Tuesday, June 25, 2019
Mary Margaret was my mother's 1st cousin. While she lived in New York all of her life, she made many visit to Ireland. In many ways, she was more Irish than the Irish.
She was born to two Irish parents, Margaret and Con, both from the same parish (Adrigole) in Co. Cork. When her mother died in 1945, she lived on with her father Con till he died in 1966. Everything about her way of life resembled that of a person from her previous generation, heavily influenced by her father, I suspect. She lived for 43 years with him. She was very proud of him. He was a qualified Gaelic Irish Teacher and taught in Kinsale, Ireland before emigrating to the US.
My abiding memory of Mary is, very honest, very direct, you always got her unedited version, fiercely old-fashioned and an incredible memory. I last visited her two years ago. At 94 years of age, she could recall places, names and dates of events that had taken place 70 - 80 years ago.
Ar dheis Dé go raibh a hanam (May she rest in peace)
