[Leica] IMGs x 2: The Emergency

[Lluis Ripoll]

Douglas,

Thanks for sharing these pictures and interesting history.
Lluis


> El 16 març 2020, a les 3:05, Douglas Barry <imra at iol.ie> va escriure:
> 
> Now that we're all more or less at war with CoVid, it reminded me of "The Emergency" between 1939 and 1945 which was what we in neutral Ireland euphemistically called World War Two. My grandfather who was the Chief Superintendent in charge of the Garda HQ in the Phoenix Park was given the task of managing the Local Security Forces (LSF) for the Dublin area for those years.
> 
> Here's a picture of him taken during this time - found in a family album and taken by photographer unknown
> 
> http://www.gallery.leica-users.org/v/DouglasBray/TFC+in+LSF+1939-45.jpg.html
> 
> My grandfather in the greatcoat, and Garda helmet, surveys the damage the morning after the German bombing of Dublin's North Strand while in command of the Dublin LSF during the Emergency 1939-1945. His children remember him leaving the house on the night of 31st of May 1941 dragging the great coat over his civvies to rush over the 2 miles to the North Strand as the Heinkels dropped their bombs. He looks exhausted after the all nighter in the photo. Printed in the Irish Independent but photographer unknown. Recommended to be seen larger.
> 
> http://www.gallery.leica-users.org/v/DouglasBray/Chief+Supt+T+F+Casserly+LSF+in+Garda+helmet+at+1941+Strand+bombing+with+ARP+warden+lrge.jpg.html
> 
> Sadly 28 people were killed and 90 injured, while 300 properties were either destroyed or damaged. Ironically, one of the destroyed properties was my grand-uncle's bakery at 5 Shamrock Place. His name was Patrick Swanzy and like my grandfather was an ex-IRA man. Pat was used to destroyed property as he had burned down Dublin's iconic Custom House in 1921 and most of the Irish Nation Records stored there. Very frustrating for people researching their families' history like me :-)
> 
> I'm also involved a cultural, literary and historical society locally, and we had to cancel a promising lecture on this bombing on the 26th of this month due to our current "Emergency".
> 
> Anyway, my grandfather was five years older than Pat and the son of an RIC Sergeant. He joined the British Royal Engineers in WW1, saw action in Salonika, and was invalided out with malaria after six months trying to recover in a hospital in Malta. He joined the Dept of Posts and Telegraphs and initially was recruited by Michael Collins as an intelligence officer, then as a member of Collins's "Squad". Before joining the Gardai as an Inspector, he was one of Collins's most trusted men and the bodyguard for Arthur Griffith (President of Dail Eireann). He met my grandmother (Pat's sister) at Sinn Fein TD Walter Cole's house as Cole was the best friend of Griffith. Cole had fallen in love with and had proposed to my grandmother's sister Chris after her husband the Abbey actor Sean Connolly had been killed in the 1916 Easter Rising.
> 
> My lasting memory of him is getting a gift of a gardening set at Christmas 1952. I was two and a bit. He died a month later.
> 
> Douglas
> 
> 
> 
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