04 2 / 2012
Lucky Elephant by National Library of Ireland on The Commons on Flickr.
Irish Hospital Sweepstakes parade through Dublin in late March 1935. Before every draw of winning tickets, there was a parade through the city, with all of the tickets carried in the boxes you can see in this photo…
Cannot work out what street this is! Lucky Coady’s, the main (and allegedly luckiest) shop for buying Sweepstakes tickets was at 39 Dame Street. This, however, is “McCarthy late of Coady’s”. Oh, and the black cat on the shop sign is Big Tom, the Sweepstakes mascot.
If you’re interested in knowing more about the Irish Hospital Sweepstakes, this review by Turtle Bunbury of Dr. Marie Coleman’s 2009 book, The Irish Sweep is really good.
Date: Late March 1935
NLI Ref.: IND_H_2997
