Hurley Family Emigrant Letters (Ref. U170)

U170/

2pp

4 August 1929 Letter from Denis Hurley, Carson City, Nevada to niece Mary Deasy, Ahafore, Timoleague, County Cork. He received letters from her cousin in Durham and from Eileen in New York, who ‘says they are cooped up there like monkeys in a cage’. Notes that there is plenty of ‘foot room’ Nevada, ‘more per cap than any State in the Union’. 1p 16 December 1929 Letter from Denis Hurley, Carson City, Nevada to his niece, Catherine Deasy, Tawnies, Clonakilty, County Cork. He is very sorry to hear of his nephew’s death and would not favour bringing the body back to Ireland, as ‘…France held a warm place in the heart of the Irish people. And what place would a pious Catholic wish to repose than the favoured spot of Lourdes’. Mentions Tim Canty who proposed him for membership of the St. Vincent De Paul Society. Says ‘Clonakilty seems to have given birth to many distinguished men in former as well as modern days’. Mentions the Ambassador from the Free State to Washington. Notes the name Hurley came into ‘national prominence’ lately with Colonel Patrick J. Hurley in the Hoover Cabinet as Secretary of War. 2pp 21 December 1929 Letter from Denis Hurley, Carson City, Nevada to his niece, Mary Deasy, Ahafore, Timoleague, County Cork. He is glad Mary and Mr. Deasy and the children are well. Explains that the 4 brothers (Denis, Michael, John and Tim) were almost of the same height. Notes that Mary’s children keep her ‘pretty busy’, and that some mothers in America with one baby ‘think they have their hands full and send their washing to a laundry’. Mentions that he was in hospital last Christmas, where he had mostly a good time, ‘but hospital bills had to be met and they were not small or trifling’. He always enjoyed walking and it is a great pleasure to be back to his ‘old stride again’. 2pp

2 March 1930