A LOST PUB IN THE HEART OF RINGSEND

 

The family surname appears as Jevons, Jevins and Jevens. They played an important role in Ringsend’s commercial life in the mid-nineteenth century. Edward Jevens was born in 1814 to Daniel Jevons, followed a year later by his brother Issac. Their father drowned accidentally in Ringsend in July 1822.

 

Edward married Margaret O’Donnell in Liverpool in 1834 and returned to Ringsend soon afterwards. He opened a public house on Thomas Street, on the site of today’s Ringsend Library, then known as The Ringsend Delta. When local justices ruled the premises was unsuitable for a licence, he moved to the corner of Ringsend Road and South Lotts Road.

 

Edwards brother Issac entered shipbuilding, another major local industry, and became known for designing and making anchors. However after being declared bankrupt in 1844, he moved to Enniskillen and worked as a ship’s engineer on a boat carrying the Earl of Erne on Lough Erne. A mile from Crom Castle, he fell overboard and drowned, as his father had.

 

Edward’s business prospered until the arrival of Father Matthews’ Temperance Movement. Like many publicans, he tried to adapt by turning his premises into a cordial shop, appearing in business directories as a “teetotaller vintner”. He was declared bankrupt in 1843 but managed to renew his spirit licence and reopen on Ringsend Road. Guinness brewery records indicate that he was doing well by 1852. The pub later lost its licence again: new licensing laws required licensees of good standing and premises suitable for drinking, and No. 1 Ringsend Road failed to meet these requirements. Edward died in 1870.

 

In October 1902 Daniel Burke, 50, Lower Baggot Street, applied for a new seven-day license at 1 Ringsend Road, and South Lotts Road. Burke owned a licensed premises in Ballsbridge. The lease expired and the Royal Dublin Society absorbed the premises, not "in the interest of temperance, but in the interest of agriculture.” There were objections from nearby publicans and the local Temperance movement and ultimately the licence was refused and no other pub opened on the corner.

The Ringsend Delta: From Dublin’s Worst Slum to a Community & Educational Landmark

 THE DELTA

Thousands of people pass through Ringsend every day, perhaps glancing at the familiar library on the corner without giving a second thought to what once stood there. Yet beneath this busy thoroughfare lies a remarkable story of poverty, overcrowding, political wrangling and social transformation. Once described as one of the unhealthiest areas in Dublin, the Ringsend Delta was home to families living in appalling conditions, a public house caught in the crossfire of the temperance movement and a housing crisis that attracted attention far beyond the boundaries of the district. Its eventual disappearance would transform the landscape of Ringsend forever.

Whether it’s from the top or lower deck of a bus, the car, bike or on foot, thousands pass a unique Dublin Delta without ever realising its significance or history. It once housed a pub that was decimated by the arrival of Father Matthew, slum housing conditions that was raised in the House of Commons in London and a city medical officer who condemned the area as the worst of the worst in the Empire.

 

Today the sole occupant of the Ringsend Delta is the Ringsend branch of Dublin City Libraries but at the turn of the twentieth century housing covered the triangular area bounded by Fitzwilliam Street, Thomas Street and the end of Bridge Street.

The Delta was categorised as the 18 houses and premises viz., Nos. 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13 Thomas street; Nos. 2, 4, 6, 6½, 8, 10, 12, 14, and 16 Fitzwilliam street; Nos. 28 and 30 Bridge street. All these houses are an unhealthy area.

All houses on the east side of Thomas street, up to billiard rooms (now the CYMS); known as Nos. 2 to 20 Thomas street, inclusive; Nos. 15, 17, 19, and 13, 15, 17, 20, 32, and 36 Bridge street; Nos. 22 and 24 Fitzwilliam street; the seven cottages on west side.

 

The public house that was located on the Delta was owned by Edward Jevens but when the Temperance Movement took hold, he repurposed his business as a cordial shop, still the social space of the pub but not serving alcohol. He struggled and eventually moved his business to 1 Ringsend Road on the corner of South Lotts Road where he once again got the spirit licence to serve alcohol. According to the 1901 Census, 255 people lived on Thomas Street alone with more than a twenty working in the local bottle works while another dozen were listed as fishermen. A decade later the 1911 Census listed 253 people living on the small Delta.

 

In October 1911 the decision was made to purchase the seventeen houses on the Delta and twelve houses on Thomas Street, costing the PUDC £29,000[1]. It was described as an ‘unwanted slum in Dublin’. The Sanitary Sub Officer for Irishtown Andrew Kelly visited 55 houses in the Irishtown and Ringsend area including the 29 houses on the Delta. He reported that in those 55 houses that there were 121 families living in those dwellings consisting of 564 persons. Rent was 2s to 3s per room. He described conditions as ‘bad ventilation, closeness and bad arrangement, no proper yard accommodation or sewage.’ There was one toilet to be shared by the 17 houses on the delta triangle. He recommended a new rule be pursued by the PUDC, ‘one family, one house’. Kelly’s worked was supported by Dr. Knox Denham, Medical Officer of Health of the Pembroke Urban District.

The initial proposed solution to rehouse those on the Delta was to build 118 houses on the expanse of the newly opened Ringsend Park but the local Landlord, The Earl of Pembroke, objected to that proposal as he wanted the park to remian a leisure area. The decision was taken to build houses along the park side of Irishtown Road and on Caroline Row to move the displaced into.

 

Eventually after a number of feasibilities were examined and the needs of the entire Pembroke District were discussed, the following was agreed,

·       To acquire and demolish the unhealthy houses known as Nos. 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, and 20 Thomas street, and Nos. 32 and 36 Bridge street (or Caroline row), as recommended by Dr. Knox Denham, all of which premises are coloured red on the map attached to his report. We are informed that one of these houses is used by the Pembroke Branch of the Women's National Health Association to promote the object of that Association, and we therefore suggest that the house so used by the branch, which has been doing much excellent work in the district, should not be taken down for a limited time, so as to give the ladies an opportunity to secure other premises.

·       To apply for compulsory powers to acquire the site known as the Duignan’s[2] site on Irishtown road, overlooking Ringsend Park, for the purpose of erecting 50 houses thereon, and of making another entrance to the Park, which could also be used as a playground in connection with these houses at rents between 3s. and 4s. per week.

·       To remove or reduce the present size of the high wall of Ringsend Park, and to erect a railing if necessary.

·       We also recommend the Council to apply for a separate Provisional Order conferring powers to enable the Council to acquire compulsorily the vacant site known as River View avenue site, Irishtown, and to erect there 275 houses.

·       We venture to say that the carrying out of these improvements in Ringsend, together with the erection of a Carnegie Library, the erection there and in Irishtown of a sufficient number of houses for the working classes, and the making of new entrances to the Park will affect a much-needed transformation in that district.

On October 9^th a notification appeared in the Irish Independent announcing the compulsory purchase of the lands referred to as the Ringsend Delta. The plan included widening Thomas Street and reducing the width of Fitzwilliam Street, which had been the main road continuation from Irishtown Road onto Bridge Street but as the tramline used the Thomas Street route to get onto Bridge Street, it seemed sensible to incorporate Thomas Street as the main thoroughfare into and out of the city centre.

 

In September 1912 at a meeting of the Pembroke Urban District Council (PUDC) a scheme was agreed to erect 295 homes in the Delta area of Ringsend with an expected expenditure of £60,000[3]

 

By February 1913, Mr. Anderson, P.L.G., Ringsend, was reporting that he knew intimately of the conditions of the poor people in Ringsend, Irishtown, and Sandymount. As a Poor Law representative, he often visited houses such as those at the Delta, Thomas street, but could not enter the overcrowded and insanitary rooms because of the smell. Rooms were screened off, and each corner apportioned to the parents, the girls, the boys, and the younger children. For rooms such as that 5s. 6d. a week was paid. As an example that the people were not poor, he said they were able to live, and to scrape up over £2,000 for the new church building there. Such rooms drove the men into the street, where they could be seen at the corner opposite the church every evening. He suggested that a Carnegie Library should be built on the Delta site, when it was cleared by demolishing the present houses.[4]

 

But even the compulsory purchasing procedure was slowed by claims and counter claims. One claim was by Captain Owen Bissett, lessee from Lord Pembroke, in reference to, grounds at 8 Fitzwilliam street, Ringsend, and 9 and 11 Thomas street, Ringsend. Bissett was claiming £920 compensation while he was only offered £238. While being at sea himself, his wife Mary, had a shop at 8 Fitzwilliam Street and lived above the shop, while he had tenants renting the two houses on Thomas Street. Bissett claimed he bought the houses in poor condition on Thomas Street for £155 in 1890 and had spent £300 repairing and renovating.

 

Mr. George O'Connor, who was architect and engineer for the proposed housing scheme, was examined by Mr. Clancy on behalf of the Urban. Council and stated that the houses 9 and 11 Thomas, street were unfit for human habitation, and in his opinion they ought to be demolished as a nuisance. They could not be made reasonably fit for human habitation. In the house No.9, there are ten persons occupying two small rooms upstairs, one of which has no fireplace. There are fourteen persons altogether living in No.9. There are twelve persons occupying house No. 11, which like No. 9 ought to be demolished. The house in Fitzwilliam Street is a little better than the houses in Thomas street, but that also was unfit for human habitation. He received £400 compensation and the Bissett family moved into 2 Irishtown Road.

New housing was built, although progress was slowed by the events surrounding the Easter Rising. It was not until January 1918 that tenders were invited to demolish the area known as The Ringsend Delta with the site to be handed over ‘clear to the Urban Council’.  In 1920 the site now occupied by the CYMS and once a church, was advertised for sale with the possibility of its purchase for someone wishing to open a cinema. The Ringsend cinema eventually opened on Fitzwilliam Street as the Rinn, later the Regal.

 

The library now occupying the Delta was one of four public libraries built during the period around 1937 by Dublin Corporation including the suburbs of Phibsborough, Drumcondra and Inchicore. These simple buildings have Art Deco styling around the doors and simple modern window treatments. Robert S. Lawrie was a Scottish architect in the department of the Dublin City under Architect Horace O’Rourke, during the 1930s. Along with Ringsend he designed the Inchicore public library on Emmet Road in 1937. After resigning his position in Dublin, he returned to Scotland to take up the appointment of County Architect for Fife.

The transformation of the Ringsend Delta represents far more than the demolition of a collection of old houses. It marked the end of an era in which families endured overcrowding, insanitary conditions and the indignity of living in accommodation unfit for human habitation. The campaign for better housing, the intervention of local authorities and the eventual redevelopment reshaped this small but significant corner of Ringsend. Today, the library stands as a reminder of that transformation, occupying ground once associated with poverty and deprivation. Few passing through the area could imagine the extraordinary human story buried beneath its foundations.

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[1] The Irish Times

[2] Between Strasburg Terrace and Fairview

[3] The Freemans Journal

[4] The Weekly Times

THANKS TO OUR SUPPORTERS, SPONSORS & READERS

Sources

Ancestry.com

The Irish Newspaper Archives

The British Newspaper Archive

OSI Ireland

Ringsend Library

Pembroke Estate Archives

National Library of Ireland

The National Archives of Ireland

 

A Ringsend Pub, a Family in Turmoil:
The Troubled Story of The Kearns’ Public House

Behind the doors of a Ringsend pub lay a story of financial ruin, marital conflict and a shocking act of violence that would make headlines thousands of miles away. When Joseph and Mary Kearns arrived at 12 Bridge Street at the turn of the twentieth century, few could have imagined the extraordinary events that would unfold. From courtroom battles over unpaid debts and a fight for control of a publican’s licence to an assault that attracted international attention, the Kearns family’s turbulent history reveals a darker chapter in the social life of old Dublin.

Ringsend has been home to many publicans since its first tavern opened in the early seventeenth century. One of its saddest and strangest stories concerns the Kearns family, who arrived at 12 Bridge Street—now John Clarke’s—at the turn of the twentieth century.

Joseph Kearns on New Street

Joseph Kearns, a farmer’s son from Lisclooney in County Offaly, then known as the King’s County, became a publican at 67 and 68 New Street after purchasing the pub from Mrs. Frazer in June 1894. The premises stood in a poor part of the city on the edge of the Liberties and even when applying for the transfer of the licence the court was told that the pub itself was in poor condition.

In September 1895, Denis Byrne (28), Joseph Clithero (35) and Joseph Quinn (35) were charged with stealing a copper barrel of whiskey, valued at 30 shillings, from the pub’s cellar. A month later, Kearns appeared before the court seeking £3 7s 6d from Michael Hunt for drinks supplied over the counter. Hunt, a labourer earning £1 a week, told the judge that he could not afford to pay at that time. On learning that Kearns had repeatedly allowed Hunt to buy drinks on credit, or ‘on the slate’, the judge said:

‘the publicans were doing an infernal harm against the working classes.’ Adding ‘It was all a tragedy as the working classes could get drink so freely from these publicans.’

The court awarded £1—equivalent to one week’s wages—and told Hunt to stay out of Kearns’s premises once the fine had been paid.

Marriage and Financial Difficulties

Financial difficulties arose when Joseph’s brother and business partner, Patrick, decided to emigrate to the United States and wanted his share of the business paid in cash. On September 6^th 1899, Joseph married Mary Evans at Star of the Sea Church in Sandymount. Mary was the only daughter of the late Denis Evans, a greengrocer at 27 Main Street, Blackrock. Joseph and Mary’s first son, Denis, was born in July 1900. He was named after his two grandfathers, both of whom were called Denis.

 

Towards the end of that year, Mrs. Mary Davin, the owner of 67 New Street, demanded the return of her house because Kearns had fallen behind with the rent. She was subsequently granted a transfer of the licence from Kearns into her own name. In July 1901, the Belfast newspaper the Irish News reported that Joseph had been declared bankrupt. The courts disposed of his interest in the New Street pub.

Mary’s Purchase of 12 Bridge Street

The pub at 12 Bridge Street was put up for sale in May 1900 by Nicholas Horan. By September 1901, Mary Kearns had purchased the premises with her own money, most likely money left to her by her late father. As she later told the courts, she was not dependent on her bankrupt husband: she was a woman of means, with a personal fortune of £700. When Joseph applied in October 1901 to have the licence transferred into his name, the court refused because he was bankrupt and had left several creditors unpaid on New Street.

The 1901 Irish census recorded the following household at 12 Bridge Street, Ringsend:

·        Joseph Kearns, aged 28, a publican; Mary Kearns, aged 26; and their son, Denis.

·        Two visitors, Francis and Thomas Smullen.

·        Two servants, Mary Gleason and Alice Doyle.

Mary’s Application for a Licence

Almost immediately after Joseph’s application was refused, newspaper advertisements announced that Mary Kearns would apply for the licence. On Monday, December 30^th 1901, she appeared in court with her solicitor, Gerard Byrne. Because the previous licence had lapsed, she sought a new seven-day licence rather than a transfer. The court reserved judgement and did not grant her application until April 1902.

The Assault and Joseph’s Imprisonment

Before Mary received the licence, an incident at Bridge Street drew newspaper coverage in Dublin, Belfast and London, and as far away as Denver, Colorado. A report published in The Denver Courier on February 15^th 1902 stated:

‘On Tuesday morning at Ringsend, County Dublin, a man named Joseph Kearns, publican and provision dealer attempted to strike his wife with a large bacon knife while she was dressing herself to attend a funeral. She succeeded in avoiding the attack and got out of her room, he followed her with the knife. The police were called in, and the knife was taken from Kearns. He was brought to Irishtown station and there charged by his wife as being a dangerous lunatic.’

The Dublin Metropolitan Police were based at the barracks in Irishtown. The charge of ‘dangerous lunatic’ usually referred to violence associated with excessive drinking. The incident is dated 21 January 1901 in this account. Joseph was initially charged with attempted murder, but the charge was reduced to common assault when he appeared before the Southern Divisional Police Court. He was found guilty of assaulting Mary and sentenced to one calendar month in prison.

Joseph served his sentence in Kilmainham Jail. The prison record described him as 29 years old and 5 ft 10 in tall, with brown hair, brown eyes and a fair complexion. It gave his place of birth as Belmont, County Offaly, a small village just south of Ferbane.

The Sale of the Bridge Street Properties

Although Mary had secured the licence and Joseph was no longer on the premises, she had less experience of running a pub than her husband. On August 12^th 1902, an advertisement in the Freemans Journal announced that auctioneer Andrew J. Keogh would sell her interest in Bridge Street on the ‘instructions of Mary Kearns’. The auction included both 12 and 14 Bridge Street. No. 14 was sold to the Nelson family, while the pub at No. 12 went to Peter North, whose brother Morgan had been running premises across the road on Fitzwilliam Street. The Kearns account with Guinness was closed in June 1903 with arrears due but according to the finance officer at the brewery there was little chance of collecting the amount owed.

Ten years later at the next census Mary and Denis were living with widowed Hannah Mearns at 8 Bath Street[1]. Despite the obvious issues with the marriage in 1901 Eliza was born and two years later Margaret but Joseph is not mentioned in the census.

 

Sources:

Rebecca Simpson

The Irish Newspaper Archives

The British Newspaper Archives

The US Library of Congress

Licensed Vintners Association

Guinness Archives

Jameson Archives

 

WITH THANKS TO OUR SUPPORTER OF THIS BLOG POST

RAY McGIVEN, CHICAGO, USA, A FORMER RESIDENT OF THE PARISH OF RINGSEND

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[1] Her husband Daniel died in January 1902, Hannah died in March 1914

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A CENTURY OF BUSINESS IN RINGSEND

THE VILLAGE OF RINGSEND HAS CHANGED OVER A CENTURY AND THE BUSINESSES THAT MADE RINGSEND THEIR HOME HAVE ALSO COME AND GONE BUT OVER THE NEXT COUPLE OF WEEKS WE WILL MAP THE CHANGES OVER A CENTURY FROM THE BUSINESSES THAT WERE IN BUSINESS IN 1926 AND THOSE IN 2026. 

HERE IS A SAMPLE

Francis Lafferty aka James Davis, The Irish Rebel Who Defied an Empire

Francis Lafferty aka James Davis by Trevor James

From the quiet surrounds of Bath Avenue, James Davis who was born in Derry in 1883, led an extraordinary life of military service, rebellion and imprisonment. After joing the Royal Navy, he deserted and enlisted in the British Army under an assumed name. He served in India, Burma and France during the First World War before participating in the Connaught Rangers mutiny in 1920 India. Court martialled and imprisoned, he endured harsh conditions, escaped and joined the IRA. This is remarkable story.

 

For many years Francis Owen Lafferty lived a quiet life in 58 O’Connell Gardens, Bath Avenue, but it hadn’t always been quiet.  He had spent over twenty years in the Royal Navy, the Munster Fusiliers, the Connaught Rangers, and the IRA.  He had fought in Europe, Africa and India, deserted in England, mutinied in the Punjab and been imprisoned in India, England and Scotland.  And he lived much of his life under an assumed name- James Davis.  This is his story.

Birth Certificate

Francis was born in the Derry Bogside in 1883; his father Patrick Lafferty was a cattle dealer.  His father died in 1898 when Francis was only fifteen, leaving his widow with seven children.  Within a year Francis had left home and joined the Royal Navy. He gave his age as 18 and he signed on for twelve years.  His records described him as 5’ 3”, with red hair, hazel eyes and a ruddy complexion. The first year was spent training. His initial posting was to HMS Caledonia, a boys’ training ship moored in the Firth of Forth.  Subsequent training took place at Portland, Dorset and Devonport and Francis was a good student and his conduct was rated as ‘Very Good’.  But most of this training had been shore-based or on moored ships and the real test was still to come on board a sea-going warship. 

In May 1901, Francis was assigned to HMS Magnificent, a battleship with 672 crew, which patrolled the English Channel.  Things didn’t go so well for him and by July he had spent 14 days in the ship’s cells.  He lasted another few months but that November when Magnificent was in port, he left the ship and never returned – a deserter. 

Clearly Navy life was not for him but maybe Army life would suit.  He was eighteen now but a deserter couldn’t enlist in the Army so he changed his name to James Davis, arrived at the recruiting office in Dublin and re-enlisted as a private in the 2^nd battalion of the Royal Munster Fusiliers.  He served in India and Burma and was active in the North West Frontier campaign in 1908.  He was part of the expeditionary force to France during the First World War and would have seen action at many of the major battles at the Western Front.  He was promoted to corporal about July 1918 and as corporal, he was responsible for the discipline of a group of about ten privates and would relay orders from senior officers.   In September 1919, he was transferred from the Munsters to the 1st Battalion of the Connaught Rangers and sent to India.  The battalion arrived in the Punjab in October 1919 and were stationed at several outposts in the region.  James’s Company was assigned to Wellington Barracks in Jullundur.

On the evening of June 27^th1920, a small group of Connaught Rangers in Wellington Barracks were discussing the situation at home in Ireland where martial law had been imposed.  Some had been home on leave and recounted actions of the ‘Black and Tans’ they had seen, others had received letters from home telling of atrocities in their home district.  They decided to make a protest against British military behaviour in Ireland: they would ‘ground arms’ and refuse to soldier.  By the next day the word had spread, and many other soldiers agreed with their stand and also refused to obey orders.  A committee of seven was elected including James (we will call him James from now on) to liaise with the authorities and the mutineers agreed to only obey orders that were given by the committee.   Despite opposition from the officers, they had green, white and orange tricolours made and flew them in the compound, and sang rebel songs.  They also refused to carry arms and had them locked away in the armoury.  Later the mutineers sent two emissaries to another company of Connaught Rangers stationed about twenty miles away at Solon, and they took up the protest as well.

The protests were initially peaceful, with senior officers arriving and trying to reason with the mutineers but on the evening of 1 July around 30 members of the company at Solon attempted to retake their rifles from the armoury. The soldiers on guard opened fire, killing two men and wounding another. This effectively brought the mutiny to an end.  Troops from other regiments were brought in and all the mutineers, including James, were placed under armed guard.   For over three days they were held in a compound outside, with no shelter, in temperatures over 46^o C before they were brought to Dagshai in Northern India and court-martialled. 

Eighty-eight men were court-martialled and sixty-one were convicted for their role in the mutiny. Fourteen were sentenced to death by firing squad, but the capital sentence was only carried out on one soldier, Private James Daly.  James was sentenced to two years hard labour and discharged from the Army ‘with ignominy’. 

After serving some time in Indian prisons, James was returned to England and sent to Inkerman military prison in Woking, Surrey.  He was put on laundry work but on October 5^th 1921 he somehow procured a ladder and some rope, scaled the wall and escaped, still in his prison uniform.

About a week later, a man dressed in rags, which he had apparently taken from a scarecrow, was arrested in London for drunkenness.  While in custody, one of the police noticed his similarity to the description of a man who had escaped from gaol, and under questioning the prisoner confessed to being James Davis.  The newspapers reported that he was fined 10s/6d and taken to Pentonville.  Whether this actually was James seems unlikely, because we do know that later that year, he was in the north of Ireland.

According to his own account, he escaped from gaol on September 1^st 1921, and made his way back to Derry, where he immediately made contact with the local IRA.   In his own words “I joined the 2nd Northern Division at Cranagh, Sperrin Mountains, Co. Tyrone, and served as Brigade Training Officer until December 21^st, when a raid was made on the camp and I, along with three others, were arrested. I was tried at the Winter Assizes at Omagh, Co. Tyrone and sentenced to five years penal servitude. I was sent to Peterhead Prison in Scotland to serve my sentence”. Peterhead Prison in Aberdeenshire was probably the harshest prison in the UK with a regime of relentless hard labour.  It was often referred to as Scotland’s Alcatraz, but with a biting North Sea wind.  Every day, summer and winter, prisoners were taken to a local granite quarry and had to break up huge granite boulders using only hand tools.  In the prison they were housed in cramped, freezing cells and with almost no freedoms. Years later James referred to the cold as being hard to bear, particularly for one who had spent many years in the heat of India.

Having spent over four years incarcerated, James was one of ten prisoners known as the Peterhead Ten who were the last republican prisoners to be released.  On their release on January 26, 1926, he made his way to Dublin.   He sought assistance from the government in finding employment and he worked for a while in the canteen of McKee Barracks, and as a temporary postman during the Christmas period.  In 1927 he was given a job as a labourer on the restoration of the Four Courts.  This was arranged by the President’s department which often arranged employment for ‘deserving cases’ who had served the state in some way. 

He also applied to the Irish White Cross for help.  The White Cross had been established in 1921 to distribute funds raised in America to Irish people who had suffered financial hardship due to the war of independence.  James was awarded a grant of £100, £50 of which he used to liquidate his debts.   He also immediately gave up his job in the Four Courts.

Possibly for the same reasons as he was given a job, in the early 1930s he was allocated a house in the newly built O’Connell Gardens, off Bath Avenue.  He was also given a post as an attendant at the National Museum for which he received £2 /11 shillings a week. 

By the mid-1930s he was the secretary of the Connaught Rangers Mutineers Association seeking pensions for the mutineers who had all lost their British Army pensions.  This was the time when Fianna Fail had come to power and there had been promises during the election that they would do something for these men.  After several years of struggle The Connaught Rangers (Pensions) Act, 1936 was enacted by the Oireachtas to provide for the “payment of pensions, allowances, and gratuities to or in respect of certain former members of the 1st Battalion, Connaught Rangers”. 

A ‘qualified person’ had to:
. have been a member of the 1st Battalion of the Connaught Rangers;
. have joined the mutiny;
. have been court-martialled in Dagshai in August 1920 and
. have been sentenced to death, penal servitude, or imprisonment for no less than 12 months.

Although only 88 men were court-martialled in Dagshai, 258 applications were made but only 38 were awarded pensions, 13 were awarded gratuities and a further two received disablement pensions. James was awarded a pension for life of 2s/9½d  (Two shillings, nine pence and a halfpenny) per day, about £50 a year. 

He married Sarah McKay from Donegal in 1937.  They married in St Columba’s church in Glendowan, Donegal where she was the sacristan.  Although still known as James Davis, his name on the marriage certificate was Francis Owen Lafferty and he was still working as an attendant in the National Museum. 

His address on the marriage certificate was 45 Belmont Avenue, Donnybrook although on his correspondence with the Department of Defence he was citing his address as 58 O’Connell Gardens.

About 1944, James and his wife moved to 51 Morehampton Road and he was calling himself Francis Owen Davis.  He died from cardiac failure on the 16^th November 1948 in Clonskeagh Fever Hospital.  The funeral was in the Church of the Sacred Heart, Donnybrook and he was buried in Dean’s Grange cemetery. 

His name appears on a memorial in Glasnevin cemetery, unveiled in 1949, to the 1st Battalion, Connaught Rangers “in commemoration of those members of the battalion who gave their lives during the mutiny and subsequently for Irish freedom”.

Sources

The British National Archives, Kew Gardens

Irishgenealogy.ie

History Ireland Volume 18 Issue 4

Dail Eireann Debates

Bureau of Military Archives

The Irishtown Butcher, the Strike and the Courts: Six Months of Turmoil in 1927 Dublin

 

In 1927, a dismissal at a small Irishtown butcher’s shop sparked a bitter industrial dispute that would drag on for six months, bring trade unionists and police into conflict, and repeatedly land its central figures before the courts. Behind the picket lines and courtroom confrontations lay a story of working-class Dublin, family livelihoods and the growing power of organised labour in a young Irish state. But the troubles of butcher Edward Coogan were far from over, and five years later, another court case would see him challenge the authorities over an entirely different matter.

 

Early in 1927, as the country wrestled with political instability and two general elections, industrial relations were still a thorny issue. In early January a small local industrial dispute found itself before the courts on numerous occasions as tensions flared between owners and strikers.

 

Edward Coogan owned two butcher shops, one at 15 Irishtown Road, now home to the very popular RICYS Café and 24 South Lotts Road on the corner of Gordon Street. Thirty-five-year-old Edward lived in Stella Gardens with his wife Teresa and three sons and a daughter.

 

In early January, Coogan decided to sack part-time worker Chrisopher Dunne. Coogan later told the courts that he sacked Dunne, who was working just 5 – 6 hours per week, because he believed that he was being dishonest. Immediately the Workers Union of Ireland trade unions placed pickets on both of Coogan’s shops. The Workers Union of Ireland had been formed in 1924 after a split from the ITGWU, the split led by James Larkin and his brother Peter. Chris Dunne was a married man living on Rock Lane with his wife Mary and three sons. The 1926 census indicates that he was a ‘butcher’ but also a ‘casual worker’. Rock Lane was a small laneway of tenements located immediately off Lower Baggot Street. Rock Lane was the lane beside the Old Henry Grattan’s pub on Baggot Street.

 

Tensions flared as the pickets’ attempted locals from using these two popular local butchers. The shops remained opened but the tension between Coogan plus the employees who still worked in the shop and the trade unionists escalated. In April, Coogan sought an injunction under the Protection of Property Act against Frank Cluskey, a trade union delegate and a butcher himself. He was the father of Frank Cluskey who would lead the labour party from 1977 to 1981 and would later serve as Minister for Trade, Commerce and Tourism in Garret Fitzgerald’s coalition government.

 

In June it was Coogan before the courts when local Irishtown Garda Thomas Collins, a native of Kerry, charged the butcher with assaulting Peter Redmond of Thorncastle Street, who was still working for Coogan but that tempers had flared. The pressure was building and now the strike was six months old. It wasn’t until July 2^nd that news finally emerged that the industrial dispute had been settled amicably and that all the striking workers had been reinstated. The strike had lasted six months.

 

In 1932 Coogan found himself before the courts once more. By now he had disposed of the shop on South Lotts Road and was only operating at Irishtown Road. Judge Davitt imposed a fine of twenty shillings for having used a slaughterhouse at the rear of 39 Westland Row without a Department of Agriculture license. He argued that the house was licensed by Elizabeth Long from 1879 until her death in 1884 and then the premises was operated by William Cahill who sub let it to Coogan. The prosecution maintained that the licence died with Mrs. Long but the defence that as no physical evidence could be produced relating to the paperwork that the licence was still in effect, but the Judge found Coogan guilty and issued the fine. Coogan appealed the decision and forced the Department of Agriculture to tighten up both controls on and the enforcement of licensed slaughterhouses.

 

In 1932, Irishtown Road was sold to Chris Farrelly who ran the butchers until 1947. His butcher’s shop on South Lotts Road later became Kelly’s Grocery for many decades.

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