Letter from James Finn to May Fay, 5 April 1916

Foo, Bar; Bar, Foo

Letter from James Finn to May Fay, 5 April 1916

1 NATIONAL HEALTH INSURANCE COMMISSION (IRELAND)
PEMBROKE HOUSE
UPPER MOUNT STREET
DUBLIN 5th April, 1916. My darling May, I have several things to say to you today and I am afraid
I haven’t much time but I’ll try to get everything off my chest. First I was
delighted to get your letter. I have had my tongue hanging out for the last couple
of days looking out for a line from you and my heart has been down in my boots
every morning when I got a disappointment. I am grieved that my poor darling
has been knocked up I was just thinking as much when I didn’t hear yesterday
but I hope sincerely that you are on the mend now. About coming up to town
I’m awfully disappointed that you won’t come. Of course I know very well when our
marriage was coming off and how near Easter was to it but I don’t see why that
should stop you. As regards people saying that I was backing out, I had the idea
that perhaps you would come back with me at Easter and I don’t see how, if you
could be induced to do that, how the peoples tongues could wag but perhaps
coming back in my company would be a highly improper and outrageous thing to do.
I’m afraid I’m not very clear on nice points of good conduct and morals such as
that. As to the races I must go now since you have made up your mind to
go but I certainly don’t feel inclined to spend the money merely for the fleeting
pleasure of a look at you in a crowd so I think I’ll brazen it out with
Mrs Seery and come down on Saturday evening next unless you forbid me. I’m writing 2 to her now to feel my way and if she gives me any encouragement I feel more
than inclined to go and chance your displeasure. I’m more than half ashamed
to trouble her though and I’m afraid both you and your mother and herself will
think I’m mad. Praps I am I should not wonder indeed if I were when I
think soberly of the luck I have had. Now I want you like a darling to
write me a line by return (I’ll have it on Friday) to say whether you would be very
much displeased if I came down for the week end and go to the races with you
rather than go down straight on Monday to Mullingar. I’d simply hate to see you
at the races and not be able to steal a kiss or get a word in private with you
without people looking on and criticising. So will you please let me come down, love.
I’ll get Nora to help me buy something nice in the way of a glove but
let me know your size by Friday so that I can bring them with me. I
have very little news since I wrote to you yesterday you anything
I knew. The Accountant will not be back till Monday probably but he
will be in time to take over things for me. You mustn’t worry on that
score. I can always manage a day or two that way when I want. Remember
me to all and tell your mother not to be too hard on me for coming
down so soon but I can’t help it. Warmest and most enduring love for
my dearest and best From 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, 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. James is relieved to finally have May's letter but she is not coming up to Dublin before Easter. He may have to go to Westmeath and meet her at the races.

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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__5716.html)