She survived the World War II bombing of Dublin’s North Strand over 80 years ago — so spirited Agnes Daly isn’t going to let age get in her way.
Dubliner Agnes, 93, is one of the last remaining residents of the inner city to vividly recall the night of terror and destruction that left 28 dead.
She was only a girl when her home streets were rocked by four bombs that left the North Strand in ruins.
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She witnessed Ireland’s own blitzkrieg by German bombers in the early hours of May 31, 1941.
Chatting to the Irish Mirror from her home, she said: “I remember the sky was lit up in all different colours.
“Kathleen, the next door neighbour, was out roaring ‘put the lights out, put the lights out’. We thought there’d be more.
“My sisters Maisie and Nancy and Chrissie and Eileen were older than me.
“They were all out at the door and putting their coats on saying they’re going up to the North Strand. My mammy and daddy were shouting down the stairs ‘come in’.”
At only 12, Agnes didn’t fully realise the danger they were all in.
“I helped Kathleen next door to go around the road warning everybody to put the lights out.
“My father kept shouting ‘Get in, get in out of that – if another one comes down, you’ve no chance.’”
One of the most tragic elements of the attack was that it killed seven members of the one family, the Browns, who lived at 25 North Strand.
Three generations were wiped out when Harry Brown, his wife Mollie, his mother Mary and his small children Maureen, Ann, Edward and Angela died.
“Maisie and all the older ones put their coats on the next morning and ran over onto the North Strand. I didn’t go as I was too young,” Agnes added.
Agnes features prominently in a new book by social historian Kevin C Kearns, In Our Day, which is an oral history of Dublin.
She told Kearns how in that era of devout Catholicism, locals thronged churches the following day to calm their fears.
“In the morning, people all assembled out in the streets, waiting for the churches to open… everyone wanted to go to confession the next day,” she recalled.
Agnes is less than three years younger than the recently departed Queen of England and, unlikely as it is, the two had some things in common.
“I never met the Queen but I played drums for some of her sons at different parades,” says musician Agnes. The Queen loved to dance, just like Agnes. She’s always the first on the dancefloor on Sunday nights at St Vincent’s GAA club in Dublin’s Marino.
She goes there with brothers Joe, 95, Kevin, 86, and sister Margie, 82.
Last Sunday, Agnes closed the club night with a rendition of Ireland’s national anthem Amhran na bhFiann.
She has always loved music and was a drummer with the Emerald Girls Pipe Band, which took her across the world.
She spent years as Drum Sergeant with the pipe band, leading her troupe during St Patrick’s Day parades from New York to Paris. She still has the performer in her and is keen on showing it off.
“I’m not shy – let me sing for you,” she says, before bursting into song in her cosy sitting room.
The Kentucky Waltz and One Day At A Time are two of her favourites, she reveals, adding: “I’ve dozens and dozens of songs, my daddy used to sing all the parodies.”
She was barely 14 when she started working at Cherry & Smallridge box-making factory on Seville Place.
“I came of age – 14 – on a Thursday and started working on the Monday,” says Agnes, one of 10 children, who joined sisters Nancy, Maisie and their dad Joseph at the factory.
She remembers as a teenager seeing longtime Lord Mayor of Dublin Alfie Byrne on the East Wall with the pipe band, and it sparked her interest.
“Me and my friend Maura followed them from East Wall to the big church on O’Connell Street where the band was packing up. I saw all the drummers through the bars downstairs and said ‘I’ll join the band’.”
She also met and married her sweetheart, Liam O’Connor, whose sister Jenny later married Agnes’ brother Kevin.
On their wedding day, Agnes’ pipe band escorted the couple to the church and saw them off on their honeymoon.
“I was never at home. I travelled all over with the band and brought my mammy.
“There was no work then, every factory was closed. My two brothers Kevin and Christopher emigrated and Liam went to Birmingham.
“My sister Eileen, who was over in England, rang and said ‘Liam’s in an awful state without Agnes, send her over to poor Liam’.
“I was heartbroken leaving my band.”
Soon Agnes formed the Phil and Agnes duo with Liam’s brother Phil, a piano accordion player.
“We were known all over and every week all the pubs had the notices with ‘Phil and Agnes By The Fireside’.
Agnes’ stories can be found in In Our Day: An Oral History of Dublin’s Bygone Days, which is out now.
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