Congratulations to East Wallers Denise Dunphy, Mary Gray ,Sylvia Ryan and John Meade who took part in the recent ”Community and Recreation Centre Volunteer Awards 2015 “ .
Dec 24
A CHILDS CHRISTMAS IN EAST WALL
Hard Times of a Dublin Childhood
She knelt on a kitchen chair
Looking out the window
The soles of her old shabby runners faced us as we sat at the kitchen table
My mammy told her to watch The Hillside Stores
She put sixpence in her hand and told her as soon as the shop is empty run over tell Masie to give you sixpence worth of tinned corn beef
My Mother had her pride! This was for our Christmas dinner
Yes for mammy and seven children
“Oh there’s nobody there now…. Well run quickly we don’t want anyone to know what our Christmas dinner is.
Your daddy is alright he’ll get his dinner in his Mothers”
We pulled the table nearer to the fire which had still not taken hold because as usual the Turf was Wet …it was hissing from dampness and lots of smoke rose up the chimney. However we sat at the table and never complained as we enjoyed our half slice of tinned beef and a potato.
Why did we not feel hard done by? You see we had stability, we had each other and we had our Mammy!
PS
That little girl that was looking out the window for The Hillside Stores to be empty is now the owner of that house. The Hillside Stores is now the parlour of her home. Life has moved on for the better!
Dedicated to my sister, Celia Coombes Woods
Julie Coombes Kiernan, March 2004
(Photo and poem courtesy of Treasa Woods , who along with her daughter Sinead is the current residents of Number 3 St Marys Road , formerly Hillside Stores and later Eddys .)
Dec 21
CHRISTMAS FAIR AND SANTA VISIT 2014
The annual Christmas Fair at the Sean O’Casey Community Centre and traditional Santa visit took place on Sunday 7th December. A great day it was too , even if circumstances beyond our control meant that the much anticipated Reindeers didn’t arrive . See a small selection of photos from the afternoon , featuring the eager card sellers from St. Josephs Co-ed , the Daisy Days creche staff ,the carol singers , a view of the dining area , main hall and of course , Mr Claus himself .
(Photos courtesy of Nascadh CDP).
Dec 14
“WELCOME TO EAST WALL” – Signs installed
Finally , the “Welcome to East Wall” signs are in place , on the East Wall Road and East Road ( at the base of Johnny Cullens Hill) . The East Wall Residents Association logo will be added at a later date . For many residents their first viewing of the signs was at the unveiling of the Christmas Tree of remembrance , lit on December 13th by Barry Masterson. The photo below shows the tree , and we will shortly display a more complete selection of the event and those in attendance .
Dec 08
CHRISTMAS TREE OF REMEMBRANCE – DECEMBER 13th 2014
Christmas Tree of Remembrance
December 13th @ 5pm
Johnny Cullens Hill / East Road
Our East Wall Village Tree of Remembrance will be lit by Barry Masterson P.C. Barry, as you all know, has been deeply involved in Community Activity since he first came to East Wall, decades ago. To this day he still works in East Wall Credit Union.
We’ll join, as a community, to remember all East Wallers, wherever they may be. Christmas carols will be sung by the P.E.G. Variety and Drama Group. Karl Ronan will, once again, take photographs of the event and we’ll have our mulled wine and mince pies.
The demand for ribbons has grown so much over the years – we will have blank ribbons ready for everyone who attends so they can write their own message. For those abroad and those who can’t make it we will write the ribbons and put them on the tree for you if you let us know in advance, the names and addresses, on the East Wall Community and Diaspora Facebook Page.
We kept the decorations from last year’s tree and they will be there for you to pick up and place on the tree.
We’re hoping for the biggest turnout ever, as the tree has so quickly become an East Wall tradition. It is an important time we come together as the community that includes the East Wallers around the world and those who have passed on. For those few hours we are all reunited!
Dec 06
St Marys Camogie Team , East Wall 1920′s
This amazing photograph shows the St Marys Camogie team in the 1920′s . They are practiscing on a local field known as the “Kelly ties” . Look closely and you will see that this is roughly where the Dublin Corporation houses on Russell Avenue were built a few years later (and still stand). The houses and street behind the team look almost identical today .
This photo shows team members, some of whom we are delighted to identify –
Back Row: Left to Right…5th in-Christina Ledwich (Mrs Whittaker),8th in-Essie Steadman (Mrs Kananagh) 9th in-Peter Ledwich.
Middle Row: 2nd in -James Whittaker, 4th in-Mrs O’Mara.
Front Row: 2nd in-Kathleen Steadman.
And our final photograph shows Christina Ledwich & Essie Steadman :
We would like to thank David Whittaker for donating these images and also an original ticket . He also provided the identification . Much appreciated .
(This material represents a real ‘hidden treasure’ of our community history . If you have any material that may be of interest please contact us , and we would love to hear any comments , clarifications or additional information on our local history work . Contact : eastwallhistory@gmail.com )
Nov 21
Bloody Sunday 1920, East Wall and the one who got away.
Bloody Sunday 1920, East Wall and the one who got away.
The events of November 21st 1920 are among the most talked about from the Irish Revolutionary period. Remembered as ‘Bloody Sunday’, the day saw a total of 31 violent deaths in the city – 14 targets associated with British Military Intelligence , 14 shot dead when British forces opened fire at Croke Park and three men summarily executed in Dublin Castle that night.
At approximately 9am members of Michael Collins ‘squad’, along with volunteers from a number of IRA battalions, launched a series of co-ordinated attacks on British Intelligence operatives across the city. The majority of targets were on the South-side (in reasonably affluent areas) except for the Gresham Hotel (where two men were shot dead) and an unspecified target in East Wall.
Information on the East Wall operation is scarce, but using the recently released Military Service (1916-1923) Pensions Collection we can now confirm some details. Up to now the available information consisted of a location – East Road, and a summary of “This operation did not come off as the targets had left the house the day before and there was nobody at home when the Volunteers called. Apart from the name of the road, nothing exists on the targets .It had been allocated to 2nd Battalion and appears to be the only one of their operations which did not come off.”
In fact , the target was on Church Road , and in their military pension applications two members of the 2nd Battalion , Dublin Brigade , Irish Republican Army, make reference to their participation in Church Road ‘job’ .Details are still scarce- neither the exact address or the individual targeted are mentioned , but hopefully further material will be forthcoming. For anybody who does not know the geography of the East Wall area, East Road and Church Road merge, and it is easy to see how confusion might arise.
Captain William Byrne states simply in relation to November 21st operation that his role was “organising for job and making preparations on job at church Rd. – the man wasn’t there.”
Michael Smyth gave a little more detail. He states that on Bloody Sunday he was on Church Road, and gives the following detail “We went to this house in Church Road. There was a man there but not the man we wanted. We took away all the correspondence of the man we wanted who was down in Cork”.
Both Byrne and Smyth were experienced and well regarded volunteers. They were 1916 participants having served in the Jacobs Garrison. Here are some further details of both mens record of activity during this period –
William Byrne had worked for the Dublin Port and Docks Board but this “Pensionable job lost in 1916”. Like many other republicans he afterwards worked in the Dublin Dockyard, where Irish Citizen Army man Willy Halpin was the shop steward and favoured republicans and Labour men. While here he availed of the opportunity to’make munitions’ and took part in a raid for ’17 pounder shells’. He detailed some of his local operations as “the planning. preparations and carrying out of the attack on the Customs House in Dublin in May 1921, the burning of the city of Dublin Stores and an attack on members of the Auxiliary Police Force (Auxiliaries) at the London and North Western Railway Hotel that same year”.
Following the treaty signing he joined the National Army in March of 1922.
Michael Smyth was a carriage painter by trade, and had lived at a variety of addresses, including Buckingham Street and Bayview Avenue. Amongst his many activities during this period he lists -
“provision of bolt cutters for use in escape of Frank Teeling, Simon Donnelly and Ernie O’ Malley from Mountjoy Prison; and transportation of material to be used in the Customs house attack in May 1921”
And further elaborates that he “Invented and made bolt-cutters for escape of frank teeling …” and that he commandeered and “Brought lorry with paraffin to custom house…”
Unlike his Captain, Byrne, he took the anti treaty side, and was eventually arrested by the National Army but was arrested on the North Strand in a commandeered car with weapons and ammunition stolen from the Custom House.
Smyth (nicknamed ‘Tiger’ Smyth) was a well respected operator, and his former comrade, General Tom Ennis claimed that “On the formation of the National Army I offered Michael Smith the rank of Captain if he would join, which offer I again repeated when he was a prisoner in Gormanstown Camp – both of these offers he turned down”.
Sometime in the 1940’s he moved to number 49 West Road, where he remained until his death in 1967, survived by his widow Margaret Leech.
Our research into the North Docks during the revolutionary period is ongoing. Recently Joe Mooney and Hugo McGuinness met up with Peter Duffy, the UK secretary of the Collins 22 Society. His family were participants in local activity during the period, and a very useful discussion and exchange of information took place, and contact will continue. If you have any information, memorabilia, clarifications or corrections relating to this period please contact us.
eastwallhistory@gmail.com
(Map sourced from http://www.cairogang.com/ a website well worth reading for information on the British Intelligence operation and the IRA response from this period.)