On the night of 31 May, 1941, four high-explosive bombs were dropped by German aircraft on the North Strand area of Dublin City. The casualties were many: 28 dead and 90 injured, with 300 houses damaged or destroyed, writes BREDA NATHAN
May 31st this year marks the 80th anniversary of the North Strand bombing in Dublin. It was a night that would live with many people for the rest of their lives. Twenty eight people lost their lives that night. Many of those injured were marked for life. My family were lucky enough to survive the bomb at the top of their street, but the after affects lived on for their entire lives.
My father’s house and business premises was on North Richmond Street and my mother’s family home was Richmond cottages. The windows, including frames and shattered glass, went everywhere, but they were things that could be replaced… no one in the street died.
My father’s side of the family were more practical about things when the shock receded, but my mother talked about it forever.
She was in another house in the street when it happened, and she dashed around to the cottage looking for her uncle Hughie. He was more than an uncle to her and her sisters and brother. They were orphaned as small children and he worked and single-handedly reared them. No one in the family or the neighbourhood ever had a bad word for him. He was cherished by all.