“I spent the afternoon reading The House of Fear, which was interesting most of the way through, but turned out very disappointingly in the end. I believe it was on Saturday that the news appeared of the murder of the mayor of Cork M’Curtain, the night before, by a party of men who broke into the home”
NLI Call Number: MS, 3582/37
NLI Catalogue Link can be found here
Date Range of Diary: January 27th 1920 – October 26th 1920
WEEK 122: 19th – 21st March 1920
Friday 19th. – Fine sunny day. I went to
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Orristown by the afternoon train. Aunt M. & Polly went home. Mr Byron is home from Dublin, and much better than he was in the autumn. Miss B. just the same as last May, as amiable as ever. Smuts was away on a ramble and there was another cat, all black, named Punch, very agreeable. Scamp was looking rather younger than last year, I think.
Saturday 20th. – Aunt M. Miss B. & I drove in to Wexford a.d. and they did a lot of shopping. It was cold, and of all tiresome occupations waiting about while other people shop in a small country town on a Saturday or talk to their friends in the street, is one of the worst. We got a couple of books at the library, & Aunt M. called to the Rowes’ but didn’t stay. Mr Rowe died lately, & this
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was a visit of condolence.
Sunday 21st. – We drove to church in the morning, & heard a sermon about Abraham looking forward from the darkness of his time to the coming of Christ, which time he seemed to think of as a sort of millennium of virtue. The moral was that we should look forward to better times also & trust in God whatever happens. Frank & Herbert Walker were in front of me, looking fat & comfortable; Herbert has usually thick, very short hair, like fur. There is a lot of furze out in those parts, & primroses.
I spent the afternoon reading The House of Fear, which was interesting most of the way through, but turned out very disappointingly in the end. I believe it was on Saturday that the news appeared of the murder of the mayor of Cork M’Curtain, the night before, by
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a party of men who broke into the house. Aunt M. was rather of the opinion that it was done by Sinn Féiners, & I expect Miss B. was certain of it, but she didn’t talk about politics at all this time.
Featured Image: Main Street, Wexford. (Courtesy of National Library of Ireland, Lawrence Photograph Collection. NLI Ref: L_ROY_04771)