Category: Personal Stories

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Personal Stories

David Whyte’s Story

At the time of the bombing I was 6 years old and lived with my parents in Leinster Avenue.  I was asleep with my brothers in the back bedroom, when I was woken by my family talking to each other.  My father was looking out of the window which looked out towards Amiens St.  We could see searchlights and then the flash and bang of guns firing. We heard the engine noise of aircraft and then a bright flash, a moment of silence and then a massive bang. The house shook and the windows rattled. The next day we tried to see the damage but we were turned away. After a couple of days we managed to get as far as the bridge over the canal. There was a crowd there and I remember a bicycle with a box at the front selling ice cream.  There was a big hole in the road halfway up the hill towards the bridge.  All the shops and houses were just rubble with a strong smell of smoke and dust.  I hoped we would have time off school which was next to the Ivy Church, but things were soon back to normal.  Does anyone know why we were bombed?  I remember people saying that the railway line to Belfast or the docks was the target due to food aid being sent to the UK.  The left hand side of the area leading towards the 5 ways was built on.  The other side remained an empty site into the 1950s.  After the bombing there was a lot of rumours and I remember the Army drilling holes in the supports for explosives to be put in the Railway Bridge over the River Tolka and carrying out manoeuvres in Fairview Park which to us kids was exciting.

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Personal Stories

Maeve Mooney’s Story

Maeve MooneyMaeve Mooney

Maeve Mooney was 11 at the time of the bombing, and living in Glasnevin with her parents.  Her Uncle Dick (Richard) Fitzpatrick, her Aunt Ellen and her two cousins Margaret (Madge) and Noel lived over the family butcher shop at 23 North Strand Road and were all tragically killed on the 31 May 1941. Maeve recalls the memories of the night, and stories her father later shared with her of searching for the Fitzpatrick family in Dublin’s hospitals and morgues.  She also addresses various rumours about  the deaths of the Fitzpatrick family which circulated in Dublin in the aftermath, and tells the eerie story of her Uncle Dick’s prize pigeons which were seen in the North Stand the morning after the bombing.

Listen to Maeve’s story here:

Duration: 00:38:21 mins

Transcript

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Personal Stories

Betty Keogh’s Story

Betty KeoghBetty Keogh

Betty Keogh was 5 years and 8 months at the time of the bombing. She lived with her parents and brother in a rented room at 10 Charleville Mall. The house was completely destroyed by bombing and family lost all of their possessions, later receiving just £18 compensation. Betty talks about her memories of the night, including sheltering in the basement and at nearby convent. She also discusses the aftermath of bombing, playing in the rubble as a child, moving in with her aunt in East Wall, and her father joining the British Army.

Listen to Betty’s story here:

Duration: 00:23:17 mins

Transcript

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Personal Stories

May Donnelly’s Story

I was four years old when the bombs were dropped and we lived in one room in Camden Place. We, being my parents, and brother and myself. I remember the searchlights and noise and my father not wanting me to see as my parents looked out of the window. No one slept that night, not knowing what was going to happen next. Both parents died within three years so there was no one to ask later.

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Personal Stories

Julie Coombes Kiernan’s Story

It was May 1941; I was seven years old and just about to make my first Holy Communion. My mammy brought me to Summerhill not far from where we lived. She had a docket for a certain shop. This docket she would pay back by weekly installments but would only allow one to us it in a particular shop.

It must have been very near my communion day because the shop was sold out of white dresses. The sales lady showed mam some little blue dresses. They had a print of little pink flowers. I still remember my mammy saying she had hoped to get me a white dress, but the sales lady was telling her the blue dress was pretty on me and went with the blue coat.

I was disappointed but like all children of that time we had not say. We just did as we were told. The Second World War was on but I was only vaguely aware of bombings in England. The name Hitler was often mentioned. Being one of a family soon to be nine children, our lives were occupied by hearing talk from our parents about making ends meet. Bread and potatoes were our stable diet. Oh how I disliked the taste and colour of bread during the war.

The night before my big day, I must have slept very heavy because when I woke up I was in my mam and dads bed. There seemed to be a lot of excitement happening as my mammy told me the Germans had bombed the North Strand which was only a street away from Killarney Street, where we lived. She was delighted I hadn’t woken up as all our windows were broken from the blast. She had taken us all into her bed.

Looking back now she must have felt at that time if we were to die we would all die together. Still life went on as usual and I went to the church of Our Lady of Lourdes. Some of the girls wore black sashes over their white Communion dresses. I was the only one with a blue dress. The day after my First Holy Communion my granddad Coombes brought me by the hand to the top of the street, he lifted me up to look across the barricades at the Five Lamps and the rubble of all the houses and shops. I was too young to realise the terrible loss of life.

Julie Coombes Kiernan