Remembering The Arandora Star, sunk by a torpedo from a German U boat on 2 July 1940
When I was growing up they were the two words which could bring a cloud into any conversation.
They were whispered in the back shops of the Scottish Italian community or muttered quickly in the hope that they would never need to be mentioned again.
Arandora Star.
I thought everybody knew the story of the boat which sank off the Irish coast with the loss of nearly 700 lives - the majority of them Italian nationals.
As I got older, however, I realised this was not the case.
Indeed, there were only puzzled looks when you mentioned the name of the liner which sank during World War 2 while carrying hundreds of Italian and German internees.
Yet 2 July 1940 is a date which carries a terrible echo for descendants of the many immigrants who died.
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They were whispered in the back shops of the Scottish Italian community or muttered quickly in the hope that they would never need to be mentioned again.
Arandora Star.
I thought everybody knew the story of the boat which sank off the Irish coast with the loss of nearly 700 lives - the majority of them Italian nationals.
As I got older, however, I realised this was not the case.
Indeed, there were only puzzled looks when you mentioned the name of the liner which sank during World War 2 while carrying hundreds of Italian and German internees.
Yet 2 July 1940 is a date which carries a terrible echo for descendants of the many immigrants who died.