PHOTOGRAPHED NOVEMBER 2016 PUBLISHED 21 OCTOBER 2022
31 May 2011: A memorial garden dedicated to those who lost their lives in bombing of Dublin’s North Strand was re-opened to mark the 70th anniversary of the incident.
When I first photographed this memorial park it appeared to have been badly neglected since its re-opening in 2011 [what was the point of the re-opening?]. Since then it improved in stages and then in late 2014 or early 2015 a random sculpture, left over form a “Sculpture In Context” exhibition in the Botanic Gardens, was added. Since the addition of the metal sculpture things have gone downhill [not that the sculpture is to blame]. In case you are interested the sculpture is by Steve Doody and is named ” Hexagon – Could It Be Steel”.
At approximately 2 am on 31 May 1941, four German bombs dropped on north Dublin. One bomb fell in the Ballybough area, demolishing the two houses at 43 and 44 Summerhill Park, injuring many but with no loss of life. A second fell at the Dog Pond pumping works near the Zoo in Phoenix Park, with no casualties but damaging Áras an Uachtaráin, the official residence of the Irish President (Douglas Hyde at the time). A third made a large crater in the North Circular Road near Summerhill, again causing no injuries. A fourth fell in North Strand destroying 17 houses and severely damaging about 50 others, the worst damage occurring in the area between Seville Place and Newcomen Bridge. The raid claimed the lives of 28 people,[ injured 90, destroyed or damaged approximately 300 houses, and left 400 people homeless.
It has never been established why Hitler’s forces dropped bombs; if it was an attempt to force Ireland into war, or a reprisal for the assistance given by Dublin Fire Brigade during the Belfast Blitz.
Today I used a Canon 1Ds III which I obtained in 2007 and about a year later I realised that autofocus was defective I returned the camera a number of times for repair but the problem remained.
Later I began to notice overheating issues and that the images were noisy. Recently I had the option to obtain a number of suitable manual lenses at a very good price so I decided to see if the camera was usable in manual mode and I have been reasonably happy but today my close up shots of the Veronica Guerin bust at Dublin Castle were disappointing.
On the evening of 25 June 1996, Gilligan drug gang members Charles Bowden, Brian Meehan, Kieran ‘Muscles’ Concannon, Peter Mitchell and Paul Ward met at their distribution premises on the Greenmount Industrial Estate. Bowden, the gang’s distributor and ammunition quartermaster, supplied the three with a Colt Python revolver loaded with .357 Magnum semiwadcutter bullets. On 26 June 1996, while driving her red Opel Calibra, Guerin stopped at a red traffic light on the Naas Dual Carriageway near Newlands Cross, on the outskirts of Dublin, unaware she was being followed. She was shot six times, fatally, by one of two men sitting on a motorcycle.
About an hour after Guerin was murdered, a meeting took place in Moore Street, Dublin, between Bowden, Meehan, and Mitchell. Bowden later denied under oath in court that the purpose of the meeting was the disposal of the weapon but rather that it was an excuse to appear in a public setting to place them away from the incident.
At the time of her murder, Traynor was seeking a High Court order against Guerin to prevent her from publishing a book about his involvement in organised crime. Guerin was killed two days before she was due to speak at a Freedom Forum conference in London. The topic of her segment was “Dying to Tell the Story: Journalists at Risk.”
Her funeral service, on 29 June 1996 at a church in Dublin Airport, was attended by Ireland’s Taoiseach John Bruton, and the head of the armed forces. It was covered live by Raidió Teilifís Éireann. On 4 July, labour unions across Ireland called for a moment of silence in her memory, which was duly observed by people around the country. Guerin is buried in Dardistown Cemetery, County Dublin.
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