Nazi Laundry in Bray?

Miguel_Sanchez · 13-01-2005 3:46pm #1

There used to be a laundry in Bray called 'Swastika and Bell' or something along those lines. Saw a photo in the paper from a book about Bray. It was taken in 1947.

Surely people would have changed the name after the second world war?

Anyone know anything about this?

RicardoSmith · 13-01-2005 3:49pm

There was some pro-german support in Ireland I thought.

iMax · 13-01-2005 3:50pm

The swastika in it's original form is a symbol of peace. There's many swastika laundries all over the world. The Nazis hijacked & modified the symbol.

WhiteWashMan · 13-01-2005 3:50pm

there used to be a really big chimney in balls bridge that had a huge swastika on it and called swastika (funnily enough) that was part of a laundrey.

i think they whole swastika thing is a little off, because it used to be used as a symbol for all things furtile and all that stuff years before the nazis took it as thier emblem.

much the same way as the roman salute was taken.
gladiators used an open hand straight arm salute in the arenas.

CyberGhost · 13-01-2005 3:53pm

WhiteWashMan wrote:

there used to be a really big chimney in balls bridge that had a huge swastika on it and called swastika (funnily enough) that was part of a laundrey.

i think they whole swastika thing is a little off, because it used to be used as a symbol for all things furtile and all that stuff years before the nazis took it as thier emblem.

much the same way as the roman salute was taken.
gladiators used an open hand straight arm salute in the arenas.

Thanks for the lesson, damn Nazis how could they just modify everything to look evil, saying this though I must add that I like German people.

Kingsize · 13-01-2005 4:04pm

"Surely people would have changed the name after the second world war?"

i think the one in ballsbridge was only taken down within the last 10 years,
it was definitely still there in the mid 1980's.

joejoem · 13-01-2005 4:05pm

There is a house in terrenure built in the shaape of a swastica. Rumour has it, that it was the home of an ex German Operative who moved here after the war. In arial photos you can see it very clearly.

Third_Echelon · 13-01-2005 4:12pm

^^^ interesting, must check that out..

The swastika is a buddhist symbol as far as i know.

Borzoi · 13-01-2005 4:14pm

There used to be a Swastika laundary in Dun Laoghaire too. Don't know when it closed but the old sign was still there above the shop in the 80s

WhiteWashMan · 13-01-2005 4:19pm

well, wasnt ireland one of only two countries in the world who sent the german people a letter of condolence on the death of hitler?

Third_Echelon · 13-01-2005 4:20pm

The Taoiseach was probably p1ssed at the time and thought it would be funny....

joejoem · 13-01-2005 4:22pm

Borzoi wrote:

There used to be a Swastika laundary in Dun Laoghaire too. Don't know when it closed but the old sign was still there above the shop in the 80s

What shop was that?

joejoem · 13-01-2005 4:26pm

This statement was believed by many. The Times of London printed Hitler's obituary next day. President Valera of Ireland sent his condolences to the German ambassador in Dublin. But it was untrue. Hitler, as the world was later told, had died the previous day and had not fallen in action, as a heroic martyr, but had committed suicide without leaving the Bunker under the Reichschancellery where he had been since 16 January 1945. Donitz perhaps had more than one reason for releasing the story he did. He may not have been aware of all the facts, but in any case he must have wondered how the German troops would have reacted if they had been told that their leader had not died a glorious death but had taken his own life.

Found this at

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/books/chap1/deathofhitler.htm

WhiteWashMan · 13-01-2005 4:29pm

ah, sure you cant believe everything you read in the papers!

timamansio · 13-01-2005 4:49pm

From this evening's Herald:

"The swastika - hijacked by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in the 1930s - is seen today as a symbol of evil. But thousands of years before the Second World War, it represented good luck and prosperity.

The word swastika has its roots in Sanskrit, the language of ancient India, but the actual symbol is older.

Almost every race, religion and continent honoured the swastika from American Indians and Buddhists to Aztecs and neolithic tribes. It is thought the swastika forms a combination of four Ls standing for Luck, Light, Love and Life.

From 1935 until the downfall of the Nazi regime in 1945, the swastika flag was the official flag of the Third Reich."

I too remember the Swastika laundry in Ballbridge. The chimney is still there (I think) but the signage on it has been taken down. The laundry itself became Irish Linen Services in the 1980s and then, Spring Grove in the 1990s. Offices are currently being built on the site now.

pickarooney · 13-01-2005 5:00pm

timamansio wrote:

Almost every race, religion and continent honoured the swastika from American Indians and Buddhists to Aztecs and neolithic tribes. It is thought the swastika forms a combination of four Ls standing for Luck, Light, Love and Life.

That was very far-sighted of the [strike]Indians[/strike] ancient peoples, to make a symbol with letters from a language that didn't exist yet.

The Hakenkreuz is an inverted swastika; the difference is obvious enough if you compare them. It's like using a Christian cross upside-down to donate an "evil" affiliation, but yet people don't seem to have a problem with the continued use of the right-way-up cross, a tool of execution/persecution, to denote Christian love-thy-neighbour values.

timamansio · 13-01-2005 5:24pm

pickarooney wrote:

That was very far-sighted of the [strike]Indians[/strike] ancient peoples, to make a symbol with letters from a language that didn't exist yet.

Yep, I thought that was strange too! But it was in the Herald so it must be true

neuro-praxis · 13-01-2005 5:47pm

pickarooney wrote:

It's like using a Christian cross upside-down to donate an "evil" affiliation, but yet people don't seem to have a problem with the continued use of the right-way-up cross, a tool of execution/persecution, to denote Christian love-thy-neighbour values.

Small point: the cross is not worn to signify moral values such as love thy neighbour - the empty cross is symbolic of the belief that Christ has risen and is no longer on the cross, but among us (spiritually speaking). It's also a profession of faith of the wearer in these events. The cross is symbolic of salvation and freedom - not of good deeds.

This is a really informative thread by the way, inspired me to do a little research on the swastika and on that story about de Valera offering his condolences.

WhiteWashMan · 13-01-2005 5:50pm

and your conclusions?

pickarooney · 13-01-2005 6:50pm

Whether true or not, Ireland's apparent offer of condolences after WWII is said to be the reason the German football team wears green as their away colour.

[edit]Not exactly that; they were the first team to play Germany after "the Emergency" (Apologies in advance for the mind-scarring layour of the linked page)[/edit]

pwd · 13-01-2005 6:55pm

i read that it was because they invited lots opf countires to play them at frienldy football matches and we were the only ones who would.

growler · 13-01-2005 7:48pm

the swastika type symbol is still used in hindu ceremonies , where the families exchange coconuts with the symbol on them at engagements .. which was very amusing when I was at the engagement of an hindu to a german friend of mine in Germany , you should have seen the look on the Germans' faces !

crazy angel · 13-01-2005 7:51pm

timamansio wrote:

From this evening's Herald:

"The swastika - hijacked by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in the 1930s - is seen today as a symbol of evil.

true some prince in england wore a shirt with it on it and now hes gettin loads of sh1t for it!

Evilution · 13-01-2005 8:16pm

CyberGhost wrote:

...damn Nazis, how could they just modify everything to look evil...

What, the same way that irish girls have modified a belly-top into an evil thing, simply by adding a gut? :mad:

The Real B-man · 13-01-2005 8:38pm

:rolleyes:

neuro-praxis · 13-01-2005 10:39pm

Conclusions, eh. God you're so demanding.

Well, the absolutely OVERWHELMING evidence points to yes, that ba$tard DeV did offer his condolences to the German ambassador (our very own admin!) [NB, this is not slander.]

As for the swastika, I just read about its history. Didn't really reach any conclusions as such. Did you know though, that there was a town in Canada called Swastika? I'm assuming they've changed their name by now. Still, it could be worse. The town could be called Myanus.

As for Prince Harry: what a very naughty boy.

Infini · 13-01-2005 11:50pm

CyberGhost wrote:

Thanks for the lesson, damn Nazis how could they just modify everything to look evil, saying this though I must add that I like German people.

The Nazi's were formed in a beer hall I believe. While the regime was evil the swastica was a peaceful symbol for thousands of years. It only remains evil as most people only know about its reference to the Nazi's and not it's original meaning.

RicardoSmith · 14-01-2005 12:43am

Infini wrote:

The Nazi's were formed in a beer hall I believe. ....

It was munich, where else do you go?

bus77 · 14-01-2005 3:42am

Was looking up something else when I came accross this little swastica nugget.

The second last piece on the page (1955)

http://worldatwar.net/timeline/ireland/18-48.html

Borzoi · 14-01-2005 9:29am

joejoem wrote:

What shop was that?

Can't remember the shop name, but it was about 2 doors up (nearer to the shopping centre) from McDonalds on the main st.

landser · 14-01-2005 9:39am

pickarooney wrote:

Whether true or not, Ireland's apparent offer of condolences after WWII is said to be the reason the German football team wears green as their away colour.

[edit]Not exactly that; they were the first team to play Germany after "the Emergency" (Apologies in advance for the mind-scarring layour of the linked page)[/edit]

this is not true. the first team to play germany after the war, in 1946, was switzerland. the reason that the germans play at home in white and black and away in green and white, is actually based on state colours. the white and black is prussia and the green and white, westphalia or saxony

the whole thing about ireland being linked to the choice of the german away strip is a myth i'm afraid

WhiteWashMan · 14-01-2005 9:41am

you cant believe everything you read on boards.ie

positron · 14-01-2005 9:52am

Swastika is very commonly used in India, is a sacred symbol as per Hinduism, and Hilter hijacked it – now I am not sure if that has got to do with ‘the Aryans’, the better race of people (Hinduism evolved out of Indus valley civilisation, Aryan and already-there-dravidas) - I could be wrong, I hope I am!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika

positron · 14-01-2005 9:58am

Oh, damn, some people still believe that!

The use of the swastika was associated by Nazi theorists with their conjecture of Aryan cultural descent of the German people. Allegedly, the Nazis believed that the early Aryans of India, from whose Vedic tradition the swastika sprang, were the prototypical white invaders. Thus, they saw fit to co-opt the sign as a symbol of the Aryan master race. The German nationalist poet Guido von List mistakenly believed it to be a uniquely Aryan symbol and Hitler himself referred to the swastika as the symbol of, "the fight for the victory of Aryan man" (Mein Kampf

magpie · 14-01-2005 10:52am

a) DeValera offered his condolences to Germany on the death of its head of state, which although somewhat tactless given who the head of state was, followed strict diplomatic protocol for the head of a neutral nation. Dev was a bit Jesuitical about these things, and it offered him an opportunity to thumb his nose at the British one suspects.

b) AFAIK the Swastika Laundry was set up by German refugees in 1945/46, so has little to do with Buddhism and mucho to do with the 3rd Reich. They used to have little leaflets on the 'meaning of the swastika'.

Anyone remember the house at the Leeson Street end of Appian Way called 'Spandau' which had little swastikas on the gate next to the name plate? A little old man in a beekepers hat used to live there. Apt Pupil anyone?

Nazi Laundry in Bray?

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