I attended the seminar on the North Strand Bombing and The Emergency in Ireland in Dublin City Archives on Pearse Street. The seminar discussed the bombing of Dublin’s North Strand area by the Luftwaffe on the night of 31st May 1941.

It was Ireland’s only taste of the air war, as large swathes of this inner-city neighbourhood were reduced to rubble. Thirty-four people were killed and ninety injured and over three hundred houses were destroyed or damaged during the raid.

After the registration and introduction, Eoin Bairéad gave a discussion on the German bombings of ‘Ireland from August 1940 to July 1941’, followed by Col. Donal O’Carroll talking about the transformation of the Army during the Emergency Period and the serious job they had to do.

Joe Miller, a Red Cross historian, talked about the important role that the Irish Red Cross played in World War II. Kevin O’Connor talked about the effect of censorship on historical sources regarding the North Strand Bombings, which went some way towards explaining why is is so difficult to find out facts about the bombings even now.

Dr. Michael Kennedy, of the Royal Irish Academy, discussed ‘The Air Defence of Dublin’ and I was fascinated to learn that there were two 3.7-millimetre anti-aircraft guns set up in Ringsend Park awaiting the attack by the Nazis that night. There had been some sightings two nights earlier from a look-out post on top of Bray Head.

On the night of the bombing the anti aircraft guns in Ringsend Park fired off several rounds, just missing one of the bombers.

Given the heavy casualties and destruction caused on that night, the assault on Ireland’s neutrality was severe, but the Irish Government decided to remain neutral despite the provocation.

Conspiracy theories abound regarding the bombings; did the British deliberately steer the bombers off course with false signals in order to draw Ireland into the war? Or, conversely, was it an attempt by the Germans to get us to declare for the Allies in order to invade and use this country as a bridgehead for an invasion of the UK?

Were the bombings a reprisal for the Dublin Fire Brigade being sent to help in Belfast during earlier raids? Whatever the reason, and it must not be discounted that the raid was simply an unhappy accident, Ireland stayed out of the war.

The conference was very well attended and many survivors of the bombings shared their memories with the speakers in the latter part of the conference. The Lord Mayor of Dublin Cllr.

Emer Costello made an appearance and showed her genuine interest in the subject and offered to promote more seminars similar to this one in Pearse Street Library in the near future.

Pearse Street Library has a collection of photographs taken immediately after the raid available to view. I would recommend having a look at them, as apart from showing the devastation, they also offer glimpses of rarely-seen backstreets of Dublin almost 70 years ago.

Above, right: Summerhill Parade today. The pub on the right, known in 1941 as Mulvey’s, survives from pre-war years, while all the buildings to its left are of much more recent construction.