Bertie Smyllie – The Palace Kingpin.
R.M. (Bertie) Smyllie was born in Glasgow in 1893 where his father worked as a Scottish journalist, who later became editor of the Sligo Times. In 1934 Bertie was appointed editor of the Irish Times and in the following years transformed the former Ascendancy-like title to one with a cultural, liberal and literary leaning.
During this time most of the literati of Dublin assembled nightly in the back room of the Palace Bar. And what a motley mixture they were: artists, poets, sculptors, architects, writers, journalist and aspiring literary men. One night the colossal Bertie Smyllie - who had previously been a disciple of the Pearl across the street – marched in and ordered a ball of Irish malt. Within a short time, Bertie became the Palace kingpin or, in sporting parlance, the midfield maestro.
Under Smyllie’s patronage the Palace became ‘the home of international fame and intellectual refreshment.’ According to John Ryan (Proprietor of the Bailey and author of Remembering How We Stood), Smyllie took up prime position each night in the centre of the room “wedged in his chair, looking like a stranded bull walrus”. Night after night, the aspiring literary men of Dublin came to pay homage. A nod of acceptance from the fat man and you had it made.
Each Saturday the Irish Times published a literary page for which Smyllie paid £1 for each poem published. Paddy Kavanagh, the poet from the stony grey soil of Monaghan, was a frequent beneficiary. And £1 was like manna from heaven to the impecunious Kavanagh. Myles na gCopaleen became a long-term recipient too as Smyllie commissioned him to write the Cruiskeen Lawn column each week for the paper.
Bertie Smyllie became Ireland’s first literary talent spotter, which enormously benefited the impoverished the Dublin literary world of the 40s and 50s. He additionally encouraged the many Irish writers, who had their works banned, to continue writing by commissioning articles for the Times.
Smyllie, the man himself, enjoyed a great love affair with the Palace showing enormous respect to proprietor Bill Aherne and his staff. He was especially fond of the large Irish (whiskey), which Bill Aherne bottled and labelled himself. On one occasion Bertie left the environs of the Palace to check out McDaid’s, but returned shortly afterwards with facial expressions of disgust and horror. He had just witnessed an inebriated Brendan Behan, standing on a table, rendering ‘I am Lady Chatterley’s Lover.”
Smyllie’s patronage of the Palace continued until he died suddenly on September 11, 1954. His larger-than-life presence was sadly missed in the Palace bar but his memory continues to loom large in the Palace narrative.