Sir, – Alan Turing, the computer pioneer, was not alone at Bletchley Park (Britain’s top secret second World War decoding centre) in being of Irish descent (Phil Maguire, An Irishman’s Diary, June 23rd).
My late father, John James Doherty, attended Knockastolar National School, St Eunan’s College Letterkenny and Birmingham University before spending the war at Bletchley Park as a cryptanalyst and translator.
While his languages – German, French, Italian, Spanish, Polish, Russian, Latin, Greek – were fully utilised, he never disclosed whether his knowledge of Irish helped in Hitler’s defeat. – Yours, etc,