An Cosantóir

An Cosantóir March 2019 www.dfmagazine.ie 34 | Volunteers like Michael Rogers also joined at this time and found men like Joe Connolly and James Conway, a former seaman and active republican, already in the brigade. By early 1920 there was a cohort of Volunteers and what would be described later in BMH statements and MPSC documents as 'active sympathisers' now within the DFB. None of these men could have been employed without the knowledge of the Chief Officer who would have a say in the employment of any fireman at the period. In their various Bureau of Military History and Military Service Pension applications men like Conway and Smart tell of an intelligence and logistics role played by members in the DFB when material could be moved about the city to arms dumps and safe houses under the guise of ambulance work in particular. DFB members were often trusted with sensi- tive information by members of the police and military who assumed that all who wore a uniform held similar views to their own. Within the job the sympathy of the overwhelming majority was with the independence movement and no indi- cation was ever given to the police or military of the militant role being played by the city firefighters. To illustrate the importance of the DFB men's role in the fight for freedom we can look at some examples; On 26th January 1920 a major fire broke out in the township of Rathmines at the Catholic church on Rathmines Road. The Corporation fire brigade was asked to assist and as was practice on arrival Captain Myers took control of the fire with the DFB crews. Myers was approached by local Volunteer officers who told him that the vaults of the church contained arms and ammunition as the sacristan of the church was also the local units quartermaster. Myers arranged with the Volunteers and his men to have the remaining arms and am- munition removed and no mention was made of the incident in any report to the police or otherwise. One local Volunteer officer later described Myers as "a very fine fellow and from the national point of view, thoroughly sound and reliable in every way." Myers 'soundness on the national question' and the at- titude of those under his command was again demonstrated on 19th July 1920 when an IRA unit raided Kingsbridge station, disarming a British Army guard and capturing nine rifles and a revolver before setting fire to carriages of military stores held up in the station due to industrial action by railwaymen who refused to transport British military cargo. The action was intended as a propaganda coup and none of the British soldiers were injured. The carriages containing the military stores were set alight. When the alarm was raised and the fire brigade arrived Myers ordered that no action be taken. He would state in his annual report that he had taken no action as the stores were part of an industrial dispute which had caused the dismissal of 50 men and that the mili- tary and railway staff were standing idly by although they had fire appliances of their own. He stated the cause of the fire to be "incendiaries". In a photo published in the Chicago Sunday Tribune, the DFB crew are seen resting against their fire engine as the carriages of military equipment burns. The caption for the photo states 'Dublin firemen grin as military stores burn'. Quite how the Chicago Tribune photographer knew to be at Kingsbridge that day was not explained. In a later British Army report on the incident, it was noted that the DFB had been present but had taken no action. It implied that the firemen had been intimidated but missed the obvi- Police and auxiliaries taking wounded to hospital after attack on Custom House, Dublin. (The fireman facing the camera is Tom Kavanagh). Photo: National Library of Ireland/W. D. Hogan/NLI Ref _HOGW_115

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