[Leica] IMGs x 2: The Emergency

[lluisripollphotography at gmail.com (Lluis Ripoll)]

Douglas,

Thanks for sharing these pictures and interesting history.
Lluis


> El 16 mar? 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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