The 31st May 2011marks the 70th

Anniversary of oneDublin’s most horrific

nights, when aircraft ofGermany’s Luftwaffe

devastated a smallnorth-side community,

causing death, injuryand homelessness.

As one who was brought up in one ofthe areas adjoining the scene of thattragedy I had heard stories handeddown from older relatives but hadnever had a comprehensive accounton what happened on that fatefulnight. The main reason for this wasthat almost 60 years, documents inthe Irish Military Archive and DublinCity Archive had remained classified,with some stamped ‘Secret’.

More importantly no book had beenwritten. on what the Evening Heraldproclaimed as a ‘Night of Horror’.Then in 2009, a book simply entitled‘The Bombing of Dublin’s NorthStrand, 1941’ was finally written,which explored the tragedy throughthe oral historical testimony ofsurvivors, rescuers and observers andprovided graphic eye-witnessaccounts of the events that night, aswell as examining the theories andmyths surrounding the bombing inthe light of the available evidence. I

recently came across the paperbackversion of the book written by KevinC. Kearns, an American SocialHistorian and Professor Emeritus atUniversity of Northern Colorado andwas immediately impressed. Mr.Kearns has written nine books onDublin, four of which including ‘DublinTenement Life’ have been bestsellers.

Background to the‘Night of Horror’Although the bombing of the NorthStrand was the most serious incidentof its kind to occur during World WarII, it was not the first time that Ireland– a neutral country - had beenbombed by the Germans during thatconflict. The first attack took place on26th August 1940, almost a yearafter the start of the war, whenbombs were dropped on thecreamery at Campile, CountyWexford, killing three young women.On that night London suffered almostsix hours of bombing by Luftwaffeaircraft and subsequently German

FlyinginIreland · June 201162

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The Bombing of Dublin’s North Strand, 1941

The Heinkel He 111 was used in significantnumbers in 1941A Heinkel He 111 is believed to have carried out the bombing

30-35 North Strand Road 153-164 North Strand Road

June 2011 · FlyinginIreland 63

radio announced that one of theiraircraft was responsible for theWexford bombing. In March 1943,the German government paid out£9,000 (€11,430) in compensation.That December a number of incidentstook place on the night of 20thDecember. Just after 1900, residentsof Dun Laoghaire, claimed to haveseen flares in the sky followedpromptly by bombs falling andexploding. More fell moments laternear Sandycove Railway station.Three people were injured during thisaction. Shortly afterwards, twobombs fell on Shantouagh town land,near Carrickmacross, Co. Monaghan.These attacks coincided with heavyraids on Liverpool.

The New Year began with a series ofincidents, when eight bombs fell onDuleek and Julianstown, Co. Meath,on 1st January. There were no injuriesfrom either incident. Shortly after06:00 on 2nd January, two bombsdestroyed several houses in Terenure,in south Dublin, injuring seven people.Three more bombs fell on Ballymurrin,County Wexford, causing no damageor injuries. That night two bombs fellon waste ground in Fortfield Road,Dublin, with no injuries, but somedamage to property. Between 30 and40 high explosive (HE) and incendiarybombs also fell around the Curragh

Racecourse in Kildare. More seriouslythree children were killed and theirparents seriously injured that nightwhen a bomb struck a remotefarmhouse in Knockroe, near Borris inCounty Carlow. The incidentscontinued in the early hours of 3rdJanuary, when 20 people were injuredand two houses destroyed in the inthe Donore Terrace area on the SouthCircular Road, Dublin. Considerabledamage was also done to tworeligious buildings, DonorePresbyterian Church and the SouthCircular Road Synagogue. There arealso reports that bombs weredropped on 5th May in 'Malin' inDonegal and throughout the 1940 -1941 period, the Irish ArmyAuthorities frequently plotted aircraftflying deep within Irish airspace bothGerman and allied. Protests overthese flights were made to thebelligerent countries by Irish officials.

“Dublin fire fighters inaction – in BelfastThe people of Dublin had becomequite use to the appearance ofGerman bombers over the city atnight as the Luftwaffe launched everystronger raids on British cities. Belfasthad received its first visit on the nightof 7/8th April 1941, when in a small

raid by six aircraft 13 people werekilled. On the night of Easter Tuesday,15th April, the city suffered massbombing involving some 180 aircraftand some 750 people were listed askilled, 1,500, injured and half of thehouses in Belfast were damaged withroughly 100,000 people of a totalpopulation of 425,000 left homeless.Belfast’s fire service with just 230men was overwhelmed as fires ragedout of control and in spite of thedispatch of 400 reinforcements fromthe UK urgent assistance wasrequested from Dublin. Six fireengines and in excess of 70 firefighters headed North within hours ofreceiving the request. A total of 13appliances and some 100 men wereinvolved in the mercy mission thatlasted less than 24 hours, but hadallowed the reinforcements fromGlasgow and Liverpool to arrive.Officers Inspecting the damage

The North Strand Road Memorial

FlyinginIreland · June 201164

A foretaste of whatcould happenJust after midnight on 28th May1941, the Air Corps noted some 50aircraft in Irish airspace. They flew upthe Wicklow coast, past Dalkey andproceeded towards Rush. Some ofthe aircraft proceeded north andaccording to reports “suddenly dividedup in confusion” and flew in differentdirections. Shortly afterwardsexplosions were noted in the Irish Seaas the crews jettisoned their bombsas crews realised they were overDublin. Contrary to popular beliefDublin was neither ‘blacked out’ norhad a ‘fully illuminated’ policypracticed by other neutral cities. Itwas a practice considered illogical byDubliners at the time. In addition,there was no widespread system ofair raid shelters, nor was it thepractice to sound air raid sirens evenafter the events of January 1941. AnIrish Department of Defence reportdated 16th July 1941 noted that un-blacked-out Irish lights were oftenused by the Luftwaffe as an "aid tonavigation" towards Northern Ireland,and that: "...the lights on the southcoast and Dublin were used as pointsof arrival and departure insynchronised timing."

What a spectacleOn the 31st May, some 30 bomberswere noted over Dublin at 00:02.They had followed their normalnortherly route and, as in the previousincident three days earlier, they hadagain broke formation and beganmeandering over Dublin in disarray. At00:04 the city’s anti-aircraft search-lights were switch on and at 00:18, inaccordance with normal practice,three tri-colour flares were sent up,indicating that the aircraft were overneutral Ireland. Two minutes laterwarning red flares were sent up. At00:35, the Air Defence Commandordered anti aircraft batteries atseveral locations to open fire as a finaldeterrent. Normally these actions

were enough to encourage theGermans to continue on theirnortherly flight path but on this nightthey remained over Dublin in spite ofit being a gloriously starry night withgood visibility, aided by the lack of acomplete blackout. The Clontarfbattery with 3.7 inch guns was firstinto action firing four rounds and over the next three and a half hoursnearly 1,000 rounds, including smallcalibre .303 rounds were fired. Formany it provided a dazzling showworth getting out of bed to watchbut after a while most grew wearyand went to bed.

“Get up quick, we’rebeing bombed”Air Defence Command officersobserving and monitoring the Germanaircraft were perplexed by their oddbehaviour but their interest turned toconcern when, at 01:28 the firstbomb whistled earthward, explodingnear the intersection of the NorthCircular Road and North RichmondStreet. One minute later a second onedetonated, just around the corner atSummerhill. The explosions causedseveral houses and shops to collapse,trapping victims in the debris. Almost

The North Strand Road Memorial

The North Strand Road as it is today

June 2011 · FlyinginIreland 65

immediately, Dublin Fire Brigade,members of the Local Defence Force(LDF) and other rescue groups racedto the scene. At 01:31 a thirdexplosion was heard from thedirection of the Phoenix Park. It hadfallen near the Dog pond pumpingstation in the Phoenix Park, causingthe little house in which JosephMcNally lived with his eleven-year-old daughter, Winifred, to collapse.This bomb damaged some of theDublin Zoo buildings, but caused noinjuries among staff or animals. TheMcNally’s too escaped with onlyminor cuts. The bomb also damagedthe windows of Áras an Uachtaráin.After the third explosion most of thecity was awake, minutes passed butno more bombs fell. Above, some ofthe German aircraft drifted off, butothers remained.

One was particularly noticeable, itbegan swooping low, veering sharply,before darting off to a safer altitude.It proceeded north as far asCollinstown (Dublin Airport), where itwas engaged by the anti-aircraftbattery, before again turning southover the city. As recorded in thedeclassified military log, shortly before00:20 military observers determinedthat it was “hovering" purposefullyabove, the pilot seemingly “awaitinginstructions" of some sort.

At 02:05 there was a thunderous,deafening explosion. The sky turned afiery crimson and the earth shookviolently from the ferocious force.Houses and shops were blown apart;disintegrating or collapsing in a pile ofrubble. Steel lamp-posts and the tramtracks running along the North Strandbecame heaps of twisted metal.Bricks, slates and more seriously glass,were propelled in all directions. Gasmains were shattered and blazeserupted. The blast was felt as faraway as Enniskerry and Mullingar, andpanic and confusion reigned.Nevertheless, the emergency servicesquickly mobilised and as in most ofthese types of traumatic events,there were many tales of courage andsacrifice. However, in that split

second, many lives were ended orchanged by loss, injury or savagemutilation. There is some dispute asto the precise numbers killed, withsome sources claiming as many as 45.Speaking in the Dáil on 5th June, theTaoiseach, Éamon de Valera, said that27 “were killed outright orsubsequently died”. He noted that “45were wounded or received otherserious bodily injury and are still inhospital”, although most accounts putthe number of seriously injured ataround 100. In May 1991 at theunveiling of a memorial to the victims,the then Lord Mayor, MichaelDonnelly said that “37 were killed, 28immediately and nine later”. Whateverthe true number it was a seismicevent in Dublin’s history. Twenty fivehouses and a number of businesspremises were completely destroyedand 300 so damaged as to be unfitfor habitation. In all 2,250 buildings inthe city suffered some bomb damage.On 19th June, the Irish governmentannounced that the Germangovernment had expressed regret forthe North Strand bombing and hadpromised compensation. But it wasnot until 1958 that £327,000(€415,290) was paid, against an IrishGovernment claim of £481,878(€611,985). While compensationwas provided for owners of damagedor destroyed property under theterms of the Neutrality (War Damageto Property) Act 1941, there wasvery little compensation for victims.Up to 30th September, 1943, 2,577applications were received and 2,386offers of compensation were made.Most of the residents received verylittle of the German compensation,£10-£12 (€12.70-€15.24) at most,a fact still resented by the relatives ofthose who suffered.

The Government pointed out that theIrish Red Cross provided emergencyshelter for people made homeless bythe bombing at the Mansion Houseand in parish halls throughout the cityand distributed blankets and food tothose immediately affected. DublinCorporation provided permanentalternative housing for the victims in

the new Dublin Corporation housingestates at Cabra and Crumlin, butacquired two areas where the bomb damage was most severe and developed new housingcomplexes there.

Of the many theories and myths putforward to explain the bombing, themost discussed are: a deliberateattack in retaliation for Irish assistanceto the victims of the Luftwaffe’sbombings of Belfast; a warning toIreland not to assist Britain during thewar; a navigational error or adeflection of radio beams on whichthe Luftwaffe relied for navigation.Given the heavy raids on Cardiff,Newport, Bristol and Merseyside onthe night of 30th/31st May, I tend tobelieve either of the latter two,although the option of a panicky pilot,with his aircraft perhaps damaged,cannot be excluded.

The North Strand bombings were notthe last, but fortunately there was nomore loss of life. Arklow was bombedon 2nd June and on 24th July 1941;Bombs also fell on Dundalk, causingonly minor damage. There were nocasualties in either event. Across thewater the human suffering wasimmense with 5,394 people killed inBritain in May 1941 alone.

FII

Kevin C. Kearns’ book ispublished by Gill and Macmillan(ISBN 978-0-7171-4644-4)and is available for €12.00 inpaperback through the Eason’snetwork. It is a fascinatingnarrative and social history ofan immense human dramadetailing the story of calamity,terror, heroism and survival.This great historical event haslong needed to be brought tothe wider public and I stronglyrecommend the book to anyonewho has even a passing interestin the subject.