The sight of the “Merryweather Fire Brigade” in Drogheda’s recent St. Patrick’s Day parade, stirred many memories and has also led to calls for a memorial to the Drogheda fire crew who responded to calls for help from Belfast during the blitz.
According to the late Joe Shiels, the men who travelled to Belfast were Superintendent Dan Lennon, Firemen, Michael Moore, Frank ‘Synnott’ Craven, Peter Farrell, Paddy McEnaney, Sammy Gallagher and Paddy Harrison. Peter Moore and William Allen from the local Civil Defence were also mentioned in a report in the local paper as having travelled.
Their names are largely forgotten, but it would be nice to see them remembered in an appropriate setting.
Frank Sinnott was the only Drogheda crew man injured. A piece of a burning floor fell on him and he was treated for his injuries at the Royal Victoria Hospital.
By way of acknowledgement for their endeavour the firemen were given an extra day’s pay by Drogheda Corporation.
The Belfast blitz consisted of four German air raids over the city in April and May 1941 when German Luftwaffe bombers attacked military and manufacturing targets in the city leaving about 1,000 people dead and up to 100,000 others homeless.
It was the worst wartime raid in the UK outside of London. The main targets were the Harland & Wolff shipyard, the Short Brothers aircraft factory and James Mackie’s engineering factory.
Writing in the Irish Times in 2021, Joseph Quinn said: “The firestorm that was conceived from the 140 fires burning throughout Belfast was so overwhelming that the Minister for Security John MacDermott, who watched the inferno engulf the city from his home near Stormont, rang Sir Basil Brooke to ask permission to request fire brigades from Dublin.
Brooke authorised this as “a question of expediency” which resulted in the most remarkable episode of north-south co-operation in Irish history.
Writing in the 1980s, journalist Robert Fisk, remarked that MacDermott did “something that no Northern Ireland government minister had done for his province before, or would ever do again: he called Dublin and asked for help”.
Neutral Éire’s response was immediate. Within two hours of MacDermott’s request, de Valera had personally authorised 71 firemen and 13 fire tenders, from Dublin, Dún Laoghaire, Dundalk and Drogheda, to cross the Irish Border and assist their Belfast colleagues.
These men had been prepped by de Valera in advance and in each station when volunteers were requested all had stepped forward. They set off at 6am and would remain in Belfast for three days.” He titled his piece “The Belfast Blitz and a night that briefly united Ireland”
In 1991 Liam Malone and Liam Hoey of Drogheda Fire Brigade represented the town in Belfast at the 50th anniversary events to remember the” Blitz”. The Mayors of Drogheda and Belfast jointly unveiled a memorial plaque at Drogheda Fire Station in May 2011, on the seventieth anniversary of the Belfast blitz, but sadly there is still no mention or memorial to the brave fire crew.
For more on this topic see our previous article:
Restored Merryweather Fire Engine a highlight of St. Patrick’s Parade
