The Carriglea School Band was much in demand in Kingstown - then the gateway to Ireland from Britain.
As a member of the band George was a witness to some of the major events of these pre-revolutionary days.
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| King George arriving at Kingstown (Dun Laoghaire) in 1911 NLI |
According to the Dublin Daily Express of 13 June 1891 a residence at Carriglea Park, Monkstown was to be offered for sale. It would appear that the owner Mr Garrett Byrne, a Home Rule MP for West Wicklow had been declared bankrupt and in order to return to solvency he would have to dispose of his numerous properties.
In 1893 the property was purchased by the Congregation of the Christian Brothers of Ireland to be used as Industrial School for boys - a 'second Artane' for the south side of Dublin.
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| Daily Nation 27 Aug 1898 |
By 1898 we find the band playing at the Kingstown Regatta and later that year at the Excelsior Grand Bazaar which took place at the Rotunda in Dublin City.
Soon they were performing regularly, giving annual concerts in the Pavilion Theatre, in the school concert hall and the school grounds but also playing at many local venues, Blackrock Park, the East Pier, the People's Park, Sandycove Seafront and numerous fates and garden parties. Some of these concerts explicitly advertised that: 'The proceeds will be devoted to clearing off the debt on Carriglea.'
In July 1911 King George V paid a visit to Ireland. Naturally he came and left via Kingstown, equally naturally the Carriglea Band was there on each occasionand of course George was a member of the band.
The Daily Express reported that a special section of the stand 'sheltered from the torrid rays of the sun' was set aside
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| The Royal party in the skiff. NLI |
We wonder if it was the boys or one of the military bands who played 'God save the King'. The King promised that he would return soon and the royal party were pushed off in the landing skiff to the strains of the Carriglea boys singing 'Forward Gaily' Together'. This was the last entertainment that a British monarch was to receive in Ireland until the visit of Queen Elizabeth II exactly 100 years later.
Within a month the boys were involved in a controversial and overtly political incident at the bandstand on the nearby East Pier. According to a letter to the Daily Express from Major Willoughby Forth, a member of Kingstown Urban District Council, the Carriglea Band, which
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| Daily Express |
Major Forth mentions that when the Loyalists in the crowd attempted to sing the National Anthem the band played 'A Nation Once Again' once again to 'emphasise the offence'. This led to 'conflict and fighting on the pier and disturbances and rioting in the streets of Kingstown'.
Youtube video - Carraiglea Boys Performances, Nationalistic and non Nationalistic
David Quin has been working hard on the production of 7 animated collages, featuring stopmotion, CGI, documents and interviews.
David Quin has been working hard on the production of 7 animated collages, featuring stopmotion, CGI, documents and interviews.
You can visit David’s blog here: http://quindpdp.blogspot.ie/
Less than a year later George was present with the band playing 'musical selections' at the
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| Redmond as Hypocrite, Irish Citizen, 15 March 1913 |
A small chartered sailing boat was cruising around the harbour in which four suffragists - led by Mrs Finnegan - with red parasols on which were emblazoned the words 'Votes for Women' and shouting through a megaphone. However, this 'Suffragette Ruffianism' came to nothing according to the Daily Express as when the steamer Leinster entered the harbour the sailing boat had been blown over to the East Pier while the ship docked on the west side of the Carlisle Pier and they could not be heard.
On disembarkation, Mrs Asquith was presented with a bouquet of flowers while the Carriglea band played 'Come Back to Erin'. There to meet Asquith were Birrell, the Chief Secretary for Ireland, and MPs Redmond, Devlin and Dillon. The coming years would not be kind to any of them
Youtube video - The Pavilion Performances - from Irish Times reviews January 1914
David Quin has been working hard on the production of 7 animated collages, featuring stopmotion, CGI, documents and interviews.
You can visit David’s blog here: http://quindpdp.blogspot.ie/
Four years later in 1916 Asquith would land at the same spot from the RMS Ulster - the same ship which had carried the Sherwood Foresters to help quell the Easter Rising - but this time there would be no flowers.
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| Asquith arriving at Kingstown on the RMS Ulster Daily Sketch, 18 May 1916 Digitisation: University of Pretoria http://repository.up.ac.za/handle/2263/77 |
George would be just a few weeks away from his
18th Birthday - and enlistment in the Dublins -
The Royal Dublin Fusiliers
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