Letter from James Finn to May Fay, 10 May 1916

Foo, Bar; Bar, Foo

Letter from James Finn to May Fay, 10 May 1916

1 39 Belgrave Sq.
Rathmines
Dublin 10th May, 1916. My dearest love, You are a darling to write to
me again yesterday. I was not expecting a
letter of course and was delighted when I got
home yesterday evening to hear from my mother that
there was a letter waiting for me. It must
have arrived yesterday after I left for the
office. The post is very erratic these times
for example there is no post for the night
mail after 3p.m. so I have to write to
you immediately after I come into the
office or I shall miss it. However we have 2 been so long without mails that we bless
the post office for any little convenience at
all now. I was overjoyed to see that
we may look forward to the pleasure of
seeing you on Saturday. I need hardly tell
you with what anxiety and eagerness I
am waiting for the moment when I can
embrace my dearest and best girl again and
thank God for being thought worthy to live
to see her again. I hope that the trouble
through which we have all passed will eventually
bring good to our poor country and that it
will with Gods blessing make me a better
man and a more worthy one for the dear
good true girl who loves me. I hope you heard from Johnnie since and that all is
well with them in Mitchelstown. They are still
arresting men all over the country and I suppose
you know that they have shot twelve of the
leaders in the last week. They are P.H.
Pearse and his brother WillyPearse, Tom Clarke
(an old Fenian), Thos. McDonagh, J. Plunket
(a son of Count Plunket), Major McBride (of
the South African War), Eamonn Kent, Conn Colbert,
J.J. Heuston, M. Mallon and one or two others
whose names I forget at the moment. A
large number (up to 40 I think) have got
penal servitude ranging from 3 to 20 years;
Countess Markievitz imprisoned for life and
2000 or 3000 prisoners taken to England to
be interned. I had a letter from Johnnie to-day and 3 of course I'll go round and see them at
Callaghan's about the job there. I will write
to him to-morrow but don't mention it to
him when of course he has already told you that
he is looking for a job there. We are in the
middle of tradesmen this week papering or but
we hope to be in some sort of order by
Saturday when we shall have the pleasure
of welcoming yourself and Mrs Seery to
Belgrave Square. Tell Mrs S. to bring up my
bag and belongings if she doesn't mind the
trouble. Let me know what train you are
coming on and I will meet you at the
station or thereabouts. I'm not sure whether I
can get into the station or not but will
find out and let you know to-morrow.
Give my warmest regards to your mother Nano Mrs
Seery and everyone and with fondest love and kisses Your ever 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 has heard from May and knows that she will be coming up to Dublin, he longs to see her, wonders if she has heard from her sister Jenny in Mitchelstown. Arrests are going on all over the country. He tells her about the executions and many have been sent to penal servitude

James Finn
May Fay
1916-05-10
Easter Rising Ireland 1916 Personal Relations

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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__5786.html)