Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T14:35:31.709Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

2 - ‘Very perfection of a letter writer’: an overview of Irish–New Zealand correspondence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2023

Get access

Summary

Between 1886 and 1921 the Keane family of Clashmore, County Waterford, sent eleven surviving letters to their migrant sister Mary, who had settled at Wellington. These letters placed a range of obligations on Mary. Both Mary and another migrant sister, Bridget, residing in Otago, were clearly expected to communicate regularly with the family: ‘I hope Bridget will write and let us know how she is getting on & if she dont tis the most she can do as not’ (Ke 1). The consequences of Mary's silence were also keenly felt. A friend ‘was very mad as you did not write to her’ (Ke 1). Another sister, Kate, who settled in London, also conveyed her deep disappointment in Mary, some two decades after Mary's departure: ‘All the years you have left home you have not written to me’ (Ke 4).

Mary Keane's communications, however, may have been subjected to the precarious transmission of correspondence. In 1886, her brother John puzzled, ‘you spoke about writing so many letters home to Ireland. All the letters ever I read from ye was four two from Bridget & Two from Your-self’ (Ke 2). Alternatively, Mary may have exaggerated her writing activities to counteract these complaints from home, leaving her family to surmise as to the whereabouts of so many letters. When, eventually, Kate received word from Mary, she exclaimed gleefully, ‘Words in writing fail to express my joy to receive a letter from you after all these years’ (Ke 5).

Apart from news, the exchange of correspondence among the Keane family also contained photographs. In 1918, approximately forty years after Mary’s departure, Kate sought a photograph for the purposes of recollection:

I have one of Bridget taken when she first went to New Zealand & a photo taken with her husband & children when John was a little one. He resembles his mother but I have not a single photo of you Mary. If you have an old photo do send me one just to remember you as I used to in the old days & one taken with the children. I am having some taken & will send you one. (Ke 10)

In response to this letter Mary sent a photograph of her son, prompting Kate to claim enthusiastically, ‘I could at once recall your face Mary as I knew you at home, the same expression’ (Ke 11).

Type
Chapter
Information
Irish Migrants in New Zealand, 1840-1937
'The Desired Haven'
, pp. 81 - 96
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
Print publication year: 2005

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×