“He said it was Redmond’s speech at the outbreak of war that converted him to Sinn Féin. I spent the afternoon at the club, & brought Miss Hoyne home to tea. After tea I found Miss Doyle at the club with a lot of big printed paper badges for next day, which she had fetched from Dublin, & we cut this out & stuck pins in them, aided by Dr White, till a late hour. “
NLI Call Number: MS, 3582/35
NLI Catalogue Link can be found here
Date Range of Diary: 29th October 1918 – 11th September 1919
WEEK 62: 9th – 15th December 1918
Monday 9th. – I was at the Tech all the morning & the club all the afternoon. Mrs Ryan was there.
Tuesday 10th. – Fine day. I went to the club early to guide strange canvassers (they have got a lot of strange helpers since Sunday) but they were going in parts I didn’t know, so I wrote in canvassers’ books with Miss Doyle etc.
Wed Thursday 12th. – Frightful busy times at the club. I went to the meeting house for tickets before going there. There was a great blow out in the evening to wind up with; I had to go to a “marshals’ meeting” in the afternoon, which is enlivened by
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the wit of Tom Walsh. Then May New & I had to stand in Colbeck St j while the crowds gathered & gu tell every woman where to go, & in the midst of this I found that C. Bewley, one of the speakers, wanted to be introduced to me, as I also did to him, thinking he might be a cousin. It turned out that he was, though we hadn’t time to make out how; he was a tall amiable looking young man with a slight moustache, very pleasant. We arranged that I should take him to see Tom at the office next morning. The procession was so long that we had to do evolutions up & down Colbeck St & Olave St le & up & down Parnell St like the waves of Tory, & such crowds of women (girls rather) I never saw even in Cille Cainnig in July 1917. We got started at last & went up [superscript: (great yelling at the corner of Barronstrand St where R. was having a meeting). the quay in awful mud, up Brid Thomas St & through the Glen (more yelling from a crowd at the corner) & through Hennessy’s Rd & Morrison’s Rd, which were
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blazing with candles & flags, a grand sight, as & there was plenty of welcome before us in Barrack St too, & much more in the Manor. It was exhausting work trying to keep the girls even. I didn’t stay for the meeting, but I heard afterwards that Miss Hoyne spoke at it, & was very good. Eileen & Sigle [sp.?] Power went in one brake, to my great surprise.
Friday 13th. – I went to the Granville hotel & took C. Bewley to the office & we paid Tom a long visit. C.B. knows Ned Stephen’s – they studied law together – & he laughs at him a good deal. He talked about the prospective school too, & a lot about election chances. He is Dr Bewley’s son, & a converted Catholic, confound him. His mother & some of his family of are Episcopal, & his brother in the army a Quaker, besides his father. He was very nice, except that he didn’t ask us to go see him when we were in Át Cliat, but that might be because his
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family wd not welcome Sinn Féiners. He said it was Redmond’s speech at the outbreak of war that converted him to Sinn Féin. I spent the afternoon at the club, & brought Miss Hoyne home to tea. After tea I found Miss Doyle at the club with a lot of big printed paper badges for next day, from which she had fetched from Dublin, & we cut this out & stuck pins in them, aided by Dr White, till a late hour. Then I delivered some notice cards up Newtown Road before going home.
Saturday 14th Dec. – I went down [superscript: Very fine day] to the club early & got sealing wax etc from Mrs Clancy for the ballot boxes. The M’Connell came saying there were not enough women working in some places, so I got leave from Whittle & went with her to Ballytruckle, where we got a list of women who were to be looked up, & I went after them. Some said they had voted; one I brought to the poll, & she
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had to wait some time to get in, as there was a great crowd, & all going in & coming out by the same door. She was an old Mrs Morrissey, & said there had been bishops in her family. Then Miss Pauline Moloney came along in a pony trap & took us up to do Klondyke, & I dropped my purse getting into the trap, with club money in it, & never found it again. Klondyke was all right, & full of flags, so we went to Julia Ayres, but found she had gone to vote already. Then I went to look after my purse, & then up to Francis St, thinking to meet the others there, but there was no sign of them. I went to houses with flags & made enquiries, & afterwards found a girl who told me Morgan St was done. Then I went back to the club & went up to Mt Sion with a message for Dr White – it was all quiet there then, & the only place where people even hooted me was New St
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& then went home to dinner. There were crowds of cars going everywhere; the Party seemed to have the most motors. After dinner I stopped at the club till P. Moloney came, then we went up to Emmet’s Place on a car with 2 men, after an old couple there of whom we only found the woman, who was drunk & said she wd vote for Redmond. Barrack St was more crowded & noisy then, & they said there was a lot of intimidation going on, & the strange Volunteers were confined to barracks & what the hell use were they? They were very forcible about it. We went to the Model School then to see if they wanted any voters brought, & pursued one voter out to Ballytruckle & found her sick with influenza & unable to go to the booth. Then the shafts of the trap broke from the 2 men standing in the back of it, & we went to Hearne’s on a car to get string to mend it, & one man & P.M. took back the string white the other, a very amiable, very young, rather small man, & I
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went up to the poorhouse on foot to see if they wanted anyone looked up. We met Mrs Ryan there, & she went with us to 2 voters families up Grange hill, one of which had voted at Ballygunner, & the other swore they were just going to the poorhouse. We returned to the club then, & I went home. After tea I went to St Declan’s, but there was no one but themselves there. T & I went down the club, but they had no settled opinions yet. Raftis was there, & said Sinn Féin was 6 to 1 at the Ferrybank polling booth. [shorthand symbols here]
Sunday 15th Dec. – I stayed in bed till nearly dinner time. D. & T. came. Mamma & Aunt H. both got to the Model school the day before, in very bad company; the Hands & Murrays & Miss Harris & Gertrude White. The latter found she had no vote. I didn’t go out at all.
Featured Image: Granville Hotel, Waterford 1922. (Image courtesy of National Library of Ireland, Poole Photographic Collection, POOLEWP3041)