The swastika incident
Sir: I must be one of the children Lord Sligo asks to finish the great swastika incident story (15 February), so I should oblige. Unfortunately his story is false in every particular.
My father went to live in Ireland six years after the war when Labour had already left power (for what that was worth). He never lived in or anywhere near Tuam. He neither farmed nor kept cattle in Ireland, so no friendly cattle dealer could have had 'cattle business' with him. Such a man never took my brother and me to an All-Ireland final. I am sorry to say neither of us has ever been to one or ever set foot in Croke Park. The huge swastika flag is a figment of the same imagination. No swastika flag of any size was ever kept in our house nor, if there had been, could we have found it in Father's study at the top of the house. No such place existed.
My brother once modified an old BUF flag by removing the lighting flash and substituting the slogan 'Up Galway'. I believe he used it at a hurling match in Limerick. Perhaps this is the origin of Lord Sligo's story but, more probably, he is the victim of a leg-pull or cod as it is known in Galway. That is hardly surprising. Codding is as popular as hurling in the west of Ireland, especially as practised on outsiders or gullible members of the ascendancy. It is more surprising that the Spectator should publish such an amateur little piece without making the simplest check.
Alexander Mosley
31 rue de l'Universite, Paris
Previous page
