RECENTLY RELEASED FOOTAGE shows how Ireland was rebuilding itself 90 years ago following the War of Independence and Civil War.
The Four Courts, on the banks of the River Liffey in Dublin’s city centre, was destroyed by shellfire during the conflict.
In the video clip from 1924, the stills show describe how “Dublin’s most imposing building is rising Phoenix-like from her ashes”.
It wasn’t to be the end of Dublin’s – far from it. Before the Troubles began later in the century, Ireland tried to get through World War II unscathed.
This clip, following four devastating bombs at North Strand on 31 May 1941 by the Germans, shows that wasn’t possible. Thirtyfour people were killed and 100 injured in the fourth bombing in the Republic since the war broke out.
Although the commentator here starts off sympathetic to the Irish, his final sentence is the kicker.
“Maybe this is the price Éire has to pay for sitting on the fence.”
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