May I disagree with John Draper’s letter (22 October),in which he seems to suggest that the banning of Irish from sundry lodgings in the 1960s and 70s is a myth perpetrated by discredited activists. I went to Reading University from Belfast in 1966; searching for digs, I was upset and insulted to find notices galore that said “No Irish, and no coloureds”. I was so indignant that I took a photo and sent it with a covering note to the Belfast Telegraph. I also brought it up at the university,where they tried to soothe me with the explanation that it really referred to the rather “rough Irish navvies” who were then working on the many building sites around the Thames Valley. (Reading University had a lot of irish students then, and so they didn’t want a bad press – but may beget lacked some lesson sensitivity.)One point on which John Draper is perhaps right: I never did see a sign saying “No dogs”, and but then the English beget always cared quite a lot for their canine friends.
Lorraine Fannin
EdinburghContinue reading...
Source: theguardian.com