Portobello, Dublin - of Historical Interest

Of Historical Interest

1861 A terrible tragedy at Portobello Bridge

At 9 o’clock on the evening of Saturday, 6 April 1861 near Portobello Bridge, a horse-drawn bus, driven by Patrick Hardy, had just dropped off a passenger and started up the steep incline of the bridge when one of the horses started to rear. The driver tried to turn the horses but both horses became uncontrollable with fear and backed the bus through the wooden rails of the bridge. The bus, horses and six passengers inside the bus, plunged into the dark cold waters of the canal lock, which was about 6 metres (20 feet) deep, with 3 metres (10 feet) of water at the bottom. The conductor was able to jump clear and a passing policeman pulled the driver from the water. Despite the frantic efforts of passers-by, in particular a constable and a soldier from Portobello Barracks who broke their way into the submerged bus, all inside were drowned. One of those killed was the father of the Gunne brothers, who opened the Gaiety Theatre. Two were mothers, each with a little girl, one of them a niece of Daniel O'Connell.

The repercussions of this tragedy were felt for a long time in the area. Passengers on horse-drawn vehicles had to alight at Portobello Bridge and walk across the bridge before continuing their journey. According to some accounts, on the night of the accident a brilliant light was seen to rise from the canal water and turn into a human shape. They say the ghost of a lock-keeper, who drowned himself after being sacked for drunkenness, was to blame for the tragedy.

1914 Pork butchers attack

During the evening of August 15, 1914 a series of anti-German attacks took place in the city by Irish who were Pro-Allied or British sympathizers also known commonly as Redmonites during World War 1. One of the most shocking was George Reitz Pork butchers at Leonard’s Corner on the South Circular Road, Portobello. The mob was led by a newly-enlisted soldier who had answered John Redmond’s and Tom Kettle’s call to Conscript and who first wished to fight the “barbarians” in our midst before embarking for the War on the Continent.

The fullest account of the attack on George Reitz’s premises appeared in the “Irish Worker” on August 22, 1914. Under the heading of “German Baiting: The Police Cowardice” the correspondent described the scene. Having first arrested Reitz himself, the Dublin Metropolitan Police then left his premises unprotected and allowed the mob to proceed unhindered in destroying that shop and robbing its contents. Meanwhile, the DMP themselves stood “idly by” and laughed away the night as they observed the “sport” of the Redmondites plundering to their hearts content. The Irish Citizen Army feared that the Jewish shops adjacent to Reitz’s would be the next seating targets for the mob.

1916 A terse reply

During the Easter Rising in 1916, the Irish Citizen Army sent a group of men to seize a delaying position at Portobello Bridge, to allow fortifications to be constructed in the city centre. They were led by a James Joyce (not the author) who worked in Davy's bar near the bridge—the bar was to be used as a military outpost. When his unit burst in, Davy, the bar owner, sacked Joyce, giving him one week's notice. Joyce then told Davy he had five minutes to get out!

1916 Murder of Sheehy-Skeffington

Also during the Easter Rising, members of the British 11th East Surrey Regiment at Portobello Bridge arrested the pacifist Francis Sheehy-Skeffington on 25 April for no obvious reason, while returning to his home in Rathmines. He was taken to Portobello Barracks, where he was held as an enemy sympathizer. Later that evening, he was taken out as a hostage with a raiding party led by Captain J.C. Bowen-Colthurst of the Royal Irish Rifles, to the home and shop of Alderman James Kelly, at the corner of Camden Street and Harcourt Road (from which the name "Kelly's Corner" derives). Mistaking the Alderman (a conservative) for a rebel, the soldiers destroyed the shop with hand grenades. On the way back to Rathmines, Skeffington was the witness to two murders committed by Bowen-Colthurst and his party on two unarmed civilians (one of them a 17-year-old boy from Mountpleasant Avenue returning from Rathmines church).

The following morning Bowen-Colthurst ordered his sergeant to organise a firing party to shoot dead Sheehy-Skeffington and two pro-British journalists—Thomas Dixon (a disabled Scotsman) and Patrick McIntyre—who were unlucky enough to have been in Kelly's shop when it was raided. The three were shot in the back as they walked towards a wall in the barracks yard. The British authorities tried to hush up the killings, and in fact even offered Bowen-Colthurst command of a regiment in Newry. But as soon as he found out what had happened, Bowen-Colthurst's commanding officer, Sir Francis Fletcher Vane tried to have Bowen-Colthurst arrested for murder, and was sacked from the army for his pains (as the Public Records Office nicely put it: "this officer was relegated to unemployment owing to his action in the Skeffington murder case in the Sinn Féin rebellion"). Bowen-Colthurst pleaded insanity at a later investigation and was put away for 18 months.

1920 Dead and wounded after riot in Richmond Street

On 22 March 1920, an incident, typical of the time, occurred in the area. A large group of British soldiers of the Royal Berkshire Regiment, were returning, singing, to Portobello Barracks after a night out on the town. They started jostling pedestrians in Grafton Street and hissed the Sinn Féin bank in Harcourt Street. At Kelly's Corner a crowd gathered who attacked them with stones. By the time they reached Lennox Street gunfire had broken out, one soldier being shot in the chest. A running fight along the street developed until armed reinforcements arrived from the barracks. Gunfire broke out between the two sides, and the soldiers forced the crowd back towards Camden Street, firing at them when they did not obey the command to disperse. A van driver and a female domestic were killed, and many injured.

1920 Shooting of Harry Kells

On 15 April 1920 parts of Portobello, including the "Jewish quarters", were subject to the largest raid ever carried out by British troops in Dublin. This was due to the shooting on the previous day of Detective Constable Harry Kells, of the DMP G Division, in Camden St. He was rushed to the Meath Hospital where he died. Harry Kells lived at 7 Pleasants St. and had been carrying out identity parades among the many republican inmates in Mountjoy Prison. Two of those sought were Sinn Féin members Michael and William Kavanagh who lived at 5 Pleasants St., who had previously been "fingered" by Kells, and it was thought they would seek refuge among friends in the neighbourhood. Over 100 people were arrested that day.

1923 Stamer Street Shooting

On the night of 14 November 1923, two Jewish men were shot, one of whom Emmanuel Kahn, 24, of Lennox Street died, at the corner of Stamer St./Lennox St. They were returning home from the Jewish Social Club, which was located at 3 Harrington St. The shooting followed an altercation on Stamer St. with officers of the Irish National Army, who had been on their way by taxi from Griffith Barracks to Beggar's Bush Barracks. Ralph Laffan, the taxi driver that night, was charged with the murder, but fled to Mexico to join his brother Fred, who had also been involved that night. He claimed he was mistaken for his brother and was later found not guilty. The apparently motiveless murders remained a mystery until files released in 2007 pointed to Commandant James Patrick Conroy, who harboured a personal vendetta against Jews, as the main instigator. He resigned from the army shortly after the shooting and emigrated.