[Leica] IMGs x 2: The Emergency

[jayanand at gmail.com (Jayanand Govindaraj)]

Fascinating. TFS
Cheers
Jayanand

On Mon, Mar 16, 2020 at 7:35 AM Douglas Barry <imra at iol.ie> wrote:

> 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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