Bombing of Dublin in World War II
[1] This was followed early on the following morning of 3 January 1941, by further German bombing of houses on Donore Terrace in the South Circular Road area.
By May 1941, the German Air Force had bombed numerous British cities, as well as Belfast in Northern Ireland, during "The Blitz".
German area bombings aimed at the United Kingdom were reduced after the launch of Operation Barbarossa in late June 1941.
Lavarna Grove was still under construction so the bomb fell on undeveloped ground, resulting in little damage, a single person injured and no loss of life.
Just before 4 am on the morning of 3 January 1941, a bomb fell at the rear of the houses located at 91 and 93 Donore Terrace in the South Circular Road area of Dublin.
[4][20] That night, a large number of German aircraft were spotted by Irish military observers and searchlights were put up to track them.
One of the German planes heading north was fired on by anti-aircraft guns over Collinstown, then turned around and soon appeared over Dublin again and began circling the city, occasionally swooping in low.
[23] Of the first three bombs dropped within minutes of each other, one fell in the Ballybough area, demolishing the two houses at 43 and 44 Summerhill Park, injuring many but with no loss of life, another fell at the Dog Pond pumping works near the Zoo in Phoenix Park, with no casualties but damaging Áras an Uachtaráin, the official residence of the Irish President (Douglas Hyde at the time) and the third made a large crater in the North Circular Road near Summerhill, again causing no injuries.
De Valera made a speech in the Dáil Éireann (the lower house of the Irish Parliament) on the same day: Members of the Dáil desire to be directly associated with the expression of sympathy already tendered by the Government on behalf of the nation to the great number of our citizens who have been so cruelly bereaved by the recent bombing.
The Dáil will also desire to be associated with the expression of sincere thanks which has gone out from the Government and from our whole community to the several voluntary organisations the devoted exertions of whose members helped to confine the extent of the disaster and have mitigated the sufferings of those affected by it.
Numerous large cities in the United Kingdom were targeted for bombing, including Belfast, which like Dublin, is across the Irish Sea from Great Britain.
This contention was given added credibility when Colonel Edward Flynn, second cousin of Ireland's Minister for Coordination of Defensive Measures, recalled that Lord Haw Haw had warned Ireland that Dublin's Amiens Street Railway Station, where a stream of refugees from Belfast was arriving, would be bombed.
He was speaking of the Battle of the Beams, wherein "Y" referred to the direction finding radio signals that the Luftwaffe used to guide their bombers to their targets.
