“They said Captain Redmond was married years ago to an actress who doesn’t live with him, so he can’t be going to marry one of Martin Murphy’s daughters. I asked Mrs P. could a Catholic remain in the Church who married outside rites or after being divorced (á propos Fitzgerald of the Island & also Callaghan) & she said no…”
NLI Call Number: MS 32582/34
NLI Catalogue Link can be found here
Date Range of Diary: August 10th – 26th October 1918
WEEK 50: 9th – 15th September
Monday 9th Sept. – I went to the Tech in the morning & found Mr Shea had an idea of altering the modelling & metal room so that the outer door is locked & only the one into the art room used. Mamma went to town that morning & I went back to meet her, & in Catherine St we found a skeleton cat trying to get in at a house & crying; the house wouldn’t have him, nor any other house so I had to bring him home. He
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ate & slept comfortably, and was not frightened or shy, but of course Simon didn’t like him.
Tuesday 10th. – I went to the hotel in the evening & found Mrs P. Marie, Kitty and Brendan O’Toole in the little diningroom. Tash introduce announced me as Father Furlong, to the consternation of all. We went to 6 then, & presently K. Hicks came in. Brendan looks well enough, neither plain nor handsome, & seemed entertained with the conversation but contributed very little to it. They said Captain Redmond was married years ago to an actress who doesn’t live with him, so he can’t be going to marry one of Martin Murphy’s daughters. I asked Mrs P. could a Catholic remain in the Church who married outside outside
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rites or after being divorced (á propos Fitzgerald of the Island & also Callaghan) & she said no, & wasn’t that how Protestantism began – Henry VIII etc. I wonder do all Catholics think that. I had to go away at 8 to a gen. meeting at the Fianna hall. They were rather rowdy & noisy, but we got through some business & chose a new sec, Mary Joe Mountain, in place of Angela Quinn who’s gone to London.
Wednesday 11th. – I went to the Tech & went on with the jade pin I started before the holidays, & drew a lot of silver wire. Aunt Bessie came to tea. She had a marvellous story in daily numbers, called Barbara Allen, which Ben sent her every day since she came, to
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amuse her. It was most improper – all obstetrical, á propos of D’s book in Tochs Tokology. I wonder what he’d think if a woman wrote an amusing story all about the corresponding male function. I had to go to a committee at the Club.
Thursday 12th. – Mrs Power came to tea. She has an old store off Patrick St which she proposes to C na mb. & the girl scouts, & I was to go with her some day to see it. She was praising the Americans again so I told her the story of Miss Hunt & the man in the mill, & was confounded to discover that she thought it quite a correct mode of procedure, if they cause were good. I went to the general meeting at the club & the officers & committee
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were elected; the rank & file being as quiet & obedient as usual. Gallagher & Quinlan are vice presidents, Wheeler see, J. Wylie financial sec., Dr White & Durand treasurers. W. Doyle for Membership, Butler Propaganda, me for Literature, R. More for Social, Miles Fanning for Labour, Miss Skeffington C.na mb., Connolly Gaelic League, J.D. Walsh Volunteers,” J. Wylie Amusements. The other 5 were elected the next Sunday, out of 11 suggested, & were P. W. Kenny, Brazil, J.K. Walsh, Willie Walsh & Whittle. No report of any kind was produced.
Friday 13th. – I was to have got a root of a tooth out this morning but Jennings telephoned to me not to come. I found afterwards that he had
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no gas. I went to the Fianna hall in the evening by Whittle’s orders, to talk to Mac D. & the others about an idea Whittle had of picking blackberries for the election fund. It was pouring rain, & Mac D. wasn’t there, though I had asked him to let me know if he couldn’t be there by 8.30, & I had to search for him from Patrick St to Dr White‘s, where I found he lives now, & thence to his bur shop on the Mall, where I found him & he went at my request to confer with Whittle at the club. There was an election committee, & I found Whittle had arranged with MacD that I was to go to the hall the next night, time to be conveyed to me next day.
Saturday 14th. – Aunt Bessie called to
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say goodbye & to show us the end of Barbara Allen – which was inspired by genius, describing the end of the war in 1944 [sic] – a few men on each side, naked, hairy & covered with mud, making & throwing mud balls at each other in an enclosure, with people coming in excursion aeroplanes to look on, & rules representatives of the Powers standing by to see that the rules of the game are kept. I visited the carstand Powers a.d. & they scolded me for various things & talked scandal about Willie Walsh. I got no note from Whittle, but he paid us a visit in the evening. The Murrays went away for the weekend & left Gyp with us.
Sunday 15th. – I think it was a
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wet day. They came to dinner, & á propos of a scene in Barbara Allen, D. gave us a wonderful imitation of the way her father sometimes chokes over a crust or a crumb.
Monday 16th. I went to with Gyp vote at the club, & heard a couple of remarks from W. Doyle in the course of a conversation in the voting room which excited my curiosity very much – “Oh, Nicky has disgraced his name – or Tommy has disgraced Nicky’s name.” I suppose he meant T. Wylie.