About 1918, a young woman from Clare Island moved into Westport to take up a job as an apprentice seamstress. She was used to open space yet moved to a market-town bustle, even living on the main street and meeting strangers every day.
Margaret Flynn took it in her stride. Most of her siblings had already headed off to the USA, one bringing out the other. Margaret probably had her own hopes to travel, but something was holding her back. Not long after arriving in Westport she met a young man. Edward Moran from Drummindoo had stopped her in her tracks.
Or had he? Because she moved to Queen’s County (Laois) to work for five years. There was no correspondence between them in that time, yet, when she returned, they were married within the year, in 1925.
On January 3, 1933, in a letter to her sister Norah in America, Margaret described the joy at receiving a letter from Norah just before Christmas. “I can’t explain how happy I felt when I recognised the old familiar writing on the........