“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 76: (21st – 27th April 1919)
“I went to the Metropole then & had a long interview with Tash, during most of which she was blasting men in her best manner. It was a propos of the alleged shocking state of the streets at night, & the suggested women’s patrols & the bishop talking of course as if the girls did all the scandal themselves. Tash spoke very plainly of the bishop, & her remedy for the state of the streets wd be for the older women to catch a solider & tar & feather him & drive him down the quay […] She said a man from Limerick boasted to Seán Lane how some young men there – Volunteers I think – caught 6 girls that had been walking with soldiers and cut their hair off for a punishment, and I don’t think I ever so anyone so possessed with rage about anything as she was about this. She seems to have crushed Seán Lane into powder when he told her of it in an approving way…”
WEEK 73: (31st March – 6th April 1919)
“Fine bright day. We took a long walk up the hill on the sunny side of the valley opposite where the snow was, and had a splendid view of country, including a lovely snowy mountain from the top of it. There were carts going up the hill whose drivers were very decent in resting the horses crossways on the slope.”
WEEK 67: (13th – 19th January 1919)
“I went to the Celid Mór in the Town Hall that night, & the dancing didn’t begin till after 9. The gallery & the place under it were packed with spectators. Miss Doyle, Miss Skeffington, K. Hicks & some others were in the supper room superintending. I went into the big room, which was beautifully decorated, & after a long wait had the opportunity of watching 2 dances & observing which girls were not danced with, as Miss Doyle had asked me to do. I went & told Daly, who was one of the stewards, & he said he wd do his best. Miss Skeffington also did her best, but as she said afterwards “The fellas run away from you. Each of them seems to have his own little one.”
WEEK 64: (23rd – 29th December 1918)
“Tash has her hair up & looks very handsome with it. They talked about men & love, & the ridiculous flirting at Rinn, girls falling in violent temporary love with me etc. Kitty used to lecture them on the folly of it, & how they wd regret it when they met the man they really wanted to marry, & they wd say it was quite true but they couldn’t help it. K. seems totally insensible to masculine charms, & doubts the existence of real love. She asked me wd I think a girl to blame for not caring about a good man who wanted to marry her; I wonder who he is.”
WEEK 62: (9th – 15th December 1918)
“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. “
WEEK 61: (27th – 8th December 1918)
“The evening was Fr O’ Flanagan’s big meeting; Brazil, who is the only man that ever thinks of getting women into the foreground, found that Miss Hoyne the organizer wd go in the waggonette, & introduced me to her, & we had a great evening. There was a noble procession, with torches, & we went around the quay to the hotel, Brazil in & out of the brake, regulating the volunteers when he was out, & waving a flag & whooping with a perfectly grave face when he was in.”
WEEK 59: (11th – 17th November 1918)
“There was some opposition in Michael St, but not much. The worst was when the meeting began; a lot of separation women were near by on the steps of the Imperial, & they made a great uproar till some Volunteers went up & chased them off the steps – not with any unbecoming violence as far as I could see.”
WEEK 57: (28th Oct – 3rd November 1918)
“Fr O’Flanagan pointed out that if you must vote for the Republican candidate whatever his minor sins; even if he disagrees with you in religion or social questions, he is the lesser of 2 evils. At 1…we formed up in the front garden of the Mansion house & marched round Grafton St into College Green & gathered under Grattan’s statue. I was between Mrs S S and Countess Plunkett, & Mrs Pearse was somewhere near. Fr O’F. was the only speaker, he had a good powerful voice for open air speaking. Three peelers tried to get through at one point, but we shoved them back and they retired.”
WEEK 50: (9th – 15th September 1918)
“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…”