seamus dubhghaill

Promoting Irish Culture and History from Little Rock, Arkansas, USA

Tag Archives: London Underground


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Rotimi Adebari Becomes First Black Mayor Elected in Ireland

Rotimi Adebari, a Nigerian-born Irish politician, is elected the Mayor of Portlaoise Town Council on June 27, 2007, becoming the first black mayor elected in Ireland.

Adebari is born 1964 in Okeodan, Ogun State, and studies economics at the University of Benin in Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria.

Adebari arrives in Dublin with his wife and two children in 2000. After he converts from Islam to Christianity, he flees Nigeria in 2000, and makes a claim for asylum on the grounds of religious persecution. His application is rejected because of a lack of evidence that he had personally suffered persecution. He does however gain automatic residency when his wife gives birth to a son in Ireland shortly after their arrival.

Adebari and his family settle in County Laois. He completes his master’s degree in intercultural studies at Dublin City University (DCU) and sets up a firm called Optimum Point Consultancy.

In 2004, Adebari is elected as a town councilor in local elections. On June 27, 2007, at the age of 43, he is elected mayor of the 9-member Portlaoise Town Council, by a vote of six to three and with support from Fine Gael, Sinn Féin and an Independent councilor. At a meeting attended by officials from the Nigerian, South African, and the United States embassies, the new mayor is quoted as saying his election is proof that “Ireland is not just a country of a thousand welcomes, but it is a country of equal opportunity.” In the 2009 local elections he is re-elected to the town council and also to Laois County Council for the Portlaoise electoral area.

In 2007, Adebari denies claims that he was a train operator in London who worked out of the Queen’s Park station on the Bakerloo line. Multiple London Underground employees, including Paddy Clarke, a retired tube driver from County Louth, state that Adebari worked as a train driver in London during the late 1990s before moving to Ireland. Clarke states, “at the very least fifty drivers and six or more managers will remember him. His photograph and signature are on file with London Underground’s personnel office which were used in the issue of his free travel-pass and identity card.” Adebari asserts he traveled to Ireland directly from Nigeria via Paris, and never worked or lived in London at any time.

Adebari runs as an independent candidate in the 2011 Irish general election for the Laois–Offaly constituency. He fails to get elected and receives 628 first-preference votes (0.85%). He runs as an Independent in the 2014 Irish Local Elections but fails to gain election and loses his position on Laois County Council.


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The West Ham Station Attack

The West Ham station attack is a bombing and shooting attack at West Ham station in east London on March 15, 1976. One person dies in the attack and nine are injured.

A 5-lb. (2.3 kg) bomb on a Metropolitan line train explodes prematurely in the front carriage of the train, injuring seven passengers. The bomb detonates prior to reaching the City of London, where it is thought the intended target to be Liverpool Street station at rush hour. Adrian Vincent Donnelly, a Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) volunteer, then shoots Post Office engineer Peter Chalk in the chest, and kills train driver Julius Stephen, who had attempted to catch him. Donelly exits the station to the street and threatens people with his revolver before Police Constable Raymond Kiff catches up with him. Shouting “You English bastards!” Donelly shoots himself in the chest but survives and is apprehended by Kiff.

Adrian Donelly, 36 at the time, is originally from Castlefin, County Donegal, in the Republic of Ireland but lives in London from 1971. He is part of an active service unit (ASU) involved in planting sixteen bombs. In 1977, at the Old Bailey, he is convicted of murder and attempted murder. He is sentenced to life imprisonment by Justice David Croom-Johnson with a minimum of 30 years. He is released after 21 years in August 1998 as one of the earliest beneficiaries of the Good Friday Agreement‘s prisoner release scheme. He dies on August 25, 2019.

Eleven days prior to the West Ham station attack, an IRA bomb explodes in a train at Cannon Street station. The day after the West Ham attack, a bomb on a train at Wood Green tube station explodes, injuring a man. On March 17, a 9-lb. (4.1 kg) bomb is discovered in a train at Neasden Depot. After these events, the London Transport Executive launches a security operation and assigns 1,000 plainclothed policemen on the London Underground system.

An appeal to raise money is launched for the family of the driver of the train, Julius Stephen, who left behind a widow and a family. As of August 1976, £17,000 had been raised.

(Pictured: The underground train damaged in the explosion, The Times, March 16, 1976)


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Birth of Gerry Rafferty, Singer, Songwriter & Musician

Gerald Rafferty, Scottish singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer, is born in Paisley, Renfrewshire, Scotland, on April 16, 1947. His solo hits in the late 1970s include “Baker Street,” “Right Down the Line” and “Night Owl,” as well as “Stuck in the Middle with You,” which is recorded with his band Stealers Wheel in 1973.

Rafferty is the third son of Irish miner and lorry driver Joseph Rafferty and his Scottish wife Mary Skeffington. His abusive alcoholic father dies when Gerry is only sixteen years old. He grows up in a council house on the town’s Glenburn estate and attends St. Mirin’s Academy. Inspired by his Scottish mother, who teaches him both Irish and Scottish folk songs, and the music of Bob Dylan and the Beatles, he starts writing his own material. In 1963 he leaves St. Mirin’s Academy and works in a butcher’s shop and as a civil service clerk while also playing with the local group Maverix on weekends.

In the mid-1960s Rafferty earns money busking on the London Underground. In 1966 he meets fellow musician Joe Egan and they are both members of the pop band the Fifth Column. In 1969 he becomes the third member of the folk-pop outfit the Humblebums, which also features comedian Billy Connolly and Tam Harvey. He and Connelly record two well-received albums on the Transatlantic Records label as a duo.

Rafferty releases his first solo album, Can I Have My Money Back?, in 1972. That same year he and Egan form the group Stealers Wheel. Stealers Wheel has a huge hit with the jaunty and witty song “Stuck in the Middle with You,” which peaks at #6 on the Billboard pop charts. Stealers Wheel has a lesser Top 40 hit with “Star” ten months later and eventually breaks up in 1975.

In 1978 Rafferty hits pay dirt with his second solo album, City to City, which soars to #1 on the Billboard album charts and sells over five million copies worldwide. The album also begets the hit song “Baker Street.” This haunting and poetic ballad is an international smash that goes to #2 in the United States, #3 in the United Kingdom, #1 in Australia, and #9 in the Netherlands.

Rafferty’s third album, Night Owl, likewise does well. Moreover, he has additional impressive chart successes with the songs “Right Down the Line,” “Home and Dry,” “Days Gone Down,” and “Get It Right Next Time.” Alas, a handful of albums he records throughout the 1980s and 1990s all prove to be commercial flops. He sings the vocal on the song “The Way It Always Starts” for the soundtrack of the movie Local Hero.

Rafferty is married to Carla Ventilla from 1970 to 1990. He records his last album, Another World, in 2000 and releases the compilation CD, Life Goes On, in 2009.

Rafferty has problems with alcoholism that directly contributes to his untimely death. In November 2010, he is admitted to the Royal Bournemouth Hospital where he is put on a life support machine and treated for multiple organ failure. After being taken off life support, he rallies for a short time, and doctors believe he might recover. He dies, however, of liver failure at the home of his daughter Martha in Stroud, Gloucestershire, on January 4, 2011.

A requiem mass is held for Rafferty at St. Mirin’s Cathedral in Paisley on January 21, 2011. The mass is streamed live over the Internet. Politicians in attendance are the First Minister of Scotland Alex Salmond MSP, Wendy Alexander MSP, Hugh Henry MSP, and Robin Harper MSP. The musicians present include Craig and Charlie Reid of The Proclaimers, former bandmates Joe Egan and Rab Noakes, Barbara Dickson, and Graham Lyle. The eulogy is given by Rafferty’s longtime friend John Byrne. His remains are then cremated at the Woodside Crematorium in Paisley and his ashes scattered on Iona. He is survived by his daughter, granddaughter Celia, and brother Jim.