16 MAY 1922. RECOLLECTIONS OF MS. ESTER MAY
Centenary of Curragh Handover
Recollections of Ms. Ester May
My recollection of “takeover” day on the Curragh are somewhat hazy after a lapse of 75 years, but the following details are the details of how I became involved.
Prior to that day I had worked for Piaras Beaslai in an office located at 14, North Great George’s St. Dublin. It was really a tenement room furnished with two chairs, one table and a typewriter – we did have a fire in the room to warm us.
When Mr. Beaslai travelled to America on business for Ireland, I did quite a lot of typing for Colonel Ginger O’Connell, at Mr Beaslai’s request. Then Colonel O’Connell requested me to go to work in the Curragh. As I decided whether to go my mother agreed to let me work there in the condition that Colonel O’Connell would “have to mind me!” I travelled to and from home and the Curragh by rail from Kildare Station. It was lonely for me working there as there was no other female clerical staff except myself. There were nurses working in the hospital bur there was little contact with them. Besides, I was somewhat shy and only about 19 years old at the time, but everyone there was pleasant, and they all treated me well.
My actual memories of the day are somewhat dim now. I recall that Colonel O’Connell decided that it would be safer for me to watch the events from a window as there was a large crowd of men present. I remember seeing the flag being hoisted and the excitement when it was raised is vivid in my memory.
A number of the “boys” under Mr. Oscar Traynor, then O/C of the Dublin Brigade, attended. Among them was Emmet Dalton and a man named Maurice Brennan who owned a Gents’ Outfitters Shop in O’Connell Street, Dublin.
There were also two American soldiers there with the Brigade. I had already met these two gentlemen in the course of my work for Colonel O’Connell and Piaras Beaslai. One of the soldiers was named Pat Cronin and the other was a Major (I think his name was J. Gulkee). The head of the Garda Siochana attended that day and he and I were entertained to a beautiful meal where we were waited on by Irish orderlies.
I did not appear in any photographs of the day, but sometime later Colonel Ginger O’Connell’s two daughters loaned the flag to hang it on the seat where I sat to have a photograph taken. I thought it was a beautiful flag, but Colonel O’Connell’s daughters told me that some people cut pieces from it – for souvenirs I presume.
My stay at the Curragh was short – about a month or so. I remember Colonel O’Connell being arrested walking down the quays in Dublin right at the Four Courts. I got a transfer back to Portobello Barracks in Dublin, and I worked for periods at both Beggar’s Bush and at Headquarters in Infirmary Road where I left to marry. I was presented with a silver chain bag of souvenirs which I still possess – the bag I mean – the souvenirs long since spent. Another gift I received was a watch which they gave me as a Christmas gift.
Taken from 90th anniversary Curragh Camp handover commemorative booklet
