other great shooter of a gun John Wayne were born in the same year. However, Wayne was born in 1907 which made Bang Bang his elder by a year. Wayne should have taken cowboy tips from his elder.
People were sometimes startled when they would be minding their own business and a hitherto silent Bang Bang opened fire and in a loud voice told them that they were dead because they had let their guard slip as they moseyed along. Once the bus halted at a stop for disgorging or loading passengers, Bang Bang would step off the platform to allow the conductor do his job in marshalling the passengers to their seats before hitting the bell twice to tell the driver to drive on. One bell was to stop, two to go, three for emergency stop. Nothing could be simpler. Still, on some occasions the bus would pull away without the armed guard and he would have to sprint after it to hop aboard the back platform on the way to his next episode. On the occasions when he fell off the bus without quite meaning to do so, he would call out that he was alright and that the driver should keep the stagecoach going to the next town; he would catch up. He would then gallop up the street slapping his backside as if he was whipping a horse along beneath his spurs.
Traffic on most of the city junctions in those years was controlled by gardaí on point duty who used white batons to direct traffic movements. It was a particular joy for Bang Bang to engage a jaded point man in a discreet shooting match between a Garda traffic baton and a large brass key. The lawman always won. Occasionally one might pretend that he was slightly wounded by Bang Bang’s expert marksmanship, but this was only as a salute to a worthy opponent. Bang Bang was nothing if not precise about the parameters of the game. The good guys always prevailed, as they did in the movies.
Bang Bang’s name was Thomas Dudley, the son of Mary and John Dudley. He was born on 12 February 1906.Thomas was to want for close family love most of his life. His father and siblings all died when Thomas was very young, as was the way with many impoverished families. He was sent to an orphanage in Cabra in the North of Dublin when his mother was unable to support him. His mother died in 1933, when Thomas was twenty-seven years old. Thomas Dudley lived his adult life in the Liberties area on the southside when he wasn’t roaming Dublin guarding make-believe stagecoaches from renegades, and keeping the place safe for law-abiding citizens.
He lived on Mill Lane for more than forty years and later lived in Bridgefoot Street flats near the city quays. He suffered from bad eyesight and when his vision was almost completely gone he was housed in Clonturk House for the Adult Blind in Drumcondra, once more on the north side of Dublin. There he received visitors. He told those that would listen that he wished now to be known as Lord Dudley. Still using a title and a nickname Thomas Dudley passed away on 12 January 1981.
His passing was noted by all and sundry, the high and the mighty and his partners across the prairie of his mind. His death at seventy-five years of age even drew obituaries in the national newspapers, of which he would have been quite proud. He was buried in a clerical graveyard a few hundred metres away from the home he had known in his declining years.
Bang Bang lived his time when Dublin was still more of a large town than the sprawling city itbecame. It was common to be given a nickname in Dublin and once given, the name stuck with you for life. Thomas Dudley would tell people that his name was Thomas Dudley, Thomas Dudley, D, U, D, L, E, Y, as if he wanted to be sure that people knew he was more than his nickname.
To celebrate his life and to mark the thirtieth anniversary of his death, The Mooney Show on RTÉ carried a feature dedicated to the Dubliner, during which his shooting key was presented to the Lord Mayor, Councillor Gerry Breen. The Lord Mayor passed in on to Dublin City Library and
People were sometimes startled when they would be minding their own business and a hitherto silent Bang Bang opened fire and in a loud voice told them that they were dead because they had let their guard slip as they moseyed along. Once the bus halted at a stop for disgorging or loading passengers, Bang Bang would step off the platform to allow the conductor do his job in marshalling the passengers to their seats before hitting the bell twice to tell the driver to drive on. One bell was to stop, two to go, three for emergency stop. Nothing could be simpler. Still, on some occasions the bus would pull away without the armed guard and he would have to sprint after it to hop aboard the back platform on the way to his next episode. On the occasions when he fell off the bus without quite meaning to do so, he would call out that he was alright and that the driver should keep the stagecoach going to the next town; he would catch up. He would then gallop up the street slapping his backside as if he was whipping a horse along beneath his spurs.
Traffic on most of the city junctions in those years was controlled by gardaí on point duty who used white batons to direct traffic movements. It was a particular joy for Bang Bang to engage a jaded point man in a discreet shooting match between a Garda traffic baton and a large brass key. The lawman always won. Occasionally one might pretend that he was slightly wounded by Bang Bang’s expert marksmanship, but this was only as a salute to a worthy opponent. Bang Bang was nothing if not precise about the parameters of the game. The good guys always prevailed, as they did in the movies.
Bang Bang’s name was Thomas Dudley, the son of Mary and John Dudley. He was born on 12 February 1906.Thomas was to want for close family love most of his life. His father and siblings all died when Thomas was very young, as was the way with many impoverished families. He was sent to an orphanage in Cabra in the North of Dublin when his mother was unable to support him. His mother died in 1933, when Thomas was twenty-seven years old. Thomas Dudley lived his adult life in the Liberties area on the southside when he wasn’t roaming Dublin guarding make-believe stagecoaches from renegades, and keeping the place safe for law-abiding citizens.
He lived on Mill Lane for more than forty years and later lived in Bridgefoot Street flats near the city quays. He suffered from bad eyesight and when his vision was almost completely gone he was housed in Clonturk House for the Adult Blind in Drumcondra, once more on the north side of Dublin. There he received visitors. He told those that would listen that he wished now to be known as Lord Dudley. Still using a title and a nickname Thomas Dudley passed away on 12 January 1981.
His passing was noted by all and sundry, the high and the mighty and his partners across the prairie of his mind. His death at seventy-five years of age even drew obituaries in the national newspapers, of which he would have been quite proud. He was buried in a clerical graveyard a few hundred metres away from the home he had known in his declining years.
Bang Bang lived his time when Dublin was still more of a large town than the sprawling city itbecame. It was common to be given a nickname in Dublin and once given, the name stuck with you for life. Thomas Dudley would tell people that his name was Thomas Dudley, Thomas Dudley, D, U, D, L, E, Y, as if he wanted to be sure that people knew he was more than his nickname.
To celebrate his life and to mark the thirtieth anniversary of his death, The Mooney Show on RTÉ carried a feature dedicated to the Dubliner, during which his shooting key was presented to the Lord Mayor, Councillor Gerry Breen. The Lord Mayor passed in on to Dublin City Library and
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