Discovery of DMP files from 1913 not surprising

The recent discovery of the DMP files for the 1913 Lock-out is not surprising.

Back in the 1940/50s as a school boy visiting Dublin, a friend of my uncles used to take me to The Stadium to boxing matches — himself no mean performer. He was then a Garda sergeant. He told me of his early duties while stationed in Rathmines to service the part-time station in Terenure.

One day (in the late 1930s), to pass time, he opened a large metal cabinet and found old duty books going back to the 1800s. In one he found details of the arrest of his grandfather — a blacksmith — being drunk and disorderly. It took six constables to restrain him. Those books were later sent to the waste paper drive!

A later addition to that genre of stories was some 30/40 years later, a customer to my business who worked in the OS office in Phoenix Park told me of a renovation job in their office when documents were cleared with a JCB. On another occasion, when living in the UK in the 1960s, contacting HMSO (in the old Cornwall House in Southwark) looking for some Irish Blue books (should have been returned to London after the Treaty) to be met with the response “Oh, we offered our stock to your Stationary Office during the war — to avoid the Blitz — but were told the dump them”. Since when, I have often, quietly, thanked them, as the scarcity value has been quite rewarding.

Sic transit, as well as Gloria Mundi, resources for research.

Cal Hyland

4 Closheen Lane

Rosscarbery

West Cork