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Trevena
Knock May 9 : 16 My dear Joan I do not know how to write to you —
these words kept running in my head:- Fear
not them that are not able to kill the soul-
I tried, at the Great Northern Station, last week, to get
a letter through to you — and, there, and at the G.P.O I
asked could I send a wire ? Until Geoffrey Tickell returned to Campbell to-day,
I did not know that the bad news was quite
definite, there seemed some slight reason to hope
that the rumour was not well founded. My dear,
my dear, comfort is far from you. I am sure -
I feel sick when I think of your dear man's bright,
unselfish personaility, and of the sweet kindness
the children and I have experienced from him. He
is certainly one of the salt of the earth. You won't
begin to think of him in the past tense, darling, don't
do that — he has gone away to the next — and more
vitally alive — stage — and separation for a time is
hard enough, God knows — I am still so much in the
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dark, that I cannot write much. Tell me, do, what
you and little Owen are doing — have you any friends
with you? The girls and Hugh are greatly distressed at the
loss of the friend of whom they, like me, feel
so proud — he is, always has seemed so, so filled
with a high courage. Dear love,
thine
Alfreda
In this letter from Alfreda Baker (1893-1984) to Hanna Sheehy Skeffington(1877-1946),
Alfreda offers her sympathy in regards to the murder of Hanna's husband, Francis.
Alfreda expresses her sadness at his death, reflecting on Francis' positive qualities
and her experiences with him. Alfreda inquires about what Hanna is doing and if she
has any friends with her and closes with another few lines on Francis' character.
Alfreda Helen Baker was a consulting surgeon who graduated from Queen's University
Belfast who worked at a number of hospitals in England and Northern Ireland.
Hanna Sheehy Skeffington, suffragette, nationalist, language teacher, was the founder
of the Irish Women’s Franchise League and a founding member of the Irish Women Workers’
Union. She was the widow of Francis Sheehy-Skeffington who was summarily executed
on 26 April 1916. She was active during the Rising, bringing food to the Volunteers
in the G.P.O. and the College of Surgeons. Four days passed before she found out what
had happened to her husband, Francis (1878-1916), and it wasn't until almost two weeks
later that the full details of his execution emerged.