Exactly.

Damn you, historical fact, making the line, “Dublin’s All-Time Worst Business Naming Decisions”, sound a bit silly.

Yeah, and the word Pussy used to mean kitten, but try shouting “Hey! Show us your pussy!” and then claiming you are only interested in cats. You have to be pragmatic. Yes, they shouldn’t HAVE TO change their name, but
there are plenty of decent “Bin Ladin”s and “Hitler” families who changed their names when they took on a different connotation.
From the business owner’s point of view, did he/she never question what people thought. It was either “Hmm, interesting name, I bet there is a harmless story behind that one, I’ll go in and find out” or “Swastika? What are they, Nazis? I’m not going there…”. Personally, if it was my business I’d not take the chance.

Conor, the swastika and Hindu symbol of peace are two different things.

Schindler is a Swiss company, they operate worldwide.

There is, and it was founded by the same family as Oskar.

Oddly enough Hitler’s sister in law was actually a Dublin woman named Bridget Dowling. His brother Alois Hitler worked in the Shelbourne Hotel and that’s how he and Bridget met, they had a son called William Patrick Hitler. Apparently there’s a rumour that Adolf himself visited the Dowling family in Dublin at some stage, so maybe it’s not not so far fetched after all!

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

You’ll be telling us Hitler himself was Irish next.

He did indeed Sean, and William Patrick Hitler fought on the American side during WW2. He had four son’s that vowed never to have children in an attempet to wipe out the Hitler gene. Last time I heard three of them were still alive and living under a different name in America

Sorry, not Sean, meant to type Liam

@ Mary,

You are right. And did you know that before he went to america, he tried to blackmail this uncle into giving him better jobs while in Germany. The blackmail was that hitler was a decendant of a rich jewish banking merchant.
Hitler said he could have a better job if he gave up his british citizenship and stayed in germany. He feared it was a trap and then fled to america.

It’s no wonder Swastika Laundry kept their name. The Irish Free State was a secret and avid supporter of the Nazis. Didn’t IRA man Eamon Devalera send a letter of condolence after Hitler’s death? And then there was the failed importation of Nazi arms.

What the Irish failed to realise is that the Nazis would have wiped them out better than the famine.

That’s me off for lunch.

Ah feck sake William! Your trolling is getting too predictable.

Cheers for the history lesson Wilhelm Cearl MacThomais!!

And your views on Swastika Laundry?

You’re wrong about my “crusade against Irish people”, Kevin. My gardener is from southern Eire and I get on very well with him, even though our views are very different.

It’s as ridiculous as Unionist paramilitaries using the red hand of the O’Neill Clan on their flags.

*Loyalist Paramilitaries… don’t want to upset anyone!!

It was probably owned and run by some fringe lunatic. To be honest, I have no idea why they kept their name but that’s the whole point Wilheim – you don’t know either so don’t jump to silly conclusions about an entire country based on one anecdote about a silly laundrymat.

What’s more interesting is how you use this little tit-bit as a means of opportunistic racism to vilfy Irish people. Your comments are usually made up of nothing more then sweeping generalisations and they always bear the hallmarks of a bigot.

People like you are an affront to everything we’ve achieved in NI. Your comment about once meeting an Irish person that you liked is amusing to say the least.

The Swastika was (and still is) used as a religious symbol before it was hijacked by the Nazis. I doubt very much that whoever ran the laundry was a supporter of the Nazis.

@william it’s true my grandad was stationed in bundoran and told me they would refill u boats that came in

@ WCT – I’m afraid that your claim is untrue. There was support for the Nazi regime amongst Certain Irish politicians at the time, as there were in most countries ( remember that the truth of what has occurring in Europe was not common knowledge until relatively late in the war ), but this remained as individual support. There was absolutely no government-led or highly organised support, whether overt or covert. This myth mostly spring’s from Dev’s policy of developing a “Celtic Irish” mythos to bolster national identity which was similar to what all European fascists, not just the German National Socialists, we’re up to. That said, it’s always worth remembering that Nationalism and Socialism is never a healthy mix.

Swastika Laundry “We purposely keep your blacks separate from your whites and we make your whites whiter than white” :P

@ Karswell, that’s a cheap shot and a stale joke about nationalism and socialism. You stole the line from Eureka Street, I’d guess. Good book. Of course it’s possible to be a nationalist and a socialist without being a Nazi.

They would’ve changed the name but they clean forgot to…

The launderette opened in 1912, long before Hitler rose to the ranks. I’m sure the family just didn’t see the need to change the name. You have to remember, this was a time before free media, most people didn’t have tv or radio and Ireland was a very small, closed off country. It probably wasn’t a big deal to anyone here because they weren’t bombarded with the Hitler aspect of it unlike if it were to happen today. Back then you relied heavily on your business name to keep the money coming in, especially if you had managed to build up a good one.

I think you’re right Dave. Also, the laundry logo in the pics in the article has vertical and horizontal lines. The version in the picture accompanying this article has the lines at an angle.

The positioning is a factor isn’t it? The Nazi one was at an angle and the Hindu swastika was the straight one like this. It was in the film of the Da Vinci code and all when Tom Hanks’ character was talking about symbolism.

Ah. I see. The article is referring to the bag rather than the pic at the top. Why put that pic there in the first place?

Hello David and Dave! Sharp eyes award – the top picture (I assume you’re reading in the app) is a file image of a swastika. Copyright restrictions on Imgur (where Tadhg’s photo is hosted) mean we can only use their images in certain places, so we have to use a placeholder elsewhere. Hope that clears it up!

Thanks michael , that makes sense , was pretty sure the image used was actually the official nazi one ( as per the furher regulations ;) cheers

The swastika used by Hitler was also a Nordic rune symbol, another example is the two lightning strike symbols used by the SS.(sigel rune)
It’s all connected by the Indo-European ethnic group now known as the Aryans.(which itself is a Sanskrit word).

The Aryan myth is the silliest part of it all. The best proof that, far from being rational and scientific, the Nazis believed in a ridiculous hotch-potch of occult and new age absurdity. Yes, the Aryans were an ethnic group that originated in northern India. Yes, they probably had fairer skin than more southerly Indian ethnic tribes. But no, they would not ever have been classified as Caucasian. It’s a bit like saying a pineapple is a superior form of a banana.

Confusion been cleared up now by the journal , when I first read this article there was no laundry bag pic there only the black n white pic with the title saying relic to laundry business , I was merely pointing out that the pic used in fact resembled the actual nazi swastika and not a relic from the dublin business but michael from journal has now clarified that was the case so no need to call for Robert Langford

Not to mention the great Cork hurler Hitler Healy from Ballincollig.

Saves me having to visit Reddit

You mean it mightened always mean a union between two people who love each other?

Tom, the word marriage itself was hijacked. Originally it simply meant the joining together of any two items. Some rural communities in North Leinster, Wexford, Kent, East Anglia, etc. still use the word in such a way. E.g. locking two planks of timber together and ensuring there is no gap or step between them is known as “marrying the timbers”, especially common amongst farmers and shipbuilders.

The word matrimony comes from the latin matrimonium meaning, preparing for childbirth

You’re quite right Tom, matrimony does indeed come from the Latin matrimonium. However, matrimonium in its Latin form simply means “state or condition of motherhood”, so you are slightly off in definition there. Its link synonymously with “marriage” is simply based on the old belief that one must be married before legitimately having children. The major problem with your definition lies in the fact that you never mentioned matrimony – you mentioned “marriage” which has been used in English, together with its verb “marry”, since the middle of the 13th century to signify any joining together of two, and sometimes more, parts. The Middle English word mariage derives ultimately, via Old French, from the Latin maritare which simply means “to be provided with a husband or wife”, with no special mention of the sex of the individual being provided with a husband or wife. “Matrimony” has as its ultimate root the word mater meaning “mother”. “Marriage” has as its ultimate root the word mas meaning “male”.

Eh?