FROM THE ARCHIVES:On the first two nights of the new year in 1941 German bombs were dropped on or near Carlow, Drogheda, Enniskerry, the Curragh, Enniscorthy and on Dublin's South Circular Road and Rathdown Park: two people were killed in Carlow and others injured in Dublin. The incidents got Quidnunc, for one, taking a military tone in the Irishman's Diary, starting with the air raid shelters in areas like the central median on O'Connell Street. –
JOE JOYCE
THOSE SHELTERS.
Recent events have caused many of us to look more contemplatively and speculatively on those ugly, traffic-obstructing shelters in our Dublin streets. The day may come when their padlocked doors may have to be unlocked and when their walls may have to withstand more than the pasting which billposters have applied to them.
In gloomy speculation of such a possibility I regarded one of these structures with a new interest, and pictured myself foregathering with many fellow-citizens within its narrow confines. It then occurred to me that there appeared to be little provision for one essential.
Although I think, like Mr. A. A. Milne’s king, that nobody can call me a fussy man, I do like a little bit of oxygen to breathe. Are the authorities satisfied that the existing tiny slots would provide sufficient ventilation?
I am neither a fresh-air faddist nor an authority on the problems of Lebensraum, but it would surprise me to learn that a shelter could remain occupied for any length of time with the present provision for the escape and replacement of vitiated air.
Books for Officers
It is an open secret by now that the Southern Command has been brought under Colonel Costello to an unusual degree of efficiency; and indicative of this remarkable leader’s enthusiasm is a letter which he addresses “to each officer in the Command,” and in which he recommends the reading of standard works on military matters.
“Arrangements,” he says, “are being made for the circulation from Command Headquarters of parcels of military books to various Military Posts. The books at each Post will be periodically changed. In this way alone a considerable Military Library will become available to the officers.”
Among the books which Colonel Costello recommends that officers should buy for themselves are Infantry in Battle, The Defence of Duffer’s Drift, The Fighting Solider, Newman’s The Cavalry Goes Through, and Wintringham’s War.
A.R.P.
The other day, while having a cup of coffee in one of Dublins well-known cafés , I noticed that a series of very beautiful stained glass windows was being removed and replaced by the ordinary embossed glass.
An enquiry revealed the fact that the original windows were designed and made by Harry Clarke. They were being removed to a place of absolute safety, and will be restored to their proper places when all risk of damage through aerial activity is past.
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