11 MAY 1996, Page 28

Sir: Of course many Irish clergy and laity must have

been traumatised by the brutal excesses of the occupying English (how sad that they didn't have the milder yoke of the Germans, French, Belgians and Dutch as exemplified in their colonies).

As a very young child I was evacuated during the war to Ireland and, in common with several other children of Irish stock but with parents in England or the Empire, was sent to a prep school run by nuns in Munster. I remember on either 10th or 11th December 1941 the lights in our dor- mitory being snapped on and the matron rejoicing loudly at the sinking of the Prince of Wales and Repulse. Such a comfort for small boys, especially those whose fathers were in the Services in Malaya. Doubtless the dear lady wished to share her trauma with her charges.