DISTURBANCES IN HOWTH

Following report by O'Brien

Background

The Howth Peninsula Heritage Society, a respectable and long-established group in Howth, had invited a certain P. Ó Duibhir, an itinerant rabble rouser orator of indeterminate qualifications, to give a talk on the cartoons of one Gordon Brewster, a professional artist and cartoonist who, many years ago, had apparently died in a commercial premises managed by the parents of the aforementioned orator.

Had they been consulted in advance, the Gárdaí would have cautioned against inviting such an individual into a private club.

The Event

The Orator

Ó Duibhir arrived promptly enough and was of reasonably respectable appearance (see Photo "The Orator").

Intro Shot 2

Having tried to ingratiate himself with some of the women in the audience, he then set up his stall (see Photo "Intro Shot 2")

Into His Stride

and embarked upon a comprehensive and, it must be said, interesting exposition on the life and works of Gordon Brewster (see Photo "Into His Stride").

Up to this point, the audience was generally quiet and attentive, although there was a certain amount of ominous shuffling of feet and muttering from the cheap seats in the back row.

It was when Ó Duibhir started to comment in detail on various Brewster cartoons that the trouble began. Many of these cartoons were, in the opinion of this Member, scurrilous and of low quality, in that they insulted many eminent personages and commented in a vulgar manner on the political and social events of the time.

The First Heckler

At this point the audience, especially those in the cheap back row seats, was getting restive. Feet were stamped, there were catcalls, and heckling began (see Photo "The First Heckler").

The Second Heckler

The organisers, commendably, tried to shut off the Orator's microphone but were fought off by Ó Duibhir, who continued to shout down the growing volume of heckling (see Photo "The Second Heckler").

Matters came to a crisis point when Ó Duibhir exhibited a cartoon depicting Ernest Blythe in the act of removing a shilling from the Old Age Pension.

This enraged the audience and mayhem ensued. Chairs and bottles were thrown and a scuffle involving fisticuffs broke out in the back-row cheap seats. Several ladies fainted.

The Gárdaí, Fire Brigade and ambulances were called and arrived promptly.

A Last Effort To Restore Order

To his credit and in mitigation of any charges that may be brought when he is apprehended, Ó Duibhir made a final, desperate, effort to quell the disturbance (see Photo " A Last Effort To Restore Order"), before fleeing the scene through an open window.

Sequel and Lines of Enquiry

Seven people were taken to hospital and eleven others were treated at the scene. Most of their injuries are not life-threatening. The premises was burnt to the ground.

Ó Duibhir is still at large. The public are warned not to approach him. He may be being assisted and hidden by one Finbarr Crowley, a local ne'er-do-well who is also being sought.

An individual in a blue patterned hoodie who was seen running from the premises is also being sought, although it is believed that this person may already have left the jurisdiction.

(signed) O'Brien.

Gordon Brewster

With thanks to the National Library of Ireland

With the approach of Bloomsday on Monday next (16/6/2014) I am reminded of Gordon Brewster, who died in my mother's shop on that day in 1946.

I have blogged on the excellent NLI blog about his wonderful cartoons and have set out on my webpage some of his family story based around his gravestone in Kilbarrack cemetery.

I hope to be doing a talk in the National Library in November, based mainly on an introduction to, and an analysis of, his cartoons between 1922 and 1932. This is the period covered by the collection recently acquired by the NLI. It is a very interesting period in the history of the nation, spanning a decade which saw the formation and consolidation of the new state. While the cartoons take a poke at the Irish politicians of the day, mainly those in government, they also deal extensively with British politics and in some cases beyond that. There are quite a few references to Gandhi, for example.

One of the things that distinguishes Brewster from many of the other cartoonists of his day is that he was an actual artist and he exhibited in the Royal Hibernian Academy. He also became art editor at Independent newspapers.

I had the good fortune to meet his daughter, Dolores, recently. She is a delightful lady, now in her eighties. She is not only full of fun but she has a pile of stories about her father, whom she adored.

The wider family is also of interest. Gordon's father was secretary and then MD of Independent Newspapers and his brother was in charge of the Cork office of that company.

His other brother Richard was killed on the Somme towards the end of WWI and I gather that neither Gordon nor his father ever got over the loss.

Richard Gardiner Brewster, as you will see at the link above, is commemorated on the family gravestone in Kilbarrack though his remains were never recovered from the battlefield. His name also figures on the Pozières Memorial near where he died. But the most dramatic memorial is in St. George's (former) church in Dublin's Hardwicke Place. It is on a panel in a stained glass window devoted to those who fell in WWI. The former church is currently up for letting.

With thanks to Eugene O'Connor

Our Oil under Your Land?

Uncle Sam's Mexican Policy
by Gordon Brewster, 29 January 1927
By kind permission of the National Library of Ireland

This is one of my favourite Brewster cartoons because it is timeless. It specifically refers to the USA response to Mexico effectively nationalising its own oil resources, many of which were being exploited by US oil companies at the time.

It reminded me, in my own time, of the UK/France/Israel response to Nasser's nationalisation of the Suez Canal, and, more recently of the invasion of Iraq, where the US administraion resented its oil happening to be located beneath someone else's land.

Much of the Brewster collection of cartoons in the National Library of Ireland is timeless and that which is not is usually a very perceptive take on a contemporary event. And they are all beautifully drawn.

My own interest in Brewster dates from 1946 when Gordon died in my mother's shop in Howth.