) that Griffith had a brother in the Medical Corps, National Army but it’s unclear whether this played any part in developing contacts within that force.
Escape (Nov 1942)
Jackie Griffith shared a cell in Mountjoy Prison with Cork IRA members Frank Kerrigan and Jim Smyth as well as Brendan Behan. The latter had been arrested in April 1942 after firing shots at policemen on the Finglas Road following an Easter Rising commemoration.
In the early morning of 02 Nov 1942, six members of the IRA escaped from Mountjoy Prison. There are conflicting accounts but it would appear that the team prised loose one of the cell windows in the exercise room, scaled down to the yard in a ‘rope’ made of bedsheets or other material and then climbed onto a sentry post on top of the high boundary wall, slid across and dropped down to the outside.
The six men who escaped were:
1. Jackie Griffith
2. Frank Kerrigan of 15 Cahilville, Old Youghal Road, Cork City
3. Jim Smyth of Oldcastle, County Meath
4. Pete Martin of Dublin
5. Mick Lucey of 34 Blarney Street, Cork
6. Mort Lucey of 34 Blarney Street, Cork
On the run
Following a period of laying low in Dublin, Jackie Griffith left the city on St Stephen’s Day, 26 December 1942. The Irish People (12 July 1980) recalled that Griffith set off on his bicycle across the Dublin Mountains to County Carlow where he began his task of re-organising the IRA across Leinster. He worked closely alongside Charlie Kerins (Chief of Staff) and Danny Conroy from Donnybrook. Conroy had been active during the Tan War with Na Fianna Éireann according to interviewee Tom Doran in ‘IRA in the Twilight Years’ (pg 510).
Harry White (pg 138) states that Liam Burke (a leading Belfast IRA man based in Dublin) sent Griffith to Mooncoin, County Kilkenny where he initially came under the suspicion of the local IRA unit for his English accent and was briefly held as a spy. An article in Saoirse (no. 181, May 2002) recalled a close shave after Jackie Griffith and Frank Kerrigan had visited Tom Maguire in Cross, County Mayo. On their way back to County Galway they were accosted by the Special Branch but they succeeded in abandoning their bicycles and avoiding capture.
Dublin (Summer 1943)
Returning to Dublin, Griffith was linked to a number of IRA operations while on the run in the summer of 1943.
Just after midnight on 01 June 1943, George Hill (21) of 6 North Richmond Street, Dublin 1, was shot and wounded in the left thigh while walking along Cardiff Lane off Sir John Rogerson’s Quay. No motive was forthcoming and it’s unclear whether he was even the intended target. Following Griffith’s death, the authorities claimed that he was wanted for questioning in connection with this shooting.
Griffith was also believed to have taken part in an attempted robbery at a Dublin Corporation rent office at 75 Tolka Road, Drumcondra on 16 June 1943. Three men armed with revolvers threatened the rent collector and demanded money. The employee escaped through a side door, sounded the alarm and the trio fled the scene. One shot was fired in the melee but nobody was injured.
On the morning of 01 July 1943, Griffith was one of three men who took part in an audacious daylight robbery which netted nearly £4,500 for the IRA. The unit held up and hijacked a wages van at the gates of the Player Wills cigarette factory on the South Circular Road. The unit drove away with the van which was later was found abandoned at Dartmouth Lane. In total, they had nabbed £4,465 which was the weekly wages of the factory workforce including their additional ‘war bonus’.
Harry White named the other two men as Archie Doyle and Charlie Kerins. Doyle, then aged 38, was from Inchicore and had served with F Company, 4 Battalion, Dublin Brigade, IRA during the War of Independence and Civil War. It is generally accepted that Doyle was part of the IRA units which killed Minister for Justice Kevin O’Higgins in 1927 and Garda Detective Sergeant Denis O’Brien in 1942.
Tralee-born Charlie Kerins, then aged 25, had joined the IRA in 1940 and was Chief of Staff of the organisation at the time of the robbery. (Following his subsequent trial and conviction for the 1942 murder of Garda Detective Sergeant Denis O’Brien, Kerins was hanged at Mountjoy Prison in Dublin in June 1944.)
Death (04 July 1943)
On Sunday 04 July 1943, three days after the Player Wills robbery, Griffith visited the home of IRA member Paddy Brown at Ballsbridge Terrace according to Harry White (pgs 121-122).
At 1.30pm, Griffith was cycling towards the city centre along Lower Mount Street when he was fired on by police officers in a car and killed instantly. A passing priest administered the last rites and a Dublin Fire Brigade ambulance took Griffith to St Patrick’s Dun Hospital on Lower Canal Street. His body was identified by James Leonard. (It’s unclear whether this was his uncle or grandfather as they both shared the same name.)
On 06 July 1943, a one-day inquest took place at the hospital conducted by the City Coroner Dr DA McErlean. An unnamed police officer stated that they were actively searching for Griffith in the Sandymount and Ringsend area on the day of the shooting. Griffith was spotted cycling along Lower Mount Street by the carload of armed detectives who were driving in the same direction. Its driver overtook Griffith with the alleged intention to “squeeze him against the kerb and compel him to stop”. The police claimed that Griffith recognised the police detectives and increased his speed. They further alleged that Griffith managed to draw a revolver and fired one shot which shattered one of the car lamps splintering glass on the windscreen and puncturing the radiator. As he was reputedly about to fire a second shot, one of the detective officers in the car fired two shots from a Thompson submachine gun. Griffith was hit but managed to cycle on for a few yards where he fell off his bicycle and onto the inward tram-lines opposite Holles Street Hospital at the corner of Lower Mount Street and Merrion Square East. The police claimed that they found Griffith had a revolver holster and extra ammunition after searching him.
James Leonard asked if the inquest could be adjourned in order to give him an opportunity to acquire legal representation but the coroner denied the request. As such, there was no legal team to represent the deceased or his family.
The jury returned a verdict of death “from shock and haemorrhage following a gunshot wound inflicted by a bullet fired by a Detective Sergeant in the execution of his duty”.
The Irish Press (05 July 1943) made some claims that were not reported in other newspapers including that there was not one but two Garda cars that pulled up alongside Griffith and that he was seen cycling with a young woman “who disappeared” from the scene “during the excitement.” Irish Republican newspapers including Saoirse (no. 183, July 2002) have claimed that Griffith was hit by at least 16 bullets. It does appear highly unlikely that a police officer would fire just two bullets from a Thompson submachine gun at a target who had (allegedly) already shot at them. Another point of contention is whether Griffith was in the right physical state to cycle his bicycle at speed while also retrieving a revolver with one hand and firing a shot so accurately. Saoirse (no. 67, November 1992) claimed that Griffith badly damaged his arm from a fall during the Mountjoy Prison escape. Republicans believe that this injury was still affecting him eight months later and questioned if a man without the full use of one arm could manage to control a bike and draw a gun at the same time.
Funeral
On the evening of 06 July 1943, Griffith’s remains were removed from the hospital to St Patrick’s Church, Ringsend. A funeral mass took place in the church at 10 o’clock the following morning. The funeral in Glasnevin Cemetery did not receive the coverage it would have in usual circumstances as the leading Irish mainstream newspapers had been reduced from 16 to four pages due to the ongoing Emergency conditions (Second World War).
The Irish Press, the only newspaper that covered the funeral, reported that a decade of the rosary was recited in Irish. The chief mourners were James Griffith (brother); James, Joseph and Michael Leonard (uncles); James Leonard (grandfather); Mrs Lindsay and Mrs Leonard (aunts) and Michael Purcell and James Maguire (cousins). Amongst the Republicans that attended were two former IRA Chiefs of Staff – Dr Andrew Cooney and Mick Fitzpatrick – along with Dr J McKee and Sean Fitzpatrick.
Jackie Griffith was buried in grave FH 167.5 in the St Bridgets Section, Glasnevin alongside his maternal grandparents James Mary Leonard. Lynn Brady (Glasnevin resident genealogist) informed me that Jackie’s last address was listed as 2 Margaret Place, Beggars Bush which was the home of his uncle James Leonard. The family received flowers, wreaths, telegrams and letters from Cumann na mBan, Na Fianna Éireann, Clan na nGael, the National Graves Association and workers from the Irish Glass Bottle factory.
Memory
In a letter to the Western People (09 April 1949), Jack Gavahan of Charlestown, County Mayo described Griffith as “an unarmed youth” who was shot off his bicycle in Mount Street, Dublin by “detectives who overtook him in a squad car and riddled him with machine-gun bullets”. This is the first printed reference I’ve found from someone claiming the long-held belief that Griffith was unarmed at the time of the shooting or certainly did not use any firearm he might have been carrying.
The National Commemoration Committee organised a memorial mass for Jackie Griffith at the University Church, St Stephen’s Green in 1949, 1950 and 1951.
The National Graves Association announced that it was collecting subscriptions for a new Celtic Cross memorial at Jackie Griffith’s grave in Glasnevin Cemetery. Donations were to be sent to Pádraig Ó Braoináin (Patrick Brennan), Cuimhneacháin Shéan Uí Grofia (John Griffith Memorial), c/o, 44 Parnell Square, Dublin. The organising committee comprised of Cathal Ó Murchadha (Charles Murphy) (chairperson), Seán Ó Broin (John O’Brien) (secretary) and Pádraig Ó Braoináin (treasurer). The headstone was unveiled on 06 July 1952 with an oration by Tomás Ó Dubhghaill (Thomas Doyle), president of Sinn Féin.
The headstone description reads:
I nDíl Chuimhne [In Memory Of]
Séain Uí Griobhtha [John Griffith]
Óglaigh na hÉireann [Irish Volunteers/ IRA]
A fuair bás [Who Died]
Ar an 4 lá d’Iúl 1943 [On the 4th of July 1943]
Go ndéana Dia trócaire ar a anam [May God have mercy on his soul]
Erected by the
National Graves Association
1952
From 1956 to 1958, Jackie Griffith’s former Mountjoy comrades Brendan Behan, Seamus Smyth (Jim Smyth) and Jim McDonnell (Jim Mac) of Blarney, County Cork inserted a memorial notice in the Irish Press:
By late 1967, a Jackie Griffith Sinn Féin Cumann was active in the Donnycarney/Coolock/Harmonstown area of North Dublin. The Dundalk Democrat (23 September 1967) reported that they had forwarded a sum of money to a fund for recently dismissed Rawson shoe factory workers. There was also a Jackie Griffith Slua of Na Fianna Éireann in Ringsend in 1968 (see pg 321).
The National Cycling Association (NCA) organised an annual Invincibles Memorial race in the Phoenix Park in the 1960s and 1970s. (This was the site of the 1867 murders by the Invincibles of Chief Secretary for Ireland Lord Frederick Cavendish and his Permanent Undersecretary Thomas Henry Burke). The winner of the race received a trophy named in honour of Jackie Griffith. There are mentions of the Jackie Griffith Cup in the newspaper archives from 1969 until 1978. (One of the NCA’s leading members was former Dublin IRA member Joe Christle who established An Rás Tailteann in 1953, a 200-mile two-day road race.)
In 1971, Declan Bree of the Sligo Branch of the Connoly Youth Movement (CYM) wrote a scathing letter to the Western People (12 June) after Fianna Fáil TD Ray MacSharry had condemned “Britain’s role in the Six Counties”. Bree brought attention to the fact that Fianna Fáil were “responsible for the imprisonment of young Republicans in English jails” at that time and then listed 14 Irish republicans who were killed, executed or died on hunger-strike during Fianna Fáil rule in the 1930s and 1940s. In regard to Jackie Griffith, Bree wrote that he was “shot dead by Fianna Fáil Special Branch while cycling on Mount Street, Dublin; two carloads of Special Branch opened fire on him with machine guns and his body was almost severed in two by the bullets”. This repeated the Irish Press claim that there were two carloads, not one, of Special Branch. It also graphically reinforced the belief that Griffith received a lot more than one or two bullets.
By 1974, there was a Jackie Griffith Sinn Féin Cumann organised in the Ringsend, Sandymount and Irishtown area. Its chairman in the period was Jim Gorry. This might have led to some confusion as the Jackie Griffith Sinn Féin Cumann (Dublin Northeast) in the Coolock area was still active. Sinn Féin The Workers Paty (Official Sinn Féin) also had a Jackie Griffith Cumann in the Ringsend area in the late 1970s.
It is unclear whether there were public commemorations or memorial events for Jackie Griffith in the decades after his death. (Provisional) Sinn Féin organised events in 1976, 1977 and 1978 which comprised of a memorial mass at St Patrick’s Church, Ringsend followed by a parade to Mount Street where an oration was delivered and a wreath laid at the spot where Griffith was killed.
In 1993, on the 50th anniversary of his death, memorial events were organised by Republican Sinn Féin and Provisional Sinn Féin. RSF’s event at Glasnevin Cemetery was chaired by Peter Cunningham. A wreath was laid by Griffith’s fellow Mountjoy escapee Frank Kerrigan of Cork, Margaret Langsdorf recited a decade of the Rosary in Irish, author Uinseann MacEoinn spoke about Griffith’s life and Liam Cotter of Kerry delivered the oration.
In 2000, Provisional Sinn Féin revived the annual Jackie Griffith commemoration which had not been held since 1993. It was organised by the Jackie Griffith/Mairead Farrell Cumann (Dublin South East). There was a march annually from Ringsend village to Holles Street and a wreath-laying event for four years. 150 people attended the 2001 events including Jackie Griffith’s brother Gerry, his wife and his two daughters, who had travelled over from Manchester. Martin Ferris addressed the event and the weekend also saw the unveiling of a mural dedicated to the 1981 hunger strikers at the Widow Scallan’s pub on Pearse Street, the scene of the 1994 murder of IRA Volunteer Martin Doherty.
In 2002, the memorial event was addressed by Pat Doherty MP and local representative Daithí Doolan. There was also a representative from the striking Irish Glass Bottle Factory workers where incidentally Jackie Griffith had worked in the early 1940s. The 2003 event (60th anniversary of the shooting) was addressed by Alex Maskey (former Belfast Lord Mayor) and there was a public meeting on ‘A United Ireland by 2016’ with speakers Mitchel McLaughlin and Martina Anderson. The last event was in 2004 and was led by the Volunteer Hugh Hehir/Lisa Bell Republican Flute Band.
The 80th anniversary of Jackie Griffith’s death will take place next year (July 2023).
Thanks to: Brian Hanley, Frank Hopkins, Stew Reddin, Aengus Ó Snodaigh, Oisin Gilmore and Angela Leonard Pollard.
If anyone has any further information on the life, death or funeral of Jackie Griffith, please email me at matchgrams(at)gmail.com.