Jeopardy, Intrigue, Juntas, Jails and The Third Man - fear was the key to the greatest Irish sporting mystery of all time
David Irwin was a spectator, Willie Anderson was convicted for his part, but just who was the third man who took the flag down...
Rugby never knew the old Buenos Aires before the Falklands War with its tango music, its glamour and easy charm.
“The city didn’t really look any worse than a lot of European capitals at that time, bashed about a bit maybe.
“Oh, I was going to tell you about Willie Anderson, an Irishman. Came all the way here to visit with a sports team. Anyway there he was, poor chap, happy as a lark and without a cent...”
That’s a pastiche of the opening lines of the 1949 film noir classic The Third Man starring Orson Welles as Harry Lime and written about Vienna and Strauss etc.
Anderson’s time in Argentina would also make for a classic film, being arrested, jailed and convicted of stealing a flag from a government building.
A harrowing tale from a country 10 months into a repressive military regime hell-bent on confrontation with Britain ahead of the Falklands War.
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There were three people at the scene of the crime, Ireland international David Irwin who was a spectator, Anderson and one other who had climbed on Anderson’s shoulders and taken the flag.
Irwin was arrested but released free of charge 15 days later; Anderson spent three months on remand, was found guilty and given a two-year suspended sentence; the Third Man was neither questioned, detained or arrested.
His identity is still a mystery.
“I put it out there at the time the book was being written and it fell on deaf ears,” says Anderson today.
“He had the chance to say anything and he didn’t do so...I sorta made a moral or a value whenever that person didn’t come forward. We are not mentioning you. If you wanna be like that, fine.”
That Penguin tour had seemed such a good idea, the prospect of visiting a foreign land, playing rugby and having monumental crack had attracted Anderson.
“It wasn’t a freebie, but it wasn’t full whack either, maybe £200/300 for my place,” says the second-row, a university student at the time. “I worked on a farm that summer and begged, borrowed to get the rest together.
“Argentina’s military junta had taken over in March 1976, the same month I had just turned 21 in Northern Ireland, where 11 people were either shot dead or blown up in five separate terrorist attacks.
“When we had got to Buenos Aires, we had seen the Mother of the Disappeared protesting near the pink house, the Presidential Palace. These were the Madres de Plaza Mayo who would gather every Thursday in front of the Palace.
“It was almost like a tourist attraction except that lots of locals I think were looking the other way. It washed over us at the time to be honest. I wasn’t following events in Argentina too closely. It could have been one big hippie commune over there for all I knew!
“We are talking about war crimes on a grand scale, except there wasn’t a war.
“The Junta had set out on what they called the Process of National Reorganisation, which was basically a murder campaign against anyone who was left of centre, had something to protest about or just didn’t think the way the Generals did.
“The Penguins say their touring policy is to give a detailed briefing on the destination and what to expect there. I’m not saying it didn’t happen, but if it did, it sailed clean over my head.
“None of the lads I’ve spoken to since can remember it either and off we went. This was 1980, the Junta was in its prime, and I (would end up on) the wrong side of the law.”
The opening games in Cordoba and Parana were tough and, having beaten Banco Nacional on August 10, the Penguins were out celebrating a third win.
Anderson added: “So I end up with Frank Wilson and another lad, we’ll call Mr. A. We’re heading back to the hotel when we pass this official looking building with yet another Argentine flag on it.
“It was the Office of the Secretary of Information of Argentina, an important building. I got Mr. A to come across the road with me and tossed him up on my shoulders to get the flag which was out of my reach.”
From there, the trio went back to the team hotel for a few beers with the rest of the squad.
“A few minutes later, liaison man Carlos Guarna was at the door. When he had got back to our hotel, the receptionist called him over and said there was a serious problem, that one of the players had arrived back with the national flag under his jacket. That would be me.
“So Carlos is asking questions, ‘Relax, Carlos — it’s only a flag. They are all over town for f**k sake’. However there is a knock on the door not long after.
“Next thing, there were five or six policemen on the scene, heavily armed and wearing those long blue coats. They are fairly agitated. They want the flag back. ‘No hay problema, amigos’. And they want the culprits as well. That was tricky.
“It was entirely my idea to take the flag but Mr. A, who helped me, was reversing at speed. He said his job would disappear if he was caught up in a criminal action. Fair enough, I wasn’t thinking that far ahead. The police want the names of those involved. I already have my hands up.”
Everybody in the room is told to get their passports.
“They take mine and Frank’s and Davy’s and the next one in the queue is John Palmer from Bath. He hadn’t been with us at all. Ginger McLaughlin volunteered to come as well. They looked at his passport.
“A blue passport from the United Kingdom...with the Crown front and centre fitted the description. They now had four blue ones and a green one. They weren’t interested in green. The significance of that didn’t dawn on me at the time.”
The four players with UK passports were whisked off in police cars with sirens blazing to Policia de la Ciudad where they’re separated.
Anderson talks of being stripped naked, fingerprinted and, later on that day, listening to a man from the British embassy begin to explain the nightmare:
“’You don’t appreciate the gravity of the situation,’ he said. ‘This is very, very serious to these people. There are a few generals in the Junta who would happily see you executed. Others want you doing 10 years hard labour in the south of Argentina. We have to be careful and hope they see sense.”
Following a court appearance Porter is released but Anderson, Irwin and Wilson are remanded, handcuffed and taken by police van to Section U22, Camara Criminal Building Detention Centre, Valmonte 1155, surrounded by criminals and those the regime see as ‘terrorists’.
On August 26 the case comes up for a ruling, Irwin and Frank are to be released but Anderson, now reduced to prisoner 49010, is to be held under arrest at the team hotel where, on arrival, a bizarre scene unfolds.
“One of the embassy staff puts his fingers to his lips , like ‘don’t utter a word’. He goes into the bathroom and turns on the shower and taps. ‘We are probably being listened to,” he says.
Room 409 of Hotel of Asociation Bancaria became Anderson’s prison for two and a half months as he waited for the case to come to trial. In mid-November Anderson was told the state prosecutor had sentenced a group of ‘terrorists’ who had been on remand for five years.
However, a week later he got a phone call, his case had been heard, he was found guilty, sentenced to two years suspended, there was no ban on travel.
It was time to scarper.
There is a famous picture of Anderson wearing his Dungannon RFC blazer and Penguins tie arriving bleary-eyed at Aldergrove airport.
“I would love to go back to Argentina again.
“We were so naive, we didn’t know at the time that it was a fascist country and people were being locked up every week.
“I did my time in ways, a suspended sentence and that was it. I wasn’t deported so that was another factor, I had a ‘get out!’.
“It was a two-year sentence. If it had been two years and one day (by Argentina law it couldn’t have been suspended) I would have done 10 years.”
*The Penguins are celebrating their 65th anniversary on February 21 at the Twickenham Stoop (tickets via membership@penguinrugby.com).
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