‘Santa Claus’ ship docks in Dublin

Dublin, 24 December 1914 - Sixty-three enormous cases of Christmas presents from the children of the United States to the Irish children of soldiers and sailors serving in the British forces were today distributed from the Mansion House in Dublin.

Some 2,500 parcels were handed out to children and their families, despite fears that the adverse weather would prevent the toys, clothes and food being given out.

The presents were brought to Dublin by the American steamship, the Jason, which has been dubbed the 'Santa Claus ship' in some Irish newspapers. The ship had earlier docked at various European ports leaving her cargo of gifts for families of the combatants of the belligerent nations. That the project was strictly neutral is apparent from the fact that German children also received gifts donated in America.

Officials from the Local Government Board handled the consignment at the Mansion House in Dublin. (Image: National Library of Ireland, EAS 1764)

The Irish share of the consignment was handled by officials of the Local Government Board based at the Mansion House in Dublin.

Civil servants requisitioned the Examination Hall usually used for the conduct of state exams and used it as a base to organise the distribution of the presents.

There was an amazing range of gifts on view in the hall. As well as toys of every description, there were boys’ suits, girls’ dresses, bags of rice, monkey nuts and underwear.

Almost every gift contained a note of good wishes from an American, many of them written by children.

[Editor's note: This is an article from Century Ireland, a fortnightly online newspaper, written from the perspective of a journalist 100 years ago, based on news reports of the time.]