In February 2015, I published an article listing the remaining 12 or so ‘early house’ pubs in Dublin city centre along with some brief historical background about why these bars have special licenses allowing them to open at 7am. I wrote an updated article in January 2019 which listed the 11 still remaining and questioned the future of some of them. In the last four years, there have been several significant changes and the number has reduced to six (four if you’re being strict). There were 44 early houses pubs in Dublin in 1962 and no pubs have been granted an ‘early morning exemption licenc ..read more

(This is the fourth part of a series of in-depth articles on the lives of Republicans who died in Dublin in the 1930s to 1950s period, author Sam McGrath has previously examined the fatal shooting of IRA member Peter McCarthy on Lower Clanbrassil Street in 1937, the killing of another young IRA Volunteer Jackie Griffith near Merrion Square in 1943 and the accidental shooting of Republican Patrick Murray in 1950.) Introduction On 11 May 1939, 22-year-old Christopher (Christy) Bird was accidentally shot during an IRA training class in a house in The Liberties, Dublin. He die ..read more

(Author Sam McGrath has previously examined the fatal shooting of IRA member Peter McCarthy on Lower Clanbrassil Street in 1937 and the killing of another young republican Jackie Griffith near Merrion Square in 1943) Introduction On 24 May 1950, 17-year-old Patrick Murray was accidentally shot dead in the backyard of the headquarters of the Republican Prisoners’ Release Association in Dublin. At his funeral in Glasnevin Cemetery the teenager’s coffin was “draped with a tricolour” and was “accompanied by a guard of honour of the deceased’s former comrades”. His recently restored headstone des ..read more

IntroductionThis new map plots out the locations of almost 350 gun murders in Dublin (and neighbouring counties) relating to organised crime, anti-social elements, paramilitary feuds, robberies and raids over the last 50+ years. It was compiled independently by Sam McGrath of the Come Here To Me! blog. It began during the quiet months of the first lockdown when I set out on a project to establish how many ‘gangland’ murders have occurred in Dublin since the 1970s. No such figure was available online and I was interested in providing figures that could be compared to other cities like Glasgow ..read more

Jackie Griffith, a 21-year-old IRA member, was shot dead in July 1943 while cycling near the corner of Lower Mount Street and Merrion Square in Dublin city centre. Although only a young man, he had been active in the IRA for a number of years and had been linked to a series of armed robberies and shooting incidents. Griffith was ‘on the run’ after escaping from Mountjoy Jail eight months previously. He was killed by Special Branch detectives who fired at him with a Thompson submachine through the window of their moving car. The authorities claimed that Griffith shot at them first but the Repub ..read more

Published for the club’s centenary in 1990, Phil Howlin’s history of Bohemian Football Club refers briefly to a carnival held at Dalymount in 1938 and 1940 organised by the wonderfully named “Ways & Means Committee”. Themselves initially formed in 1933 as a mechanism for fund raising, the Committee ran the carnivals in part to benefit the club, but also to provide for the improvement of schools in nearby Cabra. The 1940 iteration of the carnival also contributed a full day’s takings to a benevolent fund organised by veterans of the 1st Battalion, Dublin Brigade IRA. The first reference in ..read more

Peter McCarthy, a 20-year-old IRA member, was shot dead in June 1937 on Lower Clanbrassil Street. He was killed by an off-duty Special Branch officer with an unlicensed revolver in dubious circumstances during the arrest of two fellow IRA members. His burial in Mount Jerome Cemetery was attended by 3,000 people including the Chief of the Staff of the IRA, the President of Cuman na mBan and the President of Sinn Féin. Photograph of Peter McCarthy published in the Irish Independent (16 June 1937) Family Background Peter McCarthy’s parents were both born in Dublin and grew up in various tenemen ..read more

George Lucas (born George Quirke) (1926–2014) was an English civil servant who documented his gay social life in a series of detailed personal diaries from the 1950s until the 1990s. Lucas befriended journalist Hugo Greenhalgh in the mid-1990s and he was one of only three people to attend Lucas’ funeral in 2014 alongside a fellow co-executor of his will and a neighbour. Before his death, Lucas agreed to donate his extensive diaries to Greenhalgh. For the last three years, Greenhalgh has been patiently transcribing and posting entries from the diaries onto Facebook. He has started in ..read more

The Military Service Pensions Collection is a publicly accessible online archive of material relating to the 1916-23 period. For successful applicants, material and correspondence on their file can continue for decades up until the time of their death. A goldmine for first-hand accounts of the revolutionary period, an individual’s application can also occasionally throw up an interesting item which is historic in its own right. John Adamson (1901-68) served with the Cyclists Company, 3 Battalion, Dublin Brigade, IRA during the War of Independence. He claims to have taken part in arms-raids on ..read more

(Regarding crime and Dublin, the blog has previously looked at 18th century gang violence; joy-riding in Dublin from 1918-39; War of Independence bank-robberies; the 1920s ‘Sons of Dawn‘ who were rounded up by the IRA; the life of career criminal Henchico who died in 1968; ‘Animal Gang’ violence in 1942; vigilante violence in Dublin (1970 – 1984); the Bugsy Malone gangs of the 1970s and Triad gang violence in 1979) This is the second article looking at gangland murders in Dublin that occurred in the decades leading up to the kill ..read more