funeral of Uncle Bob Brennan, I clearly heard her say to my father, “Where’s your missus buried, Jim?”’
* Ita: ‘A few nights ago, it hit me: I remembered what was in the white paper – a child’s bright green, patent-leather handbag’ (April 2002).
* Ita: ‘Máire remembers them too.’
* The new Provisional Government took over the administration of the country on the 16th of January, 1922.
* ‘As Terry crossed Beekman Street near Park Row two men jumped from a butcher’s cart and approached him. One knocked him down with a slung-shot, while the other snatched the satchel. Both then sprang into their vehicle and whipped up the horses, easily making their escape. In recent years this method of robbery has been used extensively by automobile bandits, and by the hi-jackers, who specialize in liquor’ (from
The Gangs of New York
by Herbert Asbury, 1927).
† Rory: ‘Over the years, I’d been aware of Ita’s feeling of, almost, a sense of loss at the fact that she knew nothing of her mother’s people and, indeed, little enough about her mother. When Kitty Murphy’s information bore fruit, and Ita was elated, I was more than pleased.’
* Ita: ‘Unfortunately, I lost this letter, and this I bitterly regret.’
† Ita: ‘I’m Ita Bridget.’
* Today, Cobh, County Cork.
* Ita: ‘Connie told me that she remembered Great-Granny Hyland; this Jewish lady or gentleman called to the door, and said they were looking for a Jewish family that lived on the same street. And Great-Granny Hyland said she didn’t know any Jewish family but there were some sheenies up at the top of the street. Connie said that she wouldn’t have hurt anybody’s feelings, but she just didn’t know that the word meant Jewish; she’d been told that the people at the top of the street were sheenies. The same as she would probably have said that the people at the other end were Prods. One thing that Connie’s mother used to say, when she’d drink anything very hot, soup or something, was “Oh my God, that would scald a Protestant.” There was no harm in it; it was just a saying.’
* Vinegar Hill, scene of a battle in 1798; Enniscorthy, County Wexford.
* ‘For nearly twenty years I lived at Barrytown on the east bank of the Hudson, upriver from the villages of Hyde Park, Rhinebeck, and Rhinecliff … The area entered our American history when the Dutch patrons, centred upon New Amsterdam, began to build neat stone houses north of their island city. Of the Dutch families, the grandest was called Beekman …The Dutch Roosevelts of Hyde Park were fifth cousins of President Theodore Roosevelt (of Long Island). They had also intermarried not only with the Beekmans but with the Delanos. In fact, for Franklin Delano Roosevelt, his Beekman heritage was a matter of great pride, rather like an Englishman with a connection to the Plantagenets, the one true, legitimate, if fallen, dynasty’ (from ‘Love on the Hudson’ by Gore Vidal,
New York Review of Books, 5
May 1995).
* Rory: ‘On Saint Patrick’s night, we went to an Irish club. Everybody there was very welcoming; I couldn’t pay for a drink. Every time I tried, the bar staff said, “We don’t take confederate money here.” I liked Ita’s cousins; they were very easy people to like.’
† County Wicklow.
* Rory: ‘I can still hear him saying it.’
Afterword by Ita Doyle
T he trouble with reminiscing is that, while events occur in chronological order, memories don’t. This applies particularly in old age, when one might remember an incident that happened seventy years ago, and yesterday’s dinner is a complete blank. Memories are triggered by sights and smells and sounds, and even certain gestures.
Blue taffeta for sale in Henry Street, and I remember the blue taffeta of my party dress when I was seven or eight. It was my birthday, and about ten little girls were gathered in our garden. We all had our party dresses. Mine had puff sleeves and three deep frills
* Ita: ‘A few nights ago, it hit me: I remembered what was in the white paper – a child’s bright green, patent-leather handbag’ (April 2002).
* Ita: ‘Máire remembers them too.’
* The new Provisional Government took over the administration of the country on the 16th of January, 1922.
* ‘As Terry crossed Beekman Street near Park Row two men jumped from a butcher’s cart and approached him. One knocked him down with a slung-shot, while the other snatched the satchel. Both then sprang into their vehicle and whipped up the horses, easily making their escape. In recent years this method of robbery has been used extensively by automobile bandits, and by the hi-jackers, who specialize in liquor’ (from
The Gangs of New York
by Herbert Asbury, 1927).
† Rory: ‘Over the years, I’d been aware of Ita’s feeling of, almost, a sense of loss at the fact that she knew nothing of her mother’s people and, indeed, little enough about her mother. When Kitty Murphy’s information bore fruit, and Ita was elated, I was more than pleased.’
* Ita: ‘Unfortunately, I lost this letter, and this I bitterly regret.’
† Ita: ‘I’m Ita Bridget.’
* Today, Cobh, County Cork.
* Ita: ‘Connie told me that she remembered Great-Granny Hyland; this Jewish lady or gentleman called to the door, and said they were looking for a Jewish family that lived on the same street. And Great-Granny Hyland said she didn’t know any Jewish family but there were some sheenies up at the top of the street. Connie said that she wouldn’t have hurt anybody’s feelings, but she just didn’t know that the word meant Jewish; she’d been told that the people at the top of the street were sheenies. The same as she would probably have said that the people at the other end were Prods. One thing that Connie’s mother used to say, when she’d drink anything very hot, soup or something, was “Oh my God, that would scald a Protestant.” There was no harm in it; it was just a saying.’
* Vinegar Hill, scene of a battle in 1798; Enniscorthy, County Wexford.
* ‘For nearly twenty years I lived at Barrytown on the east bank of the Hudson, upriver from the villages of Hyde Park, Rhinebeck, and Rhinecliff … The area entered our American history when the Dutch patrons, centred upon New Amsterdam, began to build neat stone houses north of their island city. Of the Dutch families, the grandest was called Beekman …The Dutch Roosevelts of Hyde Park were fifth cousins of President Theodore Roosevelt (of Long Island). They had also intermarried not only with the Beekmans but with the Delanos. In fact, for Franklin Delano Roosevelt, his Beekman heritage was a matter of great pride, rather like an Englishman with a connection to the Plantagenets, the one true, legitimate, if fallen, dynasty’ (from ‘Love on the Hudson’ by Gore Vidal,
New York Review of Books, 5
May 1995).
* Rory: ‘On Saint Patrick’s night, we went to an Irish club. Everybody there was very welcoming; I couldn’t pay for a drink. Every time I tried, the bar staff said, “We don’t take confederate money here.” I liked Ita’s cousins; they were very easy people to like.’
† County Wicklow.
* Rory: ‘I can still hear him saying it.’
Afterword by Ita Doyle
T he trouble with reminiscing is that, while events occur in chronological order, memories don’t. This applies particularly in old age, when one might remember an incident that happened seventy years ago, and yesterday’s dinner is a complete blank. Memories are triggered by sights and smells and sounds, and even certain gestures.
Blue taffeta for sale in Henry Street, and I remember the blue taffeta of my party dress when I was seven or eight. It was my birthday, and about ten little girls were gathered in our garden. We all had our party dresses. Mine had puff sleeves and three deep frills
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