Swastikas in Dublin

The Swastika:  A symbol of peace? Well nowadays, as a peace symbol, it’s right up there with burning crucifixes. 

Adopted by the Nazi Party in 1920, it remains the most reviled emblem in the Western World.  To manufacture the swastika in any form in Germany is illegal. This is the reason it is no longer supplied in Second World War German airplane kits (even those made outside Germany) where its presence on the tail fin is essential for historic accuracy.

eBay prohibits the sale of any item displaying the Swastika as it is deemed to “promote hatred” and be “offensive”.  Given the amount of airtime the symbol receives on satellite TV these days, I wonder about the wisdom of the eBay prohibition. The reason for sensitivities surrounding the symbol is self-evident, although it is debatable as to exactly how “offensive” the symbol really is. Do people really switch off in their thousands every time it flashes up on the History Channel? Somehow I doubt it.

The Swastika was originally a Hindu peace symbol. The name derives from the Sanskrit “Svastika” meaning “Auspicious Symbol”. Given its later use this is ironic to say the least.

Up until the 1920s people sent “Good Luck” cards emblazoned with the symbol.

Here's a U.S. postcard from 1907:

Rudyard Kipling ‘s “The Jungle Book” originally had swastikas on the front, the spine and in several illustrations throughout the novel. He insisted that editions after 1920 were “swastika-free”

This is from the front cover of The Jungle Book 1920 edition:

So what, I hear you ask, is the relevance of all this to Little Known Dublin? Well if you look carefully there were, and are, interesting examples of non-Nazi swastika usage in Dublin:

From 1912 to the late 1960s there existed in Dublin a business called the “Swastika Laundry”. The symbol remained in use by the laundry even during the war, providing many propaganda opportunities for the British media. Their swastika-emblazoned vans were in use well into the early 1970s, and their chimney on Shelbourne Road  (a protected structure still standing as part of "The Oval" office block) had a Swastika painted on it when the laundry occupied the site.

I vividly remember when I was a lad in Drimnagh the Swastika Laundry van would round the corner to be greeted by 10-year-old fingers pointed in “Colt 45” fashion, and a chorus of “Bang Bang”. You couldn’t ask for a better prop to give real authenticity to the playground antics of young lads reared on war films like The Dirty Dozen,The Great Escape and Von Ryan’s Express.

Swastikas exist to this day in Dublin as decoration from more innocent times when there was no baggage associated with them.

Leinster Memorial Church (Salvation Army) Eden Quay:

St. Nicholas of Myra Church, Francis Street:

Below the St. Patrick stained glass window.

The design is also incorporated in the ceiling stucco work

 National Museum of Ireland Kildare Street:

The original floor tile design extends right round the room, but is now almost completely obscured by book shelves.

The design is echoed on the glass doors at the entrance to the museum:

I was intending to end this piece here until I was surfing through the TV channels far too late at night,  stopping to look at BBC Northern Ireland. There was a shot of the assembly room and some MLA speaking to the floor.

There, behind her, in plain view was THAT symbol again. I’m not quite sure what era the NI assembly room decoration in question dates from, but it’s too tempting not to paraphrase Mr. Gerry Adams MLA:

The Swastika… It hasn’t gone away, you know!

The Cabbage Garden

INTRODUCTION:

Our first stop on this tour of lesser known Dublin is the “Cabbage Garden”. Following the throngs of tourists to St Patrick’s Cathedral’s side entrance, past the graveyard adjoining the Cathedral, past Marsh’s Library and across Kevin Street you will see the post office on the corner of that street and Cathedral Lane.

 

 

Walk along the lane between the post office and the housing scheme on the right and you will see railings and a gate in the distance.

Through this gate is the “Cabbage Garden”, a little-known and sadly neglected corner of Dublin. Dublin City Council optimistically describes the place as having the following facilities:

• 5-a-side all weather football pitch
• Floral Schemes
• Historical
• Leisure Walks.

Factually correct, but the reality is quite different. A shocking amount of destruction has been wrought on this historic burial ground. 

HISTORY:

There are two versions of how the Cabbage Garden got its name. One suggests that it is a corruption of “Capuchin Garden”. This is unlikely, as this order was established near St. Audoen’s Church some distance away. This discounted theory is perpetuated on the plaque mounted at the front of the housing scheme which states the park was developed “on the site of the disused Capuchin and Huguenot Cemeteries”.

The second, more likely, derivation of the name is that the land was actually used for cabbage-growing. When Oliver Cromwell arrived in Dublin in 1649, stabling his horses in the nave of St Patrick’s Cathedral, he stayed in a house approximately where the Lord Edward public house stands today. The house was demolished in 1812 by the Wide Street Commissioners. He arranged for this ground nearby to be rented from its owner, a Mr. Philip Fernley, so that cabbages could be grown to supply his troops with food. This detail is contained in the Minute Book of the Dean and Chapter of St. Patrick’s. The idea that Cromwell's forces went to the trouble of renting a patch of land from a native landowner is quite bizarre when one considers his actions elsewhere in Ireland.

In 1666 the grounds were acquired for the burial of citizens of the parish of St. Nicholas Without, as the graveyard adjoining the Cathedral could no longer accommodate interments.

In 1681 the French Huguenots approached the Archbishop of Dublin with a view to securing burial rights for the deceased members of their congregation. This was granted in the form of a strip of land at the north of the current park (to the right as one enters)

The Huguenot plot was used for burials until 1858. One of the most famous burials in the Huguenot plot is that of the La Touche family, founders of the bank that later became the Bank of Ireland. The memorial stone is unfortunately missing, but a Dublin Historical Record from 1988 states the location of the family plot as being inside this gate on the north-east corner, in a railed-in-space. The enclosure (now without railings) in the middle-right of the picture above would seem to correspond to this location.

This area is still a burial ground as no remains have ever been removed. 

THE SITE TODAY:

Alas there is an all too obvious parallel between the sorry state of this burial ground today and the state of the Irish banking system, part of which the La Touche family pioneered.

The tombstones, having been removed from their original positions, are now lined up against the Eastern boundary wall and have been extensively vandalised over the years. It is easy to identify new examples of destruction of 18^th and 19^th  Century stonework and carving.

It’s all the more upsetting when you think that these memorials were paid for by families, to mark the final resting-places of their loved ones, back in the days when there was real poverty in the city.  Although the Dublin Corporation made sure to note the burial plots when they moved the memorials in 1938, there is nothing onsite to assist in the location of any of the burial plots. 

The unusual red stone memorial below is only recently destroyed.

This one, to Henry Medcalfe of "The Poddle" from 1818 is mentioned in numerous historical accounts of the Cabbage Garden. How long more will it survive?

"Passengers as you pass by

As you are now so once was I

As I am now so shall you be

Think of God and follow me"

Note the white spirals of fossilised whelk shells in the stone itself.

This stone dates from 1772. Erected by a Mr. Davis, weaver. Note the unusual skull and crossbones motif.

This picture I find particularly moving. Who was buried under this stone? You can just about make out that the inscription once listed the names of his or her children. Who were they? We'll never know. This breakage is very recent.

Given the destruction of this sacred site, the prayer used in the dedication of this burial ground when it opened in 1766 is particularly poignant:

"Accept we beseech Thee the small offering which we this day presumed to dedicate to the honour of Thy Holy Name, preserve it from all human violations and barbarism that the bones of Thy servants which be gathered here may lie quiet and undisturbed.”