Kilkelly, Ireland, eighteen and sixty<\/p>\n
My dear and loving son, John<\/p>\n
Your good friend the schoolmaster Pat MacNamara<\/p>\n
So good as to write these words down<\/p>\n
Your brothers have all gone to find work in England<\/p>\n
The house is so empty and sad<\/p>\n
The crop of potatoes is sorely infected<\/p>\n
A third to half of them bad<\/p>\n
And your sister Bridget and Patrick O\u2019Donnell<\/p>\n
Are going to be married in June<\/p>\n
Your mother says not to work on the railroad<\/p>\n
And be sure to come on home soon.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Kilkelly, Ireland, eighteen and seventy<\/p>\n
My dear and loving son, John<\/p>\n
Hello to your missus and to your four children<\/p>\n
May they grow healthy and strong<\/p>\n
Michael has got in a wee bit of trouble<\/p>\n
I suppose that he never will learn<\/p>\n
Because of the dampness there\u2019s no turf to speak of<\/p>\n
And now there\u2019s nothing to burn<\/p>\n
And Bridget is happy you named a child for her<\/p>\n
You know she\u2019s got six of her own<\/p>\n
You say you found work but you don\u2019t say what kind<\/p>\n
Oh when will you be coming home?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Kilkelly, Ireland, eighteen and eighty<\/p>\n
Dear Michael and John, my sons<\/p>\n
I\u2019m sorry to give you the very sad news<\/p>\n
That your dear old mother passed on<\/p>\n
We buried her down at the church in Kilkelly<\/p>\n
Your brothers and Bridget were there<\/p>\n
You don\u2019t have to worry, she died very quickly<\/p>\n
Remember her in your prayers<\/p>\n
And it\u2019s so good to hear that Michael\u2019s returning<\/p>\n
With money, he\u2019s sure to buy land<\/p>\n
For the crop has been poor and the people are selling<\/p>\n
At any price that they can.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Kilkelly, Ireland, eighteen and ninety<\/p>\n
My dear and loving son, John<\/p>\n
I guess that I must be close on to eighty<\/p>\n
It\u2019s thirty years since you\u2019ve gone<\/p>\n
Because of all of the money you\u2019ve sent me<\/p>\n
I\u2019m still living out on my own<\/p>\n
Michael has built himself a fine house<\/p>\n
And Bridget\u2019s daughters are grown<\/p>\n
Thank you for sending your family picture<\/p>\n
They\u2019re lovely young women and men<\/p>\n
You say that you might even come for a visit<\/p>\n
What\u00a0 joy to see you again.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Kilkelly, Ireland, eighteen and ninety two<\/p>\n
My dear brother John<\/p>\n
I\u2019m sorry that I didn\u2019t write sooner to tell you<\/p>\n
That Father passed on<\/p>\n
He was living with Bridget, she says he was cheerful<\/p>\n
And healthy rigth down to the end<\/p>\n
Ah, you should have seen him playing with the grandchildren<\/p>\n
Of Pat MacNamara, your friend<\/p>\n
And we buried him alongside of Mother<\/p>\n
Down at the Kilkelly churchyard<\/p>\n
He was a strong and a feisty old man<\/p>\n
Considering his life was so hard<\/p>\n
And it\u2019s funny the way he kept talking about you<\/p>\n
He called for you at the end<\/p>\n
Oh, why don\u2019t you think about coming to visit<\/p>\n
We\u2019d love to see you again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kilkelly, Ireland, eighteen and sixty My dear and loving son, John Your good friend the schoolmaster Pat MacNamara So good as to write these words down Your brothers have all gone to find work in England The house is so… Continue Reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89,"featured_media":0,"parent":24,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/irishdrama\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/201"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/irishdrama\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/irishdrama\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/irishdrama\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/89"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/irishdrama\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/irishdrama\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/201\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/irishdrama\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/24"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/irishdrama\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}