DUBLIN SINCE 1922

Tim Carey
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Apparently nobody had ever done it before. A diary type history of Dublin city since Independence.

The Eureka moment was when Tim Carey found himself telling a pair of tourists, who were departing Merrion Row for Co. Clare, that they were heading for the "real Ireland". He didn't really believe that himself but it was the sort of thing people said and he found himself saying it.

That got him thinking about the place of Dublin in the real Ireland and this eventually led to him writing "Dublin since 1922", a book about the modern city which would capture its evolution as a capital, its increasing importance, its characteristics and the traits that define it.

And here we were, in the magnificent surroundings of Dublin's City Hall, on the floor of what had been the old stock exchange, but tonight people were trading compliments instead of stocks and shares.

The book is beautifully produced and well worthy of the exalted surroundings of its launch. I clearly haven't had time to read it but have dipped in and it is a great read. Based mainly on published sources and presented in diary format with a whack of relevant illustrations, it will not only introduce the stranger to the modern capital but will evoke nostalgia in the native reader.

My first reaction looking at some of it was "Jesus, was that so long ago? It feels like just yesterday". And I have enough years behind me to react in this way to roughly three quarters of the book, if you start with my birth, which incidentally doesn't appear to have made it into the final text. I nearly had a photo in the book but that is another story.

Ciara Considine

For me, Hachette was a French publishing house that did dictionaries and other Frenchy stuff. But there is now Hachette Ireland and the company, in one form or another, has been around since 2002. Their list of authors is extensive and you will recognise many of them.

The launch was introduced by Ciara Considine, the book's editor at Hachette. From all the compliments bandied about on the night, there seems to be wide recognition of a job well done.

She first introduced Dublin's current Lord Mayor, Labour Councillor Brendan Carr, who is, of course, our landlord for the night.

Brendan Carr

Brendan entertained us with slices of Dublin life and was enthusiastic in his praise of Tim's book which he was launching.

Joseph O'Connor

The guest speaker was Joseph O'Connor, and if you don't know who he is try here, and pick up when you come back half an hour later. Joseph had missed an occasion in Limerick to be here and this alone merited a round of applause from the audience. He entertained us with a witty and literary speech which everyone afterwards said they hoped would be published.

Tim Carey

Tim himself then took the floor, addressing an audience that included many of his own family. He spoke along the lines of the introductory paragraphs to this post and thanked the many people who had laboured hard to produce the final product.

Tim is the heritage officer with Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council and he has been very proactive in this role both promoting and facilitating a wide range of heritage projects in the county.

Tim Carey

After the launch he was running the risk of repetitive strain injury as he signed copies of the book for an ever growing queue of people. Much, I am sure, to the frustration of those towards the end of the queue he was not only signing the books but was chatting at length to the supplicants.

It's one thing to get the author to sign your copy of the book, but the real aficionados then seek out the guest speaker as well. I have a copy of Tim's "Hanged for Murder" signed by the State Pathologist, and of "Grave Matters" (not Tim's) signed by the recently retired Dublin Coroner.

Joseph O'Connor

So I made straight for Joseph O'Connor. At first, he modestly claimed he had nothing to do with the book, but he mellowed when I suggested that his guest speech was an integral part of the process.

I then probably (mildly) embarrassed him by reminding him that he had introduced me to the biggest Mickey in the world in "The Secret World of the Irish Male" and that I still smiled every time I thought of it. [In fact, I have just now reread that piece from the book and still find it convulsive.]

He muttered that this thing was still following him around the place. Perhaps if I had given more thought to his prodigious literary output, to which I have linked above, I would not have alluded to this trivial matter.

I think all may have been forgiven, however, when it turned out that we were both Ballybrackers of a sort.

He is currently Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Limerick (since 2014) and he seems to be enjoying this enormously.

On this positive and happy note we parted.

De Buke

The Dalkey Islands

You mean Dalkey Island, don't you?

Well I do, because I'm only interested in the military installations, the Martello Tower and the Battery. But the conservation plan goes beyond this narrow interest to include flora and fauna and more besides. And it covers more than Dalkey Island itself. The islands also include Lamb Island and Maiden's Rock, but not The Muglins.

The Conservation Plan was launched in Dalkey Castle Heritage Centre on 3/6/2014.

Introductory remarks were from Tim Carey, DLR Heritage Officer, who outlined the complexity of the islands' environment and complimented the broadly based and interdisciplinary committee which had drawn up the plan in a spirit of benevolent cooperation.

Tim has been actively overseeing the county's heritage for a good while now. He has been impressed by, and very supportive of, restored Martello Tower No.7, much of the research behind which made a substantial contribution to the Council's excellent exhibition on Dublin's Martellos in DLR County Hall in 2011 and to the resulting book.

Tim has a background in the prison service and recently published a book on those hanged by the Irish State since its foundation.

The actual launch was done by the outgoing Cathaoirleach of the Council, Carrie Smyth, in what was one of her last official functions. Carrie paid tribute to all those involved in drawing up the plan, including the many members of County Council staff. She represents the Ballybrack Ward and has been re-elected to the new (2014) Council.

She is seen here with Niall O'Donoghue, whose restored Martello Tower in Killiney she has yet to visit. Niall reassures her that she will be just as welcome after returning her chain of office.

This is Jason Bolton who provided the Council with conservation advice and produced the text of the current plan.

Jason has been associated with the DLR Martello Project since he was commissioned to research the Martello background for the Council. His report was published by Fingal County Council in 2008 and includes much of the material originally researched by Niall O'Donoghue for the restoration of Martello Tower No.7. A major contribution of his report was to draw the Council's attention to the remains of Battery No.5 on the Shanganagh Cliffs, which the Council had lost sight of over the years.

I was pleased to see this site restored to its rightful place in the public sector consciousness. The site was always known locally as "The Battery". I had played there as a child in the 1950s and was fully aware of its significance since the 1970s when I was researching the local history of Killiney Bay.

County Councils seem prone to losing things. Battery No.5 apart, Jason's research project, originally published online by Fingal County Council, now seems to have done a runner and there is no explanation or redirection at the original link. Netiquette how are you.

Anyway, what is the Dalkey Islands Conservation Plan 2014-2024 going to do for the Napoleonic remains on Dalkey Island. Well, as far as these military installations are concerned, the plan is for DLR, OPW and Dept. of Heritage to repair, conserve, make safe, and ensure access to the Martello Tower and the Battery.

You can visit these by proxy through my report on a visit there in July 2012.

Hanged for Murder

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There were 29 people hanged by the Irish State for (non-political) murders during the period when capital punishment was practiced (1923-1954). And Tim Carey, currently the Heritage Officer for Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, has written a book about them, all of them.

My contact with Tim was through his involvement with Dublin's Martello Towers, and in particular No. 7 in Killiney Bay. What, I wondered, was he doing writing a book about murders. Has he not got enough on his plate.

Turned out he was no stranger to prison, having worked in Mountjoy and already written a book about it and another one about the State's hangings for political murders.

So I got an invite to the book launch in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Hall. Launches are always interesting, as much for the people you meet at them as for the launch itself.

This one, however, turned out to be quite spectacular, at least as far as I was concerned. It was clearly stated on the classy invite that came in my letter box a while back, but it didn't really register with me.

Tim had got the State Pathologist, Marie Cassidy, to launch his book. How appropriate and what a coup. Apparently he just wrote to her, enclosing a copy of the book; she was hooked and agreed to launch it.

State Pathologist, Marie Cassidy, launching the book

It was clear from what she said, that she found it a gripping read. I was thinking to myself that the role of pathologist was really redundant in the case of those hanged as the cause of death was quite clearly known. But then there were the victims. And always the mystery to be solved, and it was clearly this aspect that attracted her. She commented that a lot of people would find old mysteries boring or irrelevant and be more interested in the present, whereas solving the mystery is the pathologist's life blood (after a manner of speaking) and when you have that cast of mind, a mystery is a mystery irrespective of its age.

Marie is also Professor of Forensic Medicine at Surgeons and at TCD, and this adds huge variety to her professional life on top of that as State Pathologist. She is not only dealing with the dead, but sometimes the very dead like ancient bog bodies from the midlands. So the mystery to be solved has an appeal and a fascination for her.

Tim Carey's few words

Tim gave us a bit of his own background and told us how the book had come about. The guts of it were in work he did for a TG4 series on the subject a while back but there was still a lot of blood, sweat and tears to go into getting the book itself into shape.

The longest entry in the book is the Harry Gleeson case (Tipperary - 1941). Many believe that Harry was innocent and there is a current campaign to prove this. Many of the campaigners had come up specially from Tipperary to attend the book launch. And from reading the book it is clear that Tim's sympathies lie with them.

Marie Cassidy signing copies of Tim's book

I'm not sure why, but I was surprised to see Marie Cassidy acceding to requests to sign copies of the book. Needless to say I took advantage and now have a copy signed by the author and the State Pathologist.

I actually have another interest in the subject matter, but my murderer cheated the hangman. He had brutally murdered his bitch of a mother with a hatchet and disposed of her body in the sea off Shankill. His daddy, who was a medical consultant, organised some medical opinion for the trial stating that he was insane and that was how the verdict turned out, "Guilty but Insane". So he spent a, not too taxing, 14 years in Dundrum Criminal Asylum and, because he was not found simply guilty, he could still inherit the mother's estate, which helped to finance his European tour on his release. He was as sane as I am, though that may not be saying much. And my interest? He was born in the same house as I was but some 18 years earlier.

I also met an Irishman with a Polish name whose people, some of them, hail from Kiltimagh.

Small world.