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Just to update this topic, I've been in touch with Raleigh in Nottingham.  I can't speak highly enough of how helpful they've been.  I've also been in contact with An Garda Síochána at their museum in Dublin Castle, to investigate the possibility of using some old Raleigh advertisements from the Garda Review in the 1930s.*  It seems the Garda chose Raleigh to provide their service machines even before the latter were made in Ireland, which is interesting.  Maybe there were no viable Irish-made alternatives at the time.  Anyway, the Irish Times is very kindly going to publish a letter appealing for information from anyone with knowledge of the factory (the letter should appear over the next few days), and I'm contemplating contacting one of the RTE radio programmes to see if I can get a spot on there.  Plenty of reads on here too, so I'm hopeful of getting some information.

*These old advertisements are wonderful, and may be seen on royalirishconstabulary.com if you click the sidebar labelled An Garda Síochána on the home page.  I mentioned the cross-frame machine to my contact at Raleigh, and he told me he has an old police bike exactly like that in his office!  You can still buy one of those in Holland, where it's known as a pastoorsfiets (priest's bike).  Apparently, it's easier to ride wearing a cassock.

I was surprised to discover that Raleigh, the large bicycle manufacturer based in Nottingham, also had a factory in Hanover Quay, Dublin.  This was set up at the end of the 1930s, and operated until it burnt down in 1976.  It seems to have made a full range of models, including a special cross-frame Garda machine with black enamel instead of the usual chrome plating.  One of the last machines to come out of the factory would have been the Chopper.

Later Irish-built bicycles can be identified by the absence of the usual "Made in Nottingham" lettering on the head badge, and some carry a "Made in Eire" or "Made in the Republic of Ireland" mark.  The factory also seems to have assembled the Sturmey-Archer gear hubs usually found on adult bikes of the period.

It appears that the factory continued to build bicycles right through the Emergency, while the Nottingham factory was switched from bikes to war production, like so many other English factories.  I wonder, then, if they made all their own parts from scratch in Dublin, rather than just assembling them?

I made some enquiries at Hodges Figgis, and it seems that nobody has, as yet, written a book about this factory.  I'm sure it's a fascinating chapter in the history of cycling in Ireland.  Sadly, it seems the factory's records were lost in the fire.  However, I'm fairly sure there must still be plenty of people around who worked there, or have some knowledge of its operation - or simply reminiscences of cycling in Ireland before the Emergency.

As a vintage bicycle enthusiast, I'd like to explore the possibility of putting a book together and approaching an Irish publisher with it.  If anybody has any information or ideas and is willing to help, could they please send a personal message in the first instance, and I'll reply with an email address.  Many thanks for any assistance.

Sadly, RTE have put a geoblock on the Player, so you can only receive it in the Republic or Northern Ireland.  Curiously, though, I was talking to someone yesterday in Edinburgh who can access it there.  She'd posted a link to the RTE version of Who Do You Think You Are? on a family history forum I belong to.  We have no idea why she can get it in Scotland and I can't in Lancashire.

Shane, many thanks for that information.  On the English side of the family, trades (painters and stonemasons) seem to pass down through several generations of the family.  It's odd that Thomas Griffin was a bootmaker and his three sons were all labourers, albeit in a good firm like Jacob's.  I saw "Who do you think you are?" earlier in the week, and Jacob's were featured.  I had no idea they were such a model employer, a bit like Guinness, with health care and dental provision, a swimming pool, dances, etc.  I note that they maintain records of employees a very long time ago.  If ever I'm over, I must see if anybody can have access to those, or are they just for high-profile television programmes.

I'd like to find out more about my great-grandfather Thomas Griffin's occupation as a bootmaker, assuming that's what it says on the cert.  Did he work for somebody else, or would he ever have had premises of his own?  I find it odd that my father never referred to this at all, although he often spoke of his father's work at Jacob's.  Over here in England, there seem to be very detailed and useful trade directories for the late 19th century.  I assume the same must exist for Dublin, and I wonder if anyone has access to these?  Thomas Griffin lived at 40 Chamber Street in 1894, the year his son (my grandfather) was married.  He's gone from there by the 1911 Census, although his wife (or widow, presumably) is still there.