Recent articles by Val Noone

3 November 2024
Fake news, Melbourne 1966: migrant German priest was a U-boat commander who defied Hitler
A few years ago Ken Haddock, a retired social worker, discovered that a legendary folk tale of Melbourne Catholicism was false. For decades Father Wally Silvester (1919-2005), a charismatic Pallottine priest, has been treated with awe as a former U-boat commander, and hailed as a war hero who defied Hitler by saving enemy Russian sailors.

30 July 2023
War crimes and bravery: Meeting Daniel Ellsberg in 1977
For over seven years [working for the US government] I have been preoccupied with our involvement in Vietnam. In that time I have seen it first as a problem; then as a stalemate; then as a crime - Daniel Ellsberg, 1971.