Spike tries to prove he is Irish
Spike’s father, Leo Alphonsus Milligan, was born
in Holborn Street, Sligo, in 1890.
William Milligan and family moved to London in the late
1890s, where he worked in theatre.
Little Leo appeared in child walk-on roles and with Fred
Karno’s Knockabout Kids, alongside a then-unknown
boy called Charlie Chaplin. Later, he was forced by his
father to join the army at 14 and was posted to India, where
he met Florence Kettlebrand and fell in love with her and
her voice.
Spike was born in India, and he lived most of his adult
life in England, but he always considered Ireland home.
When his third daughter was born in 1958, Spike named her
Sile (an Irish version of Sheila).
He wrote his first novel, Puckoon, "to prove I was
Irish and to prove to my father that I was a writer... and
when it was published, everyone thought I’d been to
Ireland."
He had actually visited very briefly - in 1947.
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