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13 In the Parish of Carna Again 24 April to 2 August 19451 Tuesday 24.4.45 From Dublin to Galway by train and the five o’clock bus to Carna. Tea with Micheál Geraghty by invitation. The weather broke in the middle of the afternoon and it turned out to be a dirty, wet night. I had intended spending the night in Galway to visit Liam Mac Coisdeala and Tomás Ó Broin and to go to Anach Cuain2 with him to an old man there – but, as the weather broke, that work would be unpleasant. I stayed with Mrs [Sorcha] Hernon as I had previously done. Everyone there was well and gave me a great welcome. Wednesday 25.4.45 The first thing I did when I got up was to send a letter to Tomás Ó Broin in Galway (3 Ely Place) telling him that I had let him down because of the weather but that I would go to him on Friday, 4.5.45, to go to Anach Cuain. I sent a note to the LDF at home as well that I was happy to go on the camp with them to Gormanstown at the end of July, if I could get the time off.3 On the way to the post I called in to Jamesy Mongan in Carna to see him. He broke both legs last year towards the end of autumn. I found him sitting serenely with a pair of crutches. He welcomed me and appreciated my calling on him. Peaitín William Greene – the man in whose house in Maínis I lived the year before last for a while – injured his leg when a stone fence fell on him some time ago – and I went to visit him for part of the afternoon. His leg has improved greatly, but he still needs the support of a walking stick. A four-inch splinter was removed from his shin bone. His mother-in-law [Neilí] Caney passed away (he married 12.12.44). She will be buried tomorrow and, as I was friendly with the people of that house in Gabhla, I felt obliged to attend the funeral. 231 I spent the evening in my lodging house talking by the fireside and I wrote down a few interesting items of lore from Pádraig Ó hIarnáin (22) from this house. They are things he often heard at the hearth at home and, as he is an honest person with an accurate, keen memory, I trust his material more than many another. I played a little music for them on the pipes before bedtime. Thursday 26.4.45 I went to Carna this morning and was told that this woman’s funeral is to take place in An Caiseal after twelve o’clock Mass. I met Seán ’ac Dhonncha (the schoolmaster) in Carna and he was going there as well, so neither of us had to travel a lonely road. That school has been on strike for the last while because of dirty, unhygienic conditions and he is going to Cloch na Rón to see his manager, Fr [Patrick] Donnellan. (The poor man has been without his salary since the end of February because of some slipup in Civil Service administration, a common occurrence.) I went to the funeral and I went to Molloys’ (Seán’s lodging house) with Seán to get something to eat, as the journey from Carna to An Caiseal facing into a cold north wind is not easily undertaken. Seán told me he has almost finished answering that questionnaire about Christmas.4 He continued to Cloch na Rón. On my way, I called to Clohertys’ in Barr na gCrompán, where Colm Ó Caodháin’s sister [Neansa] is married. They are well. I wrote an account about dyeing wool from the mother of the man of the house, Bairbre Bean Uí Chlochartaigh (née Ní Nia) (c. 68), a kind, simple woman. I called to Colm Ó Caodháin’s house in Glinsce on my way. Colm was out in the bay dredging scallops. His mother [Máire], wife [Babe] and family were strong and well, as I had left them previously. ‘May there not be more straws on the house than the number of welcomes for you!’5 said Colm’s mother. I came to Carna and did not delay too long with them and found my little parcel of papers waiting for...

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