“I went over to St Declan’s after tea, as Seán was there, and he had most interesting conversation about how much worse managers & bishops are at squashing the language in national schools than the National Board, re the new education bill, which wd put the schools in the hands of committees instead of under the clergy alone, & which is being litterly [sic] opposed by them for that reason”
WEEK 115: (20th – 29th January 1920)
“I finished a ring with the moonstone that I gave Eileen Power in a pendant in 1918, & which she wanted in a ring instead. I took it to them in the afternoon and E. was very pleased with it. They were interested in Tom being on the Corporation & told me the mean conduct of P. W. Kenny in persuading Mr Power to stand (Leave it all to me – I’ll put you in) & then doing nothing whatever, so that Mr P. was beaten. It was disgraceful. I went to Willie Jacob’s essay meeting – some Dickens Character & their Originals.”
WEEK 114: (12th – 18th January 1920)
“I had been reading Psychoanalysis, on loan from Dorothea – a very interesting and suggestive book, which makes me want to read Freud and others. What a lot of apology she has to make for the large part that sex is supposed to play in the unconscious mind – as if most people must be taken for granted as hating & resenting the existence of sexuality in themselves. And yet those people would like things that would revolt me. Dorothea had got able to write automatically by this time, and got a message from Mr Black for his wife.”
WEEK 113: (5th – 11th January 1920)
“I went to St. Declan’s a.d. to mind Louis while Dorothea went canvassing with Mrs Hayden. He was out with Miss Nesbitt, but came in soon, and was very cross and miserable for a long time. I told D. of the communications I had had from her mother mostly about her children & their likeness to her, which she said were quite true – that she was like her in eyes & mind, & suffered for want of an interest in his life & that Tony was very little changed since she left them. D. had been trying to write, but could not, so I brought her the Ouija board.”
WEEK 112: (29th Dec – 4th January 1920)
“I went to St Declan’s in the afternoon & D. made various comments on the last bit of Callaghan but one – some helpful & all interesting. She said one remark of his to Dr Morrin just after the trail reminded her when he was about 17. She said there were some likenesses between Tony & him”
WEEK 111: (22nd – 28th December 1919)
“Fine cold day. Aunt H. gave me a new umbrella & some chocolate. W. Waring sent me a little round photo frame, but the glass arrived cracked, J. Webb sent me a queer little tiny pen in a case, Aunt Maggie some lovely handkerchiefs, Aunt Bessie a handkerchief, Helen a cobwebly little handkerchief case. T. & D. a fine big muffler of the sort that’s going now, & Nancy a very grand Browning calendar. I have Aunt H. The Ship that Sailed too Soon & a photoframe, & Uncle E. green grapes. Ben sent me Darrell Figgis’s Byeways of Study, & I read most of it that morning. The articles on Parnell & H. O’Neill’s terms were very interesting. “
WEEK 110: (15th – 21st December 1919)
“Tech in the morning, got Miss Whelan’s ring & the brooch pin soldered. I went to tea to St Declan’s & T. and I minded Louis while D. went out to a Mothers’ Pensions’ committee. Tom was writing his election address and D. brought Mrs Hayden back with her to consult him about hers.”
WEEK 109: (8th – 13th December 1919)
“She said that Seán O Floinn told her I was going to publish a book – I was a good deal horrified to find he knew. I found D. and T. had told him, & was partly pleased to have them in the wrong towards me for once – doing something silly that they had to apologize for, instead of the other way round.”
WEEK 108: (1st – 7th December 1919)
“Kathleen Hicks came to supper & was very interesting. She approved the idea of getting C. na mb. Branches to demand that the vacant seats in Dáil Éireann should be filled by women, or attempted to be.”
WEEK 107: (24th – 30th November 1919)
“Mrs Coade came to visit us in the afternoon, and was very interested in automatic writing. She never does it since an experience she had of a dark & miserable spirit writing through her & wanting relief, which she was able to give it through prayer. She read Hanna’s handwriting & gave a pretty true account of her – said she was very sensitive really & easily hurt but was able to conceal it.”