SAD news first thing this morning of another good man gone: Harry Gregg, "The Hero of Munich" (a title he genuinely hated) had died at age 87. I was walking the Ulster Way for Radio Scotland when I learned that Harry was running a hotel in Portstewart. I phoned him and was invited to come and talk. We hit it off immediately and within minutes I was aware that this man would have impressed even if the disaster at Munich Airport had never happened. He had an honesty and quiet dignity that was demonstrated when he was invited by a newspaper to go to Canada to reunite with the mother and child (now a young woman) he had dragged from the burning plane. He agreed to the meeting, but only on the condition that that there was no publicity or razzmatazz of any kind. We exchanged cards for a while and I feature him in my ‘Songs Stories and Famous Folk.
When George Best asked Harry to join him in a night on the town and offered to get him a bird, Harry’s response was: “I’m not interested. First of all, I’m a good Catholic boy and I love my wife, Secondly, I’m 6 feet one, 13 stones and not a pick on me, I have curly hair and blue Irish eyes. Look at me and look at you, and YOU are going to get ME a bird?”
Jimmie Macgregor, Glasgow G20.
Foul play suspected
I AM in accord with Rab McNeil’s disquiet at the introduction of profanity in the BBC production of Agatha Christie’s The Pale Horse ("The BBC’s Agatha Christie dialogue is surely beyond the Pale", The Herald, February 15).
My understanding of gentility, social status, country houses, and the Orient Express, were nurtured by Agatha Christie paperbacks in the 1940s and 50s, and I quickly became at ease with the writer’s likeable and reputable malefactors, poisoners and murderers, and their good manners. Quite simply, coarseness and profanity in such refinement was unthinkable.
This crime against Christie merits investigation. Whodunit? And why?
R Russell Smith, Kilbirnie.
A Brexit consequence
BEING over 65 I asked for my Reduced Admission Ticket the other day at Athens’s 1896 Olympic Stadium, to be asked where I was from. When I replied “Scotland”, I was told in no uncertain terms: “You are no longer in the EU, no reduced admission.”. I decided not to argue with him and paid my €5.
George Kirrin, Beckenham.
Ice work
THE recent publicity surrounding the effects of wind-blown snow on bridge supporting cables here and elsewhere took me back to one of Bud Neill's cartoons. The picture is of a man reading from the daily newspaper that day's weather forecast. He says to his wife, who is standing nearby: "It says here, 'snow and ice', 's no nice, snow 'n ice"
Dear politicians, engineers, drivers and other experts on Scottish weather and what it does to structures, remember Bud Neill's observation that snow and ice 's no nice.
Ian Gray, Croftamie.
Storm in a B cup
ALASDAIR Fraser reports that Inverness Caley avoided a cataclysmic upset by defeating Rangers Colts by one goal in the Tunnock's Caramel Wafer Challenge Cup ("Inverness rally as Colts' cup run ends", Herald Sport, February 17). Earthquakes may be cataclysmic, but in a world of the coronavirus and Storm Dennis, to name but two, I have to ask whether no one oversees and edits the contributions of your more enthusiastic reporters.
David Miller, Milngavie.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here