Letter from James Finn to May Fay, 24 February 1916

Foo, Bar; Bar, Foo

Letter from James Finn to May Fay, 24 February 1916

1 No sign of the work easing
off here but I’ll take a
few days off next week
anyhow and to h—with
everybody. James NATIONAL HEALTH INSURANCE COMMISSION (IRELAND),
PEMBROKE HOUSE,
UPPER MOUNT STREET,
Dublin. 24th Feby, 1916 My dearest girl, You needn’t have been so penitent about not
writing to me yesterday. I really didn’t expect to hear from
you and in any case I know very well that it is not always easy
to get letters posted in Togherstown. I was very sorry indeed to hear
that the real cause of your not writing was a recurrence of the
headache you had at my place. I hope that my poor darling
wasn’t so bad as she was then. I pitied you very much that
last evening you had the headache because I could see very well
that you weren’t really able to sit up. I’m quite sure my mother
didn’t think you pettish for going to bed: you were quite right to
go. I was glad to hear that Joe beat the Fays with his pigs —
for the credit of the family name. I think Christy must have sold
his too cheap especially if his “piebald” was one of the lot. I’m
sure the piebald would go much more than £5:10:0 as a curiosity 2 for the waxworks in Henry Street. He’d be a great attraction along
with the “fat woman” and the “bear lady”. I was very pleased to
hear of the good opinion that Matty Keanan has of me. If I
get many more “flowers” thrown at me like that I’ll begin to
fancy myself too much. I’m beginning to think now that you were
a fortunate littlebig girl to get hold of such a treasure. So
you’d better keep your nose very clean and be particularly nice to
me (and above all don’t refuse me kisses) or I’ll go back on you.
So now mind yourself. Glad to hear Tim is getting on so well
and hope he will continue so. I wrote to Mrs. Seery on Friday to
let her know I’d be down Saturday evening. Perhaps she would come
herself to the station to meet us if you suggest it. If not I suppose
someone else will come. I mean suppose she won't think that the Fays
are going to meet us and between the two houses we should have
to walk. I don’t care “tuppence” myself but I don’t suppose you
would enjoy stumping from Castletown. In fact I’d much prefer walking
if I had you to myself. I don’t think I’ll write tomorrow as
probably you’d be gone to the station on Saturday before a letter
could arrive. I have nothing else to say now except to send my dearest
and most devoted love as usual. I shall live for the next two days on the
expectation of Saturday. By the way, I didn’t sleep last night till 2 o’clock thinking about you. Warmest love again my darling girl 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, James learned Irish and as can be read in the letters after Easter, he knew many who more caught up in the Easter Rising. One can sense their shifting sympathies in the letters.

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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__5556.html)