LUGS the Life and Times of Garda Jim Branigan by Bernard Neary
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LUGS The Life and Times of Garda Jim Branigan By Bernard Neary Lenhar Publications, Dublin FOREWORD By CONTENTS Chapter 1 Lugs Branigan - The Legend Chapter 2 The Early Years Chapter 3 The Wild Forties and the Battle of Baldoyle Chapter 4 The Teddy Boy Era Chapter 5 The Riot Squad Chapter 6 Jim Branigan and the Stars Chapter 7 Last Days in the Garda Síochána Chapter 8 Retirement Years Chapter 9 His Legacy CHAPTER 1 Lugs Branigan - The Legend When John Alick Branigan from Rodeen Borrisokane, County Tipperary and Ellen Branigan (nee Kavanagh) from Coolroe, Graiguenamanagh, County Kilkenny, gave birth to a bouncing baby boy on 6th January 1910, little did they think that their first new-born infant would one day become not only the most famous ever member of An Garda Síochána but also a legend in his own lifetime. That baby boy, born at 5.45 am at 1, James's Street, in the South Dublin Union - now St James's Hospital - was later christened James Christopher Branigan. His father was an official in the South Dublin Union and the family lived in a house within the complex grounds. The house is still there today, just past the main hospital entrance on James's Street. Even today, more than twenty years after his death, thousands of Dubliners recall him and his style of policing and it is very common to hear people say "if only we had a few like him around now". If only. Recently a group of solicitors were talking about Lugs in Dublin District Court No 44, Chancery Street, during a recess. All agreed that if he was around now some criminal or other would have put a bullet in him a long time ago. However, the Court Registrar disagreed, saying that the bold Lugs, if he were on the beat today, would still be in Court every day - but it would not be the custody Courts but the Court across the road, meaning the High Court. He would be so tied up in litigation for ill-treatment, slander, deprivation of rights, assault, defamation that he would be tied up in civil actions for the rest of his career. This anecdote highlights a certain aspect of Jim Branigan - his enduring persona. An indication of the fact that the legend of Lugs still lives on can be gleaned from the media coverage given to his memory. In April 2008 the author Bernard Neary gave a lecture on Lugs at a meeting of the Garda Historical Society in the Garda Club in Harrington Street, Dublin 2. The venue was packed out and such was the interest expressed by members who could not attend on the night that the Society produced a DVD presentation of the lecture to facilitate them. The Garda Review , the magazine of the Garda Representative Association, the organisation representing the rank and file membership, then did an extensive piece on the famous Lugs. On Tuesday 15 th February 2009 the Honourable Mr Justice Paul Carney, the eminent criminal Judge who presides over the Central Criminal Court, presented a lecture on policing in Ireland at Maynooth College, as Adjunct Professor of Law for the National University of Ireland Maynooth. Lugs and his style of policing featured in Mr Justice Carney’s speech. The following day his lecture was covered by all the print media, including a half-page in the Irish Times. That Wednesday afternoon the RTE radio programme Liveline , presented by Joe Duffy, covered the topic. The phones to the radio show were hopping, and all those who aired their views – both young and old – had their own stories to tell. The following Sunday the Star on Sunday ran a two-page spread on the famous Lugs. Since the talk by Mr Justice Carney the Northside People , Dublin Central News and may other local publications have ran stories on Lugs. It is an indication of the stature of the man that he is still making the headlines so many years after his death, at the age of 76, in 1987. CHAPTER 2 The Early Years James Branigan - better known as Jim, 'Branno' and 'The Bran' to Garda colleagues, and 'Lugs' to generations of Dubliners, had two brothers and a sister, John Alick, Frank and Nora. John Alick died in his 8 th year, when Jim himself was just ten years old. Nora was born three years after Jim and Frank nearly five years later. Basin Lane Convent beckoned, and Jim started school there when he was five. The school was under the managership of Sister Monica, who lived to receive the President's cheque and was over one hundred years old when she died. His teachers were the Misses Kearney, Bergin and Sutton. A fruitless check at the Convent, Our Lady of Good Counsel, run by the Irish Sisters of Charity, gave no clue of Jim's early school days, for no records were kept there after it ceased operating school classes. Just one year after Jim started school an event took place which was to forever live in his memory - the Easter Rising. On Easter Monday, 24 th April 1916, a knock on the door of the Branigan household was answered by Jim's mother Ellen: "Ah! Willie, come on in", Jim heard his mother say, and in walked William T Cosgrave and Eamonn Ceannt. Mr Cosgrave introduced the young gentleman in his company with the following short sentence: "This is Eamonn, he is in command here". Willie Cosgrave was more than familiar to Jim and his family, for he lived across the street, at 174, James's Street, now Kenny's public house. A simple plaque over the door commemorates his birth and it reads: "W.T. Cosgrave, born here 6 th June 1880. Died 16 th November 1965". On that first day of Easter Week, six-year-old Jim saw a British soldier shot dead at the back of his house. The soldier was shot during a sharp exchange of gunfire and Jim recalled being in the scullery of his home when he heard the noise from outside, as if someone was trying to break down a door: "The door opened and I heard a voice saying 'it's all right, Paddy, I'm one of yours'. I then heard two shots coming from under the door. The next thing I saw a Volunteer pointing a rifle from our kitchen window and firing out. Afterwards, when we were being evacuated, I saw a near-dead body being attended to. It was a British soldier". After this incident the Branigan family, along with all the other families in the Dublin Union, were moved to safe quarters at the back of the complex. Jim's house, on Mount Brown Hill, looked across to the Royal Hospital at Kilmainham, "the old fogies home for Chelsea Pensioners" and was in the line of sniper fire, so the family had to be moved for their own safety. Besides the Dublin Union the Fourth Battalion under Eamonn Ceannt also occupied outposts at Marrowbone Lane, Roe's Distillery, Ardee Street Brewery and Cork Street. On the Tuesday of Easter Week there was fierce hand-to-hand fighting at the Union and in the hospital itself barricades of mattresses and beds were erected. In Marrowbone Lane the Volunteers had to take such cover as was provided by sheds, walls and basement steps. At Rialto the British directed heavy fire at the Irish positions, with the defenders becoming outnumbered and hour by hour forced back into the grounds of the Union. Here they only yielded step by step, foot by foot, until they reached the shelter of the main buildings, where they resisted overwhelming force from a besieged position. On Wednesday heavy British forces effected an entry and after fierce hand-to-hand fighting the Irish retired to Mount Brown, where they entrenched. The Fourth Battalion held out for the remainder of Easter Week and when Padraig Pearse surrendered on Saturday, 29 th April to Brigadier General Lowe in Parnell Street, resistance at the Dublin Union ceased. Jim vividly remembered the surrender of the heroic Fourth Battalion, Dublin Brigade, Irish Volunteers at the end of Easter Week. He recalled the Volunteers formed in ranks and surrounded by British soldiers before being marched to Kilmainham. He saw his mother bravely breaking the barrier of British soldiers to shake hands with Willie Cosgrave, who was second-in-command to Eamonn Ceannt. Up until his death Jim remembered this day, sadly recalling the Volunteers being marched through the big iron double gate of the Union to face a future of prison and for some, including Eamonn Ceannt, execution. The Dublin Union was a vast institution and the present-day hospital complex covers an area of approximately fifty-seven acres, so Jim rarely mixed with anyone outside the grounds. There was a Convent run by the Sisters of Mercy which was occupied by a number of Nursing Sisters, and these were in charge of the several hospitals and a Nursing Home. Jim "hung around" with the children of the officials attached to the Union. He recalled the families who worked and resided there and their children with whom he played: "It was like a small town; there were over a thousand inmates and a lot of officials and their families lived in the Officers' Quarters. These are just some that I remember: Mr Daly and Nurse Daly and Patrick, Carmel, Theresa, John, Joseph, George and Eleanor Daly; Mr and Mrs Patrick Smith and Andrew, Sadie, Molly, Nellie, Mona and Una Smith; Mr and Mrs Denis Purcell and Terence, Theresa, Denis and Maura Purcell; Mr and Mrs Thomas Brady and Thomas, Agnes and Vera Brady; Mrs White and Lilly and Eileen; Maureen, Ena and Paddy Conway; Mr and Mrs Gogarty and their two boys and two girls; the Master of the institution and his wife, who was also the Matron; Mr and Mrs Edward Doyle and their family; the Assistant Matron Miss Mannion and the Assistant Master Mr Hennessy with his wife and family.