Author: cityarchives

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Personal Stories

Betty’s Story

Betty Keogh[audio version available]

My memories of the North Strand bombing come from very clear images of a 5 year old. My name is Betty Keogh and my parents were Dora Dempsey, married to Jack Keogh.  My brother Noel was 8 years old on that terrible night. We lodged with a family in no.10 Charleville Mall. I woke up that night to the screams and crying of my mother and everyone around us. I could see my parents clearly by the window looking skyward and clinging to each other. Shortly after, my father went out and joined up with other men to go and find out what exactly was happening. He was gone a long time so my mother put myself and my brother Noel into a bed with the son of the family we lodged with so she could search for my Dad.

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Categories
Personal Stories

Eamon Grogan’s Story

I remember well the night of the bombing. I was 5 years old at the time. I awoke to hear my mother calling me to get out of bed. My father grabbed me and carried me to under the stairs into what we called the cubbyhole. My Father, mother, and brother, where all huddled together and me in the middle. We lived in Richmond Ave, Fairview. Even now 69 years later I still remember hearing the whistle of the Bombs and then the explosions. The following morning my mother took me for walk up to Summer Hill Parade, where some of the bombs had fallen. A working party of men were digging on a bomb site, [ie. a rescue party] . I spied some children’s comics in the rubble of a house. The Beano or the Dandy I am not sure which, but I wanted to get them. So I ducked under the ropes surrounding the site to retrieve them, my mother grabbed me and pulled me back. So I did not get the comic cuts, and to add insult to injury, I got a good clip in my ear to remind me never to do that again. Some time after that I do not know how long, months or years, I remember seeing two fighter planes, a German and a RAF spitfire in pursuit of the German. Their markings were very clear. I don’t know how the pursuit ended.

Categories
Personal Stories

Olive Galbraw’s Story

I was not born until after the bombing. My mother, who worked in South William Street as a tailoress often recalled the way it was. She told us that a workmate – having been bombed during the night, turned up for work in her nightdress!! Imagine being bombed and then going across the city to a day’s work. That’s real dedication to her job.

Categories
Personal Stories

Mary O’Brien’s Story

My mother in law, Mary O’Brien (nee Mockler) from Two-Mile Borris in County Tipperary, lived in both London and Dublin during 1940-1942 period of WWII. I had several long chats with my mother in law about her wartime experiences prior to her passing away.

Mary worked “in service” in central London between 1940 and 1941. Mary worked as a cook in “an upstairs/downstairs” arrangement for a very wealthy English family. The family lived in a big house near Hampstead Heath. Mary told us about the bombing raids in London and how she and the household had to evacuate the house that she worked in and went to the London Underground for the duration of the bombing.

Mary’s family in Tipperary were very worried about her (she was only 19 at the time) and her father wrote to her telling her to come back to Ireland. Mary handed in her notice with her employer and returned to work in service in a place called Darwin Hall in Rathfarnham. Mary worked as a cook also at Darwin Hall. Darwin Hall was owned by the Kinlen family and it is located at what is now 200 Rathfarnham Road. Darwin Hall was a big house which had a lodge and it had an air raid shelter at the back of it. The old lodge is still there – it is a blue cottage.

Mary told us that the night of the bombing of the North Strand were vivid memories for her.

Mrs Kinlen told Mary that Terenure had been bombed some time previously and when they heard the aircraft coming over prior to the North Strand bombing attack Mrs Kinlen asked Mary “is that the sound of English planes or German planes, Molly?” Mary, having heard the sound of the German bombers said in London “Mrs Kinlen they’re German bombers, I heard the same engine sound when I was over in London working”. Mrs Kinlen got all the occupants out of the house and in to a tiny cramped air raid shelter as the sound of the bombers got louder.

When news of the North Strand attack was reported on the radio and in the newspaper, Mary’s father ordered her to return to Tipperary immediately. Mary hadn’t been back to Rathfarnham since she left Darwin Hall.

Mary also said that one day she saw the black cross (Balkenkreuz) on the German planes (Messerschmidt? Stuka?) during an attack because the plane was flying so low during an attack in London! She said the sound of the bombs exploding was terrifying and it was sound that she never forgot.

Editor’s Note: Mary O’Brien sadly passed away on 29th October 2010. The above story was submitted by her son-in-law Seamus Weber.

Categories
Lectures

The Irish Army During the Emergency

The Transformation of the Irish Army During the Emergency.
A talk by Colonel Donal O’Carroll at the North Strand Bombing and the Emergency in Ireland seminar held at Dublin City Library & Archive on 29 May 2010.

You can listen to a recording of the lecture or scroll down to read a transcript.

Transcript

Colonel O’Carroll: Good morning ladies and gentlemen.

Crowd: Good morning!

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