Sir, – The fact that Des O’Malley was expelled from Fianna Fáil for “conduct unbecoming” calls to mind the use of this phrase in an earlier era. In the 1920s, when he was a pupil at King’s School, Canterbury, Patrick Leigh Fermor – later a travel writer – was sacked for “conduct unbecoming”.
His mortal offence was to be found sitting on upturned apple baskets in a local greengrocer’s shop, holding the hand of Nellie, the greengrocer’s daughter. – Yours, etc,
PAUL CLEMENTS,
Ravenhill,
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Belfast.