Hurley Family Emigrant Letters (Ref. U170)

U170/

Letter from Denis Hurley, Carson City, Nevada to his niece, Catherine Hurley, Tawnies, Clonakilty, County Cork. Thanks her for her letter and the shamrock in the post. He has not been writing much of late. His health is ‘pretty good’, though his hearing is not as good as it once was. Mentions the poor effect of the fall in the price of silver on the mining industry, with some miners losing their jobs. 2pp 2 May 1930 Letter from Denis Hurley, Carson City, Nevada to his niece, Mary Deasy, Ahafore, Timoleague, County Cork. He is glad to hear they are all well and that Mary’s family is ‘increasing in numbers’. Hopes she will do as well as her grandmother who ‘had a pretty hard struggle at times to make ends meet’. Encloses £1 for each of the family and £1 for the tower of Timoleague Church. He recalls reading J.D Sullivan's poem on Timoleague Abbey and ‘the trouble Father Mulcahy had with the landlord, Beamish in locking the gates of the old burial place’. Mentions a ‘great deal of unemployment’ in America, the Western States hit hard by the decline in the price of silver. Says Mr. Deasy ‘acted wisely’ going back to Ireland and ‘…tilling his own ground’. Notes that machinery of the present day works too fast, ‘…with the profits mostly for capital.’ 2pp 10 July 1930 Letter from Denis Hurley, Carson City, Nevada to his niece, Mary Deasy, Ahafore, Timoleague, County Cork. Congratulates her on her new motherhood. Aileen (in New York) gets ‘her proposals’ from non-Catholics and Jews. Says ‘If you have not good times in Ireland now you cannot blame England or the Labor Ministry. In this country many blame (President) Hoover. Industrial conditions cannot be adjusted by Executives. Rivalry, greed & concentration are more to blame’. Quotes lines of poetry beginning “Ill fares the land to hastening ills a prey, Where wealth accumulates and men decay…’ (Oliver Goldsmith) Notes that farmers in America think they are badly treated, but ‘worst-off’ is the miner. He is feeling well, and providence has been kind to him in working conditions. 2pp 22 July 1930 Letter from Denis Hurley, Carson City, Nevada to his niece, Catherine Hurley, Tawnies, Clonakilty, County Cork. He is glad to know everyone is well and that the ‘family population is not decreasing’. Mentions her sister Aileen (in New York) getting a promotion. Says that the male members of his brothers’ families do not write him at all. He observes that Ireland has some labour strikes at present, ‘Poor fools, some are never

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