One Christmas was so much like another in those years, to borrow a line from Dylan Thomas. Mother, who celebrated every feast day with aplomb – Shrove Tuesday with specially prepared pancakes, Halloween with monkey nuts (peanuts in the shell), bobbing for apples, and Barmbrack – saved her most elaborate plans for Christmas. And I do mean saved. We had a farm but money was far … [Read more...] about Christmas was Magic and Magic was Mother
Photo Album
Photo Album: On the Town
Cigarette in mouth and mates by his side, Corporal James L. O'Brien stands on a street in Paris in 1918. O'Brien and his friend, Pat Donovan (far left) joined "because we felt it was the right thing to do. Quite a few of our friends had been drafted." Assigned to recruitment duty in Washington D.C., O'Brien and Donovan would put up their friends who came down to enlist. "At … [Read more...] about Photo Album: On the Town
Photo Album: Gracie’s Crossing
Grace Boner was born December 10, 1904 in Altmore near Burtonport in the Rosses, County Donegal, Ireland. She married John Conaghan from nearby Crickamore. John went to America looking for work, leaving Gracie with two children, John and Celia, and a child on the way. Gracie, left to raise her family in a small one-room freestone house, thought she would never see her … [Read more...] about Photo Album: Gracie’s Crossing
Photo Album: Catherine’s Family
Catherine Flannely was born in Porturlin, County Mayo, Ireland around 1835. She married Anthony Moran from the nearby village of Baralty. Catherine and Anthony immigrated to America in the 1860s and settled in a small coal mining town near Scranton, Pennsylvania. They had twelve children. She is pictured here, along with her daughter Mary Ann and son-in-law Edward Donnelly. … [Read more...] about Photo Album: Catherine’s Family
Photo Album: The Light of Literacy
The photograph published here shows the Scottish-American entrepreneur and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie laying the foundation stone of the new Waterford Free Library on 19 October 1903. Seen in the photograph also are the lord Mayor, the Town Clerk, the Librarian, John J. Morrin, and the members of Waterford Borough Council in full-dress uniform. Carnegie, born in Scotland … [Read more...] about Photo Album: The Light of Literacy