“In the afternoon we went in to town in the motor and visited at Suirview and went to the theatre to see “David Garrick” by a company belonging to a man named Macready who gives the impression of thinking a lot of himself, and seems much admired. The play was no good; the only pleasant things in it were some parts of the drunken scene, though as a whole that was deplorable (“me murdered love!”) and the beautiful legs of one of the lowbred commercial guests, who otherwise was supremely hideous. Garrick might have made himself fairly goodlooking, but so much depends on dress & hair in those 18th century plays…”
NLI Call Number: MS, 3582/35
NLI Catalogue Link can be found here
Date Range of Diary: 29th October 1918 – 11th September 1919
WEEK 82: 2nd – 8th June 1919
Monday 2 June. – I got the bits of furniture there is no room for at Sview and St Declan’s taken to be stored at the meeting house – the chest of drawers under the poor man’s cupboard, the little drawingroom table, the doll’s house, a set of little drawers off the garret landing, and a big box. Mr Deens’s friends the Plunkets have taken the house; I don’t like either of them by looks or voice & Miss Bowman gives a revolting report of their children. I visited the hotel when I was in town & saw Mrs Power again. She & Kitty were going to Rinn the next day. After dinner I cycled out to Woodstown, visiting R. Butler on the way to take her a broom & a heartrug. It was
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hot but not windy, and the hawthorn was in flower, and I saw a fine furry caterpillar crossing the road just beyond the Dunmore fork. The motor passed me just before Ballygunner going back to town for a stove pipe they had forgotten, & again on the way out at Harbour View. We worked all the afternoon unpacking things, I principally filling the kitchen cupboard, & Tom & D. went back in the motor about 7.30. Mrs Kinsella was afraid to go down the strand for sea water alone, so I had to accompany her. I spent a hideously lonely evening.
Tuesday 3rd. – A lovely bright morning. We went to both wells for water, & the fields were a dream. They came out, with Emily, Louis, Matty & the kitten Algy, just before dinner time. We worked all the
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afternoon except when I went to paddle, and didn’t get out for a proper walk till nearly 9.p.m. when Louis was asleep. Then we went down towards the south end & sat on the strand.
Wednesday 4th. – [short hand writing symbols here.] Tom went into work in town. I stained the parlour floor round the edge & D. and I had a bathe but it was very cold in the sea. The nice part was sitting on the warm sand afterwards before going in to dress. It must have been this afternoon that we went to Ballyglan for vegetables & found the big solemn gardener who first said he had no vegetables & then gave us quite a lot, gooseberries included. Tom came out again after tea. [Short hand symbol here]
Thursday 5th. – A grand hot day. We did some
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walking but not much. It was awfully hot. In the after afternoon we went in to town in the motor and visited at Suirview and went to the theatre to see “David Garrick” by a company belonging to a man named Macready who gives the impression of thinking a lot of himself, and seems much admired. The play was no good; the only pleasant things in it were some parts of the drunken scene, though as a whole that was deplorable (“me murdered love!”) and the beautiful legs of one of the lowbred commercial guests, who otherwise was supremely hideous. Garrick might have made himself fairly goodlooking, but so much depends on dress & hair in those 18th century plays, and his were not good, and the heroine was pretty but had a clumsy figure with too much bust, & did nothing to make herself agreeable. In fact she and Garrick were
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two of the rudest people I ever saw.
Friday 6th. – I spent the day at the Tech, making a carbuncle pendant like this [small drawing of the pendant here] Miss Courtney was getting on better with De Valera, but I think Mr O’Shea was responsible for some of the improvement.
Saturday 7th. – I finished the pendant and started a copper pin. After dinner I returned to Woodstown & found them out except Louis, so took him for a walk with me. After tea Tom & I went across to the beechwood, and it was looking exquisite – not a dead tree in it, so far as I could see. But no squirrels. It was a lovely sunny evening, & the fields were perfection. The wild roses were out in the sandhills at this time, and unlimited trefoil, & the hawthorn was splendid.
Sunday 8th. – Louis was weighed, & was 7 oz heavier than the Sunday before.
Featured Image: Woodstown Strand, Woodstown, Co. Waterford. (Image courtesy of NLI, Poole Photographic Collection, POOLEWP 0245)