Letter from Muriel MacSwiney to 'My own darling Terry', husband Terence MacSwiney, Lincoln Gaol, London.
TitleLetter from Muriel MacSwiney to 'My own darling Terry', husband Terence MacSwiney, Lincoln Gaol, London.
ReferenceIE 627/SM980
Date
10 Oct 1918
Production date 1918-10 - 1918-10
Scope and ContentMS. personal and private letter.
VERBATIM TRANSCRIPT:
[p.1] "I have started with Sean Tóibín, he came on Wednesday & today this week, he is coming as a rule on Mondays & Thursdays.
He is awfully good, he gives me sort of little sayings or riddles, kind of things Siobhán would have & says them about twenty times then I say the thing once or twice & then he says it three times again & I write it as I like, this goes on with every one of them & he does'nt tell me the meaning of anything till right at the end. I have to leave a line between each line of Irish & I write there in pencil the English of anything I dont understand.
The next time he come he wrotes the ordinary correct Irish of each bit on a slip of paper doing each one without the aspirations & elipses & then putting them in & showing the meaning of them, he tells you a little
[p.2] about the grammar then, & I copy them out on the opposite page to the sentences. He has given me a reading book as I had already done a little, 'Tadhg Gaelic', of course I find this very hard but the other part is not at all.
He is better than Peadar O'Dowd because he used to talk to me about the sentences & I think it was too soon for that did'nt understand him well enough.
Sean Tóibín was delighted that you were writing in Irish & will be very pleased to edit anything you have done as he put it; he was speaking about Corkery [Daniel Corkery] & said that he tried to make him write in Irish once & that he really could'nt do it. I mean Corkery could'nt, he wanted to as much as Sean Tóibín. He said though that you were a different case, you spoke Irish much better than Corkery & besides the latter though he had learnt it was rather a sceptic about it for years & that this probably came against him even now.
Mrs. Stockley [wife of Prof. Stockley, UCC], is back now I met her one day in town;
[p.3] she is having an afternoon next Wednesday & is singing, Tilly [Mrs. Fleischmann] is accompanying her, they have been studying for some time together so I'm sure it will be fine.
She wont start teaching me again till after that.
Our little love [daughter, Máire b. 23 June 1918] is just perfect, she is a sweet little creature everybody just worships her. She is noticing her hands now ( I mean to look at, she has felt them for some time. She gets so terribly absorbed in them that she even forgets to cry sometimes when I am dressing her, an operation she does not care for.
She was awake the whole of this morning & never said a word. Sean Tóibín said she must have known I was having an Irish lesson.
[Min/Him] & Annie are going to going to a new academy that [?Lizzy Oven] & another man have started. Geraldine & Una Hurley are going too. Una is going to a very
[p.4] advanced class of course. I hope you got your books from J. Russel they went to you ages ago; also Katie's 'Home mades' I send on Tuesday last. The café au lait is going today. Your [?rug] did not go yet I think; I told them to send it as St. Itas'.
Is'nt there anything else you want a Rúin? I can't tell you overjoyed I am that you are doing so much Irish it is the one bright spot. I want you very very badly darling, do you know it is eight months since you were at home & we would never be one moment apart if we could possibly help it.
As you know though I would not for the world have anything different , any man in Ireland now who is an Irishman & is not at least liable to Jail is worthless.
Your own little love will cling round you so much when you come home she puts one arm round my neck already she will put both round yours.
[p.1] I must stop now darling
lots of love from your very loving bean beag [agus] Máire
VERBATIM TRANSCRIPT:
[p.1] "I have started with Sean Tóibín, he came on Wednesday & today this week, he is coming as a rule on Mondays & Thursdays.
He is awfully good, he gives me sort of little sayings or riddles, kind of things Siobhán would have & says them about twenty times then I say the thing once or twice & then he says it three times again & I write it as I like, this goes on with every one of them & he does'nt tell me the meaning of anything till right at the end. I have to leave a line between each line of Irish & I write there in pencil the English of anything I dont understand.
The next time he come he wrotes the ordinary correct Irish of each bit on a slip of paper doing each one without the aspirations & elipses & then putting them in & showing the meaning of them, he tells you a little
[p.2] about the grammar then, & I copy them out on the opposite page to the sentences. He has given me a reading book as I had already done a little, 'Tadhg Gaelic', of course I find this very hard but the other part is not at all.
He is better than Peadar O'Dowd because he used to talk to me about the sentences & I think it was too soon for that did'nt understand him well enough.
Sean Tóibín was delighted that you were writing in Irish & will be very pleased to edit anything you have done as he put it; he was speaking about Corkery [Daniel Corkery] & said that he tried to make him write in Irish once & that he really could'nt do it. I mean Corkery could'nt, he wanted to as much as Sean Tóibín. He said though that you were a different case, you spoke Irish much better than Corkery & besides the latter though he had learnt it was rather a sceptic about it for years & that this probably came against him even now.
Mrs. Stockley [wife of Prof. Stockley, UCC], is back now I met her one day in town;
[p.3] she is having an afternoon next Wednesday & is singing, Tilly [Mrs. Fleischmann] is accompanying her, they have been studying for some time together so I'm sure it will be fine.
She wont start teaching me again till after that.
Our little love [daughter, Máire b. 23 June 1918] is just perfect, she is a sweet little creature everybody just worships her. She is noticing her hands now ( I mean to look at, she has felt them for some time. She gets so terribly absorbed in them that she even forgets to cry sometimes when I am dressing her, an operation she does not care for.
She was awake the whole of this morning & never said a word. Sean Tóibín said she must have known I was having an Irish lesson.
[Min/Him] & Annie are going to going to a new academy that [?Lizzy Oven] & another man have started. Geraldine & Una Hurley are going too. Una is going to a very
[p.4] advanced class of course. I hope you got your books from J. Russel they went to you ages ago; also Katie's 'Home mades' I send on Tuesday last. The café au lait is going today. Your [?rug] did not go yet I think; I told them to send it as St. Itas'.
Is'nt there anything else you want a Rúin? I can't tell you overjoyed I am that you are doing so much Irish it is the one bright spot. I want you very very badly darling, do you know it is eight months since you were at home & we would never be one moment apart if we could possibly help it.
As you know though I would not for the world have anything different , any man in Ireland now who is an Irishman & is not at least liable to Jail is worthless.
Your own little love will cling round you so much when you come home she puts one arm round my neck already she will put both round yours.
[p.1] I must stop now darling
lots of love from your very loving bean beag [agus] Máire
Extent4pp plus envelope
Persons keywordMacSwiney, Muriel (Wife of Lord Mayor Terence MacSwiney) b1892-d1982, MacSwiney, Terence | 1879-1920 | Lord Mayor of Cork
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