The Swastika Laundry was an Irish business founded in 1912, located on

Shelbourne Road Shelbourne Road is a road in Ballsbridge, in the southeast part of Dublin, Ireland. History In John Rocque's map of 1756, today's Shelbourne Road and Upper Grand Canal Street, from which it extends, appear together as Beggars' Bush Road. ''Wi ...

, Ballsbridge, a district of

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...

. Due to its name and logo being associated with the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported t ...

in Germany, the name was changed in 1939 but their logo endured.

History

The laundry was founded by John W. Brittain (1872–1937) from

Manorhamilton Manorhamilton () is the second-largest town in County Leitrim, Ireland. It is located on the N16 from Sligo and from Enniskillen. History Before the Plantations of Ireland, the settlement was known, and continues to be known in the Ir ...

County Leitrim County Leitrim ( ; gle, Contae Liatroma) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Connacht and is part of the Northern and Western Region. It is named after the village of Leitrim. Leitrim County Council is the local authority for the ...

, who was one of the "pioneers of the laundry business in Ireland", having founded the Metropolitan and White Heather Laundries in 1899. He was also the owner of a famous horse called Swastika Rose which was well known "to frequenters of the Royal Dublin's Society's Shows". The use of the Swastika name was as an ancient

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

n symbol of good luck: its name originates from the

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

''svastika''. The company used electric vans, painted in red with a white swastika on a black roundel, to collect and deliver laundry to customers. The vans were quite ahead of their time. In 1939, the laundry changed its name to "The Swastika Laundry (1912)" to make clear the distinction between its use of the name and symbol and the more recent adoption of the symbol by the

in Germany. It continued to exist as a separate company until the late 1960s, when it was bought out by the Spring Grove Laundry company, which continued to operate from the same site in Ballsbridge. Nevertheless, the logo and name continued in use until the premises closed in 1987.

Later history of site

Even following the closure of the laundry, its brick chimney, emblazoned with a large white swastika, remained visible for some years from many places in the surrounding area, including the

Merrion Road Merrion Road is a major road, part of the R118, in Dublin 4. It joins the Pembroke Road section of the R118 at Herbert Park and runs south-east to Merrion, where it meets the Rock Road at Booterstown. At Merrion Gates, it meets Strand Road ( ...

, a main road south from Dublin. Spring Grove sold the property for redevelopment in the early 21st century during the Dublin property boom of the 1990s and 2000s, as Ballsbridge was by then a popular and exclusive area of

Dublin 4 Dublin 4, also rendered as D4 and D04, is a historic postal district of Dublin, Ireland including Baggot Street Upper, the southernmost fringes of the Dublin Docklands, and the suburbs of Ballsbridge, Donnybrook, Irishtown, Merrion, Ringsend ...

. An office development called "The Oval" was constructed on the site. The chimney, which is a protected structure, survives, but the painted swastika does not. The chimney is surrounded by the "oval" of the new development.

Cultural references

In his ''Irisches Tagebuch'' (''Irish Journal'') (1957), the future Nobel Laureate,

Heinrich Böll Heinrich Theodor Böll (; 21 December 1917 – 16 July 1985) was a German writer. Considered one of Germany's foremost post-World War II writers, Böll is a recipient of the Georg Büchner Prize (1967) and the Nobel Prize for Literature (1972). ...

, writes about a year spent living in the west of Ireland in the 1950s. While in Dublin, before heading to County Mayo, he:

References

External links

*{{cite web, url=http://comeheretome.wordpress.com/2010/04/26/swastika-laundry-1912-1987/ , first=Sam , last=McGrath , title=Swastika Laundry (1912–1987) , publisher=Come here to me! , date=26 April 2010 , accessdate=10 January 2017 Brief history of the laundry with a selection of pictures. Business services companies established in 1912 Companies based in Dublin (city) Laundry businesses Laundry 1912 establishments in Ireland 1960s disestablishments in Ireland

History

Later history of site

Cultural references

See also

References

External links