Letter from James Finn to May Fay, 11 February 1916

Foo, Bar; Bar, Foo

Letter from James Finn to May Fay, 11 February 1916

1 NATIONAL HEALTH COMMiSSION (IRELAND),
PEMBROKE HOUSE,
UPPER MOUNT STREET,
DUBLIN. 11th Feby, 1916.
My darling May, Your letter received this
morning as expected. Fortunately I have
no need to watch out for the beautiful
figure of Mrs Lonican who I have no
doubt is praying for me for all the
extra work I am putting on herself and
her good man. However let’s hope that
the extra work won’t be for too long and
that one of these fine days we’ll be in
the position of not needing to write
letters to each other, unless it is across the 2 breakfast table. I was interested to hear of
Mrs Kelly’s good wishes. She may not be so
bad as she seems all the same. I think
I told you about Jim - he never said
anything either when I told him and yet
I know very well he wished me all
good luck. Some people are like that and
maybe she’s one of them. Saw a note from
Mrs Seery this morning. It seems that
Mrs Kiernan wrote to her the day before
with the news of John Duffy’s marriage but
the letter didn’t reach. I hope we won’t
have such a queer marriage when we
go off the hooks. Glad to hear everybody
thought you so much improved by your
stay in the town and hope you will do
as well when you come permanently.
Perhaps the present improvement is due to
the fact that you were so lazy in
the mornings and that it will pass off
now that you have to earn your
crust again. Talking of crusts, I’m
earning mine these days. We have just
had what they call a Departmental
Committee appointed to consider the simplification
of the Insurance Act. The most of the
inquiries turn on questions of accounting
on which I am the Irish expert. Result
is that your darling little man is nearly 3 killed. However I have weathered worse storms
than the present one and hope to keep my
end up all right and to do credit to the
Irish Commission. Glad to hear you have
been giving theatrical recitals to the boys
and that they enjoyed them. I'm going
to the Abbey tonight with my mother & Moll
and will be thinking of you. Wish you
were with me but will see you any how in
a fortnight. Tell Mrs Seery to keep the
bed warm till then (Johnnie I suppose will
do so anyhow). I will enquire about J.
one of these days if he doesn't hear but he
had better let me know whether he would be
willing to come up or not. Remember me
to all at home and in Lockardstown . I send
you my dearest love and every warm wish of my heart.
Ever your loving
James.

This is from a series of letters written between James Finn and his fiancée Mary (May) Fay. They became engaged in January 1916 and married in June. He lived in Dublin, she in Westmeath; he was 20 years older than her at 39 and had become acquainted with her during his regular visits to his relative Mrs Mary Seery, her neighbour. Throughout the series their relationship develops from the first somewhat tentative letters. They were not to be married long: in 1919 he fell ill with the great flu epidemic, it led to heart damage and he died in 1922 as she was expecting their fourth child. She held on to his letters as her reminder of him. Despite many offers and her difficult finances she never married again. She took in lodgers and trained (and practised) as a midwife, chiropodist, and public health nurse while raising her children. She proved to be an excellent entrepreneur, charmed bank managers into giving her loans (against the norm of the time) and bought properties one after another, many of which were broken up into flats. James Finn was a civil servant, working in the National Health Service Commission on Mount Street. Family history says that he was advising on the restructuring of the civil service as part of setting up the new government in 1922 and that eminent figures in that project were visiting him in his sick bed so that they could consult with him. Neither May nor James were politically active, although like many in the Civil Service, learned Irish. One can sense their shifting sympathies in the letters. The letter refers to local gossip and also James's role with the National Health Insurance Commission.

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How to cite

Letters 1916, published by the Austrian Centre for Digital Humanities, Vienna, 2026 (https://letters1916static.github.io/letters1916-static/item__5543.html)