December 2025
The final DDHS talk of 2025 was given by author and director of Valvona and Crolla Ltd Mary Contini and the presentation – informative, educational and entertaining – was very well received by a large turnout of members on a wild and windy December evening. Below you can see slides from the talk, with text based on information from Mary Contini and links by Dr James Herring.
The photo above shows an Italian immigrant in the early 20th century with his ice cream cart and such carts could be seen all over Britain. The ice cream sellers shouted ecco un poco which translates as here is a little bit and this was anglicised to hokey pokey. Mary Contini told the audience that before the invention of cones in the early 20th century, ice cream was served as penny licks i.e. on glass dishes. Buyers licked the ice cream off the dish and returned it to the seller who washed it. This was seen as – and was – unhygienic and this practice was banned. The carts started to sell ice cream in cones and people have enjoyed doing so ever since.
Mary Contini then cited the many Italian families which came to East Lothian in the early 20th century and these included her own family, Di Ciacca. Mary’s grandfather Cesidio Di Ciacca opened The Cockenzie Cafe (photo above) which was both a fish and chip shop/restaurant on the right of the entrance and an ice cream parlour on the left. Other prominent families in East Lothian included Luca in Musselburgh, and Togneri, Corriere and Greco in Dunbar. You can read more about the cafe above and the Di Ciacca family here.
This site states It was 70 years ago, 10 June 1940, that Italy declared war on the Allies, sparking the internment of many Italians living in Scotland. In the talk, Mary Contini told of anti-Italian riots in Edinburgh at this time but East Lothian was free of such events. The photo above shows the Arandora Star which was a converted liner and was used to transport over 800 people to Canada. Most of the passengers were Italians classed as enemy aliens. The audience was told that the ship was sunk by a torpedo and 800 of the unwilling passengers were killed. Amongst them was Guiseppe Togneri, originally from Barga but who lived in Dunbar. While his brother – fish and chip shop owner John – took out naturalisation papers, Guiseppe was too late and was deported. You can read more on this tragedy on this DDHS post.
Mary Contini has written for adults and for children and you can see (and buy!) her books from Waterstones here.
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