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Tag: Irish

Round Ireland with a fridge
Habits: bad and good

Habits: bad and good

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This month’s reads had something in common: habits. From a nun’s attire to questionable grammar to a drunken bet, the stories made me appreciate all the more this habit of reading books. Book 1: Maigret Sets A Trap by Georges Simenon It’s rather amusing that the latest detective in my reading life is a Frenchman. Created by a Belgian. My favorite fictional detective, after all, is Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot, a Belgian who is forever correcting the misunderstanding that he’s…

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A Letter from Ireland
Irish Ides of March

Irish Ides of March

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This year, March was filled with reading books from Ireland, about Ireland, and by Irish authors. However, when the 15th of the month came along, I was able to squeeze in a bit of Shakespeare. Book 1: No Tears in Ireland by Sylvia Couturié This is the memoir of an aristocratic French girl who spent the war years away from her parents, safe in Ireland. But it was not an idyllic life, as her nanny was a tough old bird,…

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Rarity Cottage
Rarity Cottage

Rarity Cottage

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Have you been following the rediscovery of our Kelly family roots in County Antrim, Northern Ireland? It started with a visit Mom’s cousin Betsy made to their grandmother’s Irish homestead in 1958. She kept good notes, some of which I used in this story about the Kelly clan. The twist to the tale was Dad’s father painted a portrait of the cottage in 1972. He used a photo from that trip. I always loved that painting, knowing it married Dad’s…

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1916 Philip Markey Cassidy
The Royal Dublin Fusilier

The Royal Dublin Fusilier

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Philip Cassidy didn’t start out as a member of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers. When he volunteered to serve in The Great War, he was a member of the 16th Division Army Cyclist Corps. Surely Philip wore this badge on his uniform cap with pride: Philip Markey Cassidy was born in Dublin, Ireland, on October 12, 1895. He was the fourth of seven children born to Daniel and Mary Jane. “Markey” was Mary Jane’s maiden name. Philip’s father, Daniel, was the…

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1929 Cassidy wedding
The honeymoon letter

The honeymoon letter

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There was never any question about Joseph Malachy Regan: He was the family patriarch. One glance at this photo says it all: The newly married couple is Cecelia Margaret Regan Cassidy and Francis Raymond Cassidy, my maternal grandparents. The setting is New Haven, Connecticut, on June 24, 1929. And who is that white-haired gentleman sitting between the newlyweds? That’s Grandma’s beloved father, Joe Regan, called “Pop” by his descendants. I guess the seating plan makes sense, as Grandma’s attendants (Grandpa’s…

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Rot, the story of the Irish potato famine
A month of reading Rot

A month of reading Rot

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Another month comes to a close, a month of Rot. By this I mean one book in particular was so disturbing, I had to keep putting it down during the month. Finished it a few days ago, thankfully, even though I knew what the ending would bring. Book 1: Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild I enjoyed this children’s novel as an adult, but would have loved it (and, apparently, the entire series) as a grade schooler. In short, three non-related…

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1970 Willie Kelly letter to Grandma Cassidy
‘Poor old Ireland …’

‘Poor old Ireland …’

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For weeks now, I’ve had a hunch that there was at least one more letter from Granda Willie to Grandma Cassidy in the great stacks of letters that still await me in boxes and baskets. Sure enough, Grandma‘s distinctive penmanship caught my eye. She had tucked several letters into an envelope and then written a “Keep This!” command to the future on the envelope itself. The envelope contained one letter from her father, one from her mother, and one-and-a-half letters…

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1929 Robert Vayo cemetery receipt
The folded paper

The folded paper

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I’m not sure any one piece of paper ever made me as sad as this. It’s the receipt from my Uncle Robert’s grave: The receipt’s date is June 3, 1929. The amount of $2.00 would cover the care of the infant’s grave. Another $10 was paid the next day to Edward McCarthy, who dug the tiny grave. If that’s not sad enough, there was a note from one of Dad’s sisters in his wooden keepsake box. It explained that Grandpa…

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Bill, Bunny, Cady
Love, Bunny

Love, Bunny

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“Bunny, I wish you were my godmother.” I’ll never forget the look on Bunny’s face. We were standing at the bottom of the stairs in my parents’ home. It must have been around Christmas and I was home from college. Indiana to Connecticut didn’t happen too often; it was good to be around family. My Mom’s younger sister’s face brightened into a beautiful smile. She told me she’d have been glad to be my godmother. (For some reason, my parents…

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RMS Caronia public domain
Aboard the RMS Caronia

Aboard the RMS Caronia

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Her first crossing of the Atlantic was in 1905. At that time, the RMS (Royal Mail Ship) Caronia was the largest ship in the Cunard Line fleet. Caronia’s maiden voyage departed Liverpool on February 25th of that year, destined for New York. On April 14th seven years later, Caronia transmitted the first ice warning to the Titanic, reporting “bergs, growlers and field ice.” It was more than a decade later that Irishman William John Kelly stepped onboard Caronia. Willie was…

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