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The picture shows my maternal grandmother,
Elizabeth O'Donoghue (née Hutton). I never knew her, as
she died before I was born. According to my mother, she,
like many Irish wives, 'kept the show on the road' in the
family's somewhat nomadic existence. At various times,
the family lived in Glenbeigh, Co Kerry, Mallow, Co Cork,
and addresses in Dublin. The children spent holidays with
their maternal grandparents in Hacketstown. |
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The picture shows my maternal grandfather, James
O'Donoghue. As my mother was quite ill and disabled by
sciaticia for some years when I was small, my
grandfather, who lived with us then, was the adult to
whom I was closest (apart from my father) until I was 8
or 9 years old. I walked with him to the allotment which
he tilled during the 'Emergency' (as World War II was
known in neutral Ireland) on the site of the Polo Ground
in the Phoenix Park, and about the city. Our two most
regular walks in the city were, each Sunday, to Mount
Jerome Cemetery, to visit the grave of his wife; and our
annual tour, on St Stephen's Day (Boxing Day), of the
Cribs (Nativities) in Dublin churches. Our walk to Mount
Jerome took us through Clanbrassil Street with its shops
of what would now be considered antiques and
bric-à-brac, the crowded windows of which were
fascinating Alladin's Caves to me. He told me lots of
stories about his youth and his life as a young man, and
of his great hero, the county Wicklow landlord Charles
Stuart Parnell, the leader of the Irish Parliamentary
Party, only some of which I now remember. |
