大象传媒

This story was gathered and submitted to the WW2 peoples war by Oliver Murphy

Vincent Ignatius Coyle
Manager of a potash factory, Berlin
Died 1943

Vincent Coyle was born on 20 July 1900, son of Mr and Mrs James V Coyle of Glenburn, Castle Avenue, Clontarf. After spending his early years at the little preparatory school of the Sisters of the Holy Faith in Clontarf, he enrolled in Belvedere College, Dublin, on 4 September 1911. He was often called 鈥榁in鈥�. He received much of his boyhood education at Belvedere before spending a brief period in Mungret. He completed his secondary education in Clongowes. According to his obituary in The Clongownian (1944), 鈥榟e was an all-round athlete, and shone at Rugby, Swimming and Lawn-Tennis.鈥� In 1917 he entered the University College Dublin, where he obtained an M Sc with honours in the shortest possible time.

He was a member of the Belvedere Union and in 1921 attended the Union dinner at which the Dr Edward Byrne was inaugurated as President of the Belvedere Union. Dr Byrne was, at this time, about to take up his new appointment as Archbishop of Dublin.

After spending some time in the University on research work, Vincent Coyle joined the United Potash Syndicate in Berlin in 1923, where he rapidly progressed to the position of Managing Director. He married and had two children, Frank and Gr谩inne.

The eminent Belvederian surgeon Bob O鈥機onnell, mentions in the 1935 Belvederian that, while on a medical scholarship in Berlin, he met Vincent Coyle, whom he described as a staunch Old Belvederian and Managing Director of Deutsches Syndikat, who loved to reminisce with him on the original Old Belvedere RFC and on the 鈥済ood old times鈥�.

During the war, Vincent Coyle remained at his post, having sent his family to Regensburg for safety.

One evening in 1943, on his way to visit friends in Berlin, air raid sirens sounded, and shortly afterwards an apartment building, near where he was walking, was hit. He dashed into the building to help the residents and escorted some of them outside to relative safety.

When he ran into the building again to help evacuate more of those inside, the structure collapsed and he was killed. As far as is known he is buried in Berlin.

After his death, his family contacted the Irish Charge D鈥橝ffaires in Berlin to arrange for separate Irish passports for each member to enable them to return to Ireland. On calling to the building occupied by the Irish Representative, they discovered it had been badly bomb-damaged and that many files were missing, including theirs. Fortunately, a Consular Official, who was overworked, had taken some files home with him to update them and the Coyle family file was one of them.

Passports were duly issued and the family then had to go to the German authorities to obtain stamped Safe Conduct Passes to enable them to travel by train to occupied Paris. When they arrived at Paris, they had nowhere to stay. Their knowledge of a city that suspected all foreigners was scant, and the populace were in no mood to entertain strangers. Good fortune again intervened through their meeting a kind gentleman, to whom they explained their plight, and who arranged to have them accommodated in a nearby Convent.

The next stage of their journey was to the Spanish frontier by train, carrying their Safe Conduct Passes suitably endorsed by the German Authorities in Paris.
They showed their Irish Passports to the Spanish Officials who gave them clearance to the Portuguese frontier, where again, on presenting their passports, they were permitted to go to Lisbon to make contact with the Irish Representative there.

Arrangements were put in hand for them to travel across the Bay of Biscay and English Channel (which were controlled by U-boats and the Luftwaffe) to London, where they arrived safely. They were subjects of great interest to the British authorities.

After comprehensive interrogation, they were released through the influence of Vincent Coyle鈥檚 brother, a resident in London, who vouched for their bona fides and arranged for them to travel by train and mailboat to Dun Laoghaire via Holyhead.
They were able to set up home in Dublin where Vincent鈥檚 widow, Evelyn secured a teaching appointment with the VEC and the children, Gr谩inne and Frank continued their education. Frank obtained a place at Belvedere, through the good offices of Fr. Rupert Coyle S.J., Prefect of Studies in Belvedere, who was Vincent鈥檚 younger brother.

After leaving Belvedere, Frank qualified in engineering at UCD in 1954 and, due to his qualifications as an engineer and his fluent German, was employed by Siemens Ireland with whom he remained to his retirement in 1994. He died on 27 November 2000, being pre-deceased by his second wife Anne two months earlier. He had married Anne after the death of his first wife, Mona..

Frank鈥檚 sister Gr谩inne married and at time of writing is alive, well and happily living with her husband in Vancouver.

We would like to thank the Coyle family for their help in the writing of this history

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