Tag: Ron Black’s Story

Ron Black was 10 at time of North Strand Bombing and living in St. Ignatius road. He recalls the sounds and vibrations felt on the night, the actions of the local ASF and ARP warden, and visiting the bomb site with his friends in the days that followed. Also recalled are arguments with friends over his family’s pro-British stance, death of his brother who was an engineer on oil tanker, and stories of his brother Douglas who joined the RAF. Ron talks about attending the Protestant church mission school in Lurgan’s street, and changing to St. Joseph’s Catholic school , his first job in Morgan Mooney’s, and popular songs and jokes in Dublin during the Emergency Period.

Listen to story here:

Duration: 37:37 mins.

Transcript

Project Name: North Strand Oral History Project Phase 2

[Audio version available]

I remember the night very well. I was ten years old and living with our family on St. Ignatius Road, Drumcondra at that dramatic time.

I was sleeping in one of the bedrooms in the front of the house with my two older brothers when my father entered the room and told us to get dressed as the city was being bombed and within minutes we heard loud explosions coming from somewhere down past the end of Dorset Street, down by the Canal.

This was at the height of “the emergency” with the black-out being strictly enforced by the ARP, the LDF and the Gardaí, when concrete air raid shelters were built in populous areas -there was one at the end of road and many lined along Dorset Street. They were forbidding looking structures that were, unfortunately, used as public toilets by drunks and vagrants.