Maolsheachlann O Ceallaigh begins a look at what happened in each year at Christmastime in Ireland since 1923 … continues on page 80

 

1923: The Irish Independent described the Christmas of 1923 as “the first normal Christmas we have had since 1912”. The Great Lockout of 1913, the First World War, and the War of Independence had “almost banished all semblance of Christmas cheer and festivities”. By contrast, the streets were now thronged with Christmas shoppers in “merry mood”. “Not for ten years or more have supplies been so plentiful and prices so reasonable.”

1924: A rainstorm passed over Dublin on Christmas Eve, the tram-tracks in Clontarf were covered by the sea, and houses in Ringsend were flooded by up to a foot of water. In Derry, “business owners to get to their premises have been using small boats”, according to the Evening Herald.

1925: In the Pro-Cathedral in Dublin there was Mass every half-hour from six a.m. to noon on Christmas Day.

1926: Over a thousand Christmas Day dinners were provided for poor families at the Mendicity Institute in Usher’s Island, Dublin.

1927: One toyshop in Dublin told the Irish Independent that toy gramophones were the most popular toy that Christmas, followed by dolls, soldiers and trains.

1928: The pantomime Dick Whittington and his Cat, starring Lilian Major and Sonia Summers, played to packed houses in Dublin’s Gaiety. The Evening Herald reported: “Seasons come and go, and public taste is said to change in the matter of public entertainment, but the appeal of the Christmas pantomime remains as strong as ever.”

1929: The Cork Examiner described the 23rd December in Dublin like this: “Never have busier scenes been witnessed. The big shops seemed to be besieged – the passer-by could see that they were packed to the door. Most of the sixteen thousand motor cars in Dublin were in the streets.”

1930: On the 27th of December, Mayo County Council voted 21-6 not to accept the appointment of Laetitia Dunbar-Harrison, who had been made county librarian of Mayo by the Public Appointments Commission. The controversy was complicated, but much of the opposition was because Dunbar-Harrison was not a Catholic or an Irish speaker. Eventually the Council was dissolved and the appointment upheld.

1931: A few days before Christmas, a row of malt houses (where poteen was illegally brewed) was blown up by the Gardaí in Cloghernagun, Co. Galway. “Considerable quantities of gelignite” had to be used to blow up the malt houses, which seemed to have been there for a long time.

1932: Tarzan, the Ape-Man starring Johnny Weissmuller was being shown in Dublin’s Savoy cinema over Christmas. The ad described it as “amazing beyond belief, unbelievable thrills”.

1933: Two days before Christmas, in Bandon, county Cork, twenty-two people were injured in a fracas between Blueshirts and their opponents, which involved clubs and hurley sticks.
1934: A writer in the Irish Press recalled that, two years before, no Christmas stocking was complete without a yo-yo, mentioning that people had played with them in the streets. He guessed the craze would return, and that in 2050 people would be playing yo-yo while waiting for the “airbus” at Nelson’s Pillar.

1935: In a radio message on Christmas Day, the Taoiseach Eamon De Valera appealed to the more fortunate in Ireland to come to the aid of the less fortunate, thus extending family loyalty to “the greater family of the nation”.

1936: In a similar broadcast to the American people on Christmas Day, De Valera thanked Americans for proving themselves “friends in time of adversity” to the Irish people.

1937: On Christmas Eve 1937, the Irish Press announced that celebrations would be held on Constitution Day (December 29th), when the country’s new Constitution would come into effect. The celebrations would include military parades and a 21-gun-salute.

1938: In an article headlined “Is Christmas What It Used to Be?” in the Irish Press, the literary editor wrote that, unlike in England, “The Irish Christmas is what it has always been – the greatest of Christian feast-days, and one to be reverently and joyously commemorated.”

1939: On Christmas Eve, Republican prisoners in Derry Jail staged a revolt, overpowering wardens and barricading themselves in a corridor for five hours. It was in protest against letters and visits not being permitted.

1940: On 23rd December, the Cork Library Society, a subscription library founded in 1792, made the decision to close. “The cheap circulating library, the free library, the radio, and various other institutions” made closure inevitable, said the President of the Society.

Continue reading in this year’s Ireland’s Own