Mr Byron

March 22, 2020January 29, 2020

Week 123: (22nd – 28th March 1920)

“Thunder & lightening & fearful rain last night. I had a cold somehow, I didn’t go out. The news of the murder of Alan Bell was in this day’s paper – the worst yet, of course, much worse than common policemen. It was the first piece of agreeable news for a long time. It is wonderful that it could be done so openly with no danger of interference.”

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March 19, 2020January 21, 2020

Week 122: (19th – 21st March 1920)

“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”

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May 12, 2019December 18, 2018

WEEK 79: (12th – 16th May 1919)

“Then I went to the club committee & found a row going on, J. Wylie had said in a speech on Labour day that the less some people said about what they had done for Ireland the better, & Brazil took this to himself & was raging, & wanted J. W. to withdraw it, & so did everyone else except Ald. Power, who never encourages people to be offended, J. Wylie & myself. J. W. had already said he didn’t mean Brazil, but that wdn’t satisfy them. They prating how a withdrawal was the only way to restore harmony, whereas it seemed to me a forced withdrawal was the best way to increase & perpetuate ill feeling.”

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April 28, 2019December 18, 2018

WEEK 77: (28th April – 4th May 1919)

“Mrs S. took us all round the gardens & talked about them & the house, & gave us a noble tea plus Mr S., who is small & cocksure, fairly young, & says “That is so. That is so” authoritatively when a woman says something he agrees with. They both talked arrogantly about strikes & labour day – there was a Miss Connolly [perhaps Nora Connolly] speaking on labour day in Wexford – daughter of some labour leader that was killed in the rising – a very common girl, who said the workers wd never get their rights without a revolution, & similar rot & Mr S. wd never take a man back who had once struck, were he a farmer, & wd prevent other farmers doing so as much as he could. “

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February 18, 2018October 8, 2018

Week 21: (18th – 24th February 1918)

“Aunt Maggie talked very interestingly about various things, we were discussing the isolation of Tom & me as children & how I didn’t get on with other kids, & she gave me more idea than I ever had before of the horror everyone held the family in as atheists […] I never thought before that people realised it so or took so much notice of us.” Continue reading “Week 21: (18th – 24th February 1918)”