The Third Man
and the near tragedy of the
Howth Gassing in 1964
Late on 25 September 1964, five young boys entered the Corporation pumping station just south of Howth village.
They were assailed by an escape of gas and four of them quickly fell unconscious and into a deep shaft, while the fifth managed to get out of the building.
The incident was reported on the front pages of the national dailies the following morning. You can read these reports below, and then we'll take up the rest of the story.
They were assailed by an escape of gas and four of them quickly fell unconscious and into a deep shaft, while the fifth managed to get out of the building.
The incident was reported on the front pages of the national dailies the following morning. You can read these reports below, and then we'll take up the rest of the story.
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And here we take up the rest of the story.
Leaving aside the discrepancies in the two reports, (disinfectant spray versus sewerage fumes; three versus four unconscious boys taken to hospital; Christopher versus Kevin recovered shortly after admission; three versus two boys still unconscious the following morning) the really tantalising aspect of the story is how did the lifeguard appear so quickly and who was the mysterious unidentified stranger?
Now, after the passage of half a century since the incident, I have interviewed the unidentified stranger, and the real story is not quite that reported in either of the national newspapers at the time.
This is what he told me:
And, so, who was the third man?
Well, that's another story for another day.
Leaving aside the discrepancies in the two reports, (disinfectant spray versus sewerage fumes; three versus four unconscious boys taken to hospital; Christopher versus Kevin recovered shortly after admission; three versus two boys still unconscious the following morning) the really tantalising aspect of the story is how did the lifeguard appear so quickly and who was the mysterious unidentified stranger?
Now, after the passage of half a century since the incident, I have interviewed the unidentified stranger, and the real story is not quite that reported in either of the national newspapers at the time.
This is what he told me:
I knew Hugh Barrett whom I trained with on the Burrow Beach at Howth where he worked as a lifeguard. He later joined the fire brigade service.
I met him by accident in O'Connell Street the evening of the sewer incident and he mentioned he was getting the bus to Howth to pick up his bicycle which he had left in the pumping station earlier with the caretaker for safe keeping. So I offered him a lift out in my car and we reached the pumping station as darkness fell.
Hugh asked me to come in and meet the caretaker and, as we were going up the concrete stairs, I looked down into the shaft and saw an arm. We got a strong smell and ran up to alert the caretaker. We found him slumped across the control panel.
We immediately opened all the windows in the control room to let air in and the caretaker came to. We ran down to the underground level and opened the doors and dragged out the three youths. We started resuscitation and cardiac massage and got the lads breathing. One guy's heart had stopped and that's the one I did the cardiac massage on.
The caretaker had already alerted the emergency services which soon arrived and took the lads away.
I kept out of the limelight and said to Hugh to not to say the caretaker was either overtaken by the gas or was semi-conscious as he might have lost his job.
The story about the lads drying their cloths was invented by someone as they were all fully clothed when we hauled them out. I would have noticed if they were wet. There was nowhere in that area where you could dry cloths that I could see.
A few months later the Garda called to ask me to collect a bravery award, an offer which I did not accept as there was no bravery in my mind. We were just doing what we were trained to do.
So meeting a friend in O'Connell Street can lead to many adventures.
And, so, who was the third man?
Well, that's another story for another day.
Meanwhile you might like to check this out.