The effect of war-time censorship on historical sources regarding the North Strand Bombing in 1941. A talk by Kevin O'Connor at the North Strand Bombing and the Emergency in Ireland seminar held at Dublin City Library & Archive on Saturday, 29th May 2010. https://northstrandbombing.ie/

1. ‘The effect of war-time
censorship on
historical sources
regarding the North
Strand Bombing in
1941’
Kevin O’Connor

2. ‘German bombings of North
Strand, Dublin, 31st May
1941: a community at war.’
North Strand Road numbers 17 to 22, June 4th 1941

3. Irish Times Irish Press

4. Sources
Dowling, N., O’Reilly, A. (eds.) Mud Island: A History of Ballybough. Dublin, c. 2003.
Ferriter, Diarmaid. The Transformation of Ireland 1900-2000. London, 2005.
Fisk, Robert. In Time of War: Ireland, Ulster and the Price of Neutrality, 1939-1945.
London, 1983.
Geraghty, T., Whitehead, T. The Dublin Fire Brigade. Dublin, 2004.
Girvan, D., Roberts, G., Ireland in the Second World War. Dublin, 2000.
Keogh, D. Twentieth-century Ireland: Revolution and State Building, Revised ed. London,
2005.
Keogh, D. and O'Driscoll, M., Ireland in World War Two-Neutrality and Survival. Dublin,
2004.
Lee, JJ, Ireland 1912-1985 Politics and Society. Cambridge, 1989.
Lyons, FSL, Ireland Since the Famine. London, 1971
Websites (primary and secondary sources):
University of Limerick’s Skynet http://www.csn.ul.ie
Department of Defence http://www.defence.ie
Dublin City Council http://www.dublincity.ie
Dail Debates http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/en.toc.dail.html
Irish Auxiliary Fire Service http://www.irishfireservices.com/pages/afs.htm

5. Primary Sources
Daughters of Charity, 150 Years of Service 1857-2007, Staff and Volunteers
Celebrating 150 Years of service in St. Vincent's, North William Street, Dublin
1. Dublin, 2007
Dublin, Military Archives.
Greene, Stephen, St Agatha’s Church, North William Street, 75 Years Old,
Anniversary Commemorative Booklet. Dublin, c.1983
Interviews with survivors.
Newspaper archives.
North Inner-City Folklore Project, Rushe, Michael (ed.) Living in the City. Dublin
(no date of publication c.1990).
North Inner-City Folklore Project, Rushe, Michael (ed.) Reminiscenses North of
the Liffey. Dublin, 1992.

6. Provincial newspapers
7th June 1941
Anglo-Celt, page 1: ‘Dublin’s Night of Horror’
Meath Chronicle headlines:
‘Confirmation at Kells’ and ‘Navan
Confirmation Ceremony’
Leitrim Observer, page 3: Same coverage as
Irish Independent. However, on page 2:
‘Donkey Sold, Then Stolen and Sold Again’, and
the ‘North Leitrim GAA Fixtures’

7. Interviews with survivors
How did the authorities and/or
government respond to the tragedy?
‘OK, I suppose’
‘I don’t know really’
‘We didn’t hear anything’

8. Why so few sources of
substance?
(a) The North Strand was part of the poorest district in Ireland
- the north inner-city of Dublin
(b) Fear of German retribution if condemnation was too loud
(c) People had enough problems in an Ireland that was
poverty-stricken
(d) Lack of information technology that we have today
(e) Were the newspapers simply not overly interested?

9. War-time Censorship
What is the significance of this
Dáil statement: Dáil Éireann -
Volume 83 - 05 June, 1941?
An Ceann Comhairle: The Taoiseach desires, by leave of the House, to make a brief statement.
The Taoiseach Eamon de Valera 1584
The Taoiseach: Members of the Dáil desire to be directly associated with the expression of sympathy
already tendered by the Government on behalf of the nation to the great number of [1584] our citizens who
have been so cruelly bereaved by the recent bombing. Although a complete survey has not yet been
possible, the latest report which I have received is that 27 persons were killed outright or subsequently died;
45 were wounded or received other serious bodily injury and are still in hospital; 25 houses were
completely destroyed and 300 so damaged as to be unfit for habitation, leaving many hundreds of our
people homeless. It has been for all our citizens an occasion of profound sorrow in which the members of
this House have fully shared. (Members rose in their places.) The Dáil will also desire to be associated with
the expression of sincere thanks which has gone out from the Government and from our whole community
to the several voluntary organisations the devoted exertions of whose members helped to confine the extent
of the disaster and have mitigated the sufferings of those affected by it. As I have already informed the
The Dáil will not
public, a protest has been made to the German Government.
expect me, at the moment, to say more on this head.

10. Neutrality
Pragmatic – we would have been overrun - Patrick Kavanagh
said our defence forces would be hard put to defend a field of
potatoes against an invasion of crows’
Political – a waiting game – alienate friends maybe but make
no seriously threatening enemies – Fianna Fail rhetoric upheld
Symbolic – the majority of Irish people favoured neutrality
because it was another display of independence from the auld
enemy
Robert Fisk referred to emergency
censorship as ‘neutrality’s backbone’

11. Frank Aiken - Minister for the Co-
ordination of Defensive Measures -
1939-1945
Former Commander of the
Irish Republican Army
Elected to every Dáil Eireann from
1923 to 1973
Minister for Defence 1932-39
Minister for Co-ordination of
Defensive Measures 1939-45

12. Was there much
emergency censorship?
Emergency Powers Act 1939 gave the
government censorship carte blanche.
Other neutral countries like Switzerland
and Sweden had less stringent censorship
Books, pamphlets, leaflets, board games,
posters, records, plays and films all fell foul
of the emergency censorship

13. Censorship which most
affected historical research
Postal and Telegraph censorship
Black list – those under suspicion
White list – those whose post was exempt from censorship
Watching list – those under temporary suspicion
Press censorship
The Directions to the Press , Emergency Powers (No.
5) Order, 1939 covered pages of items which were not
allowed to be written about. Weather, finances (of the
State), Civil Service, maps, pictures, military
commentary of every description and so on.
Even reporting on censorship was censored, as was
reportage of the Directions above !

14. Effect of censorship on research
Dermot Keogh (2005) comments: the ‘..strict wartime censorship regime in
Ireland kept many members of the public in a state of near ignorance about
what was going on in continental Europe.’
‘..reports of football matches, to weather conditions and the state of the pitch
were removed to deprive Berlin or London of such vital information.’
Dowling and O’Reilly (2002) ‘Censorship laws were being stringently
enforced, so speculation as to the source of the bombs was not open to
public debate, through the medium of the newspapers at any rate. The
newspapers were therefore filled with minute details of the bombings,
casualties, procedures in place to deal with the crisis and funeral
arrangements, leaving behind a wealth of social history.’
The Irish Times (1941) on the day after the bombing carried pictures of the
destruction caused, but on the same page also reported how thousands of
people travelled to Baldoyle for the Bank Holiday Races.

15. Irish Times May 1945

16. The final death toll?
Ferriter (2005) states that '..the bombing of Dublin's North Strand,
in which 43 people were killed, was as close as Ireland got to the
Blitz...'
Dublin City Council Archives states that there were ‘..34 dead and
90 injured..’
Dowling and O’Reilly (2002) suggest a figure of '..39 dead and
hundreds more injured.'
A Department of Defence Civil Defence School report (1941)
states ‘twenty-eight persons were killed, forty-five were seriously
injured, while some hundreds suffered minor injuries, some of
whom were hospital cases.’
Greene (1983) states that ‘..number of people dead rose from 18
to 37, but I am reliably informed that the exact number who
perished was never finalized.’

17. Conclusion
Civilian’s viewpoint - neutrality and censorship
- less than 100 Irish civilians died in the 26 counties as a
direct result of World War II
- relationship with Britain soon recovered to being even
better than it was before the war
Historian’s viewpoint
- Successful censorship, by definition, means a restriction of a
historian’s life-blood – sources. Nevertheless, many stories
were still uncovered and many heroes were found amongst the
ARP, LSF, LDF, Fire Brigade, Daughters of Charity, Irish
Red Cross, St. John Ambulance and many others. If ever there