大象传媒

This story is taken from an interview with Michael Karney and Mick Synnott at the Dublin WW2 Commemoration, and has been added to the site with their permission. The authors fully understand the site's terms and conditions. The interviewer was David Reid, and the transcription was by Bruce Logan.
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Mick Synnott
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I was in the RAF, Royal Air Force. I joined up 1947, and I served to 1976.
As young man I grew up in caper St in Dublin, and we moved out to Crumlin. About 38 or something like that, moved out to crumlin. I was there until 1947, then I moved away. I came back in 1991, back to home here.

[Can you remember VE Day?]

Michael Karney
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I鈥檒l tell you 3 things I remember about the war. I was in O鈥機onnell Street when the fellow selling the papers run down, 鈥淲ar declared鈥�. The next thing I remember about ww2 was that 鈥淕ordon cheats the gallows鈥� 鈥� headlines in the daily papers, evening papers, in 1947. In between, my uncle had been killed preparing for Normandy. He didn鈥檛 get to Normandy. He was killed in a training operation. But I remember everything because I was gearing up for the army. My father was in the army at the time, and I was following on. My brother, other brother, went into the RAF, and my young brother followed me into the Irish fusiliers. So I remember the war starting. And I remember it finishing. Everybody put the flags out, and if there was a death they put a little black flag on the door of those who were killed nearer the end of the war. Dublin went ablaze. And we were bombed twice during the war. I bet you didn鈥檛 know that. Around up where I live, of Stephen鈥檚 green, south circular road was bombed. And my sister鈥檚 family that she married into, at the 5 Lambs down in Eamon St, they were bombed. The house.

[was the German bombing of Dublin deliberate?]

Mick Synnott
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They reckon 鈥� some say it was deliberate, some say it was accidental. Again, you鈥檙e talking about the south sector and there was a big Jewish community there. A big Jewish community, and they were bombed. The synagogue was apparently bombed and damaged. When they were sorting the place out after the bombing, they found no end of loot, tea and so on. Because tea was rationed in them days, very much so. And they found all this tea in the synagogue. Apparently the jews were holding it up, and it was sold apparently on the black market. That鈥檚 how it was in them days. And again, there was an awful lot of anti-jewish policy in Dublin in them days.

Michael Karney
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But Eamon St station was bombed, because they were going up from Eamon St Station in their thousands. A lot of them deserted the irish army to join up. And so, what he鈥檚 saying is there was 2 reasons. And we all believed the 2 reasons. First of all the Jews 鈥� that was deliberate. And Eamon Street station was deliberate, to stop they flow of Irishmen joining up. We all believed that.

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