Hurley Family Emigrant Letters (Ref. U170)

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does not always give happiness’. Mentions Mary’s younger sister Hanora being ‘fond of work’. He may attend the Eucharistic Congress in Dublin, though he ‘would look like a dream after so many years absence’. He is in good health and takes frequent walks of 5 or 6 miles. Notes the ‘strange condition in world affairs’ due to unemployment, with low prices for silver, wheat and farm products and that manufacturers keep up the prices by curtailing output and discharging their employees. ‘We fancied when I was a boy that if we had not big rents to pay for the land we were happy’. England led the world in manufacturing and paid high prices for farm products. 2pp 31 May 1931 Letter from Denis Hurley, Carson City, Nevada to his niece, Mary Deasy, Ahafore, Timoleague, County Cork. He is glad both families are well, ‘It must be amusing to see the children help and protect the younger member’. Notes that excessive rains are very disagreeable, but the extreme shortness of rain is worse, as has happened in Nevada for several years. His prospects of visiting ‘dear Ireland’ have lessened due to the decline in his investments, some of which have declined by half, however he concludes that much may happen in the next half-year. Notes the ‘strange state of affairs’ in America, with a ‘superabundance of everything…and…war loan payments…and yet millions out of work hungry and living on public and private charity’. This is not so strange in European countries he says. Mining in particular is badly effected. Concludes that Irish farmers, now owning their own land and not fearing ‘the landlord or his agents’ should have enough to eat. 2pp 9 November 1931 Letter from Denis Hurley, Carson City, Nevada to his niece, Mary Deasy, Ahafore, Timoleague, County Cork. He has not written since the new postal rates came into use. Notes that ‘You complain of too much rain and we complain that we have too little…Lake Tahoe stands lowest of any period in 40 years’. He responded to a begging letter from the Sisters of Mercy in Skibbereen to aid their library. Says that the Free State is fortunate to be free of England’s colonial debt, and hopes the people wont be ‘…carried into extreme measures by De Valera and his republican adherents. Weak nations cannot do much to defend themselves’. Explains that Nevada State has become a diocese, and that while the Roman Catholic population of the United States has grown to 20 million since 1881, the Catholic population of Nevada declined by half. There was no Catholic school in the State, ‘…and things of this world became the paramount consideration…’. He may not be able to attend the Eucharistic Congress in Dublin as his investments have dropped much in value. Mentions the ship ‘Tuscania’ sailing from New York for Southern Ireland. 2pp

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