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The Story of Steve – An Immigrant’s Tale
By
Dan Remenyi
This is a biography and a ghost story set in various parts of the world
including the slums of post war Dublin and the
plush life of colonial Africa.
From his arrival in Ireland
from Hungary
as a Radio Officer on board the ship Vicia in 1941, Steve Remenyi was faced
with what might have been for others, insurmountable problems. His ship was
trapped in Dublin.
He couldn’t speak English and he didn’t know anyone in Ireland.
But Steve was both an optimist and a survivor and made the most of the
challenges facing him. So he started a business.
Then marrying, seeing his business go broke and having a child in war
time Dublin
were just a few of the adventures he faced. After the war ended he returned
to the sea with Irish Shipping and became involved in the lucrative Irish
Hospitals Sweepstakes operation. This changed his life dramatically. But for
various reasons this new found comfortable life in Mount
Merion in Dublin’s then fashionable South Side
did not last long.
He moved with his family to South Africa
and then Rhodesia.
This was during the heydays of apartheid in South
Africa and the rule of the Settler Government in Rhodesia.
Nonetheless it seemed that he never achieved the
promised success which he had thought possible when leaving Ireland for a new life in the
Southern hemisphere – or did he? He died early when just 65 years old.
But his death was not the end of the story. Steve’s memory did
not rest in peace. It transpired that he was a highly secretive man. This
immigrant’s tale reached out from beyond the grave to touch the life of
his three children – each in different ways. It led me from adventures
in the pastoral Hungarian countryside to the sinister gates of Auschwitz itself.
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