IrelandGenWeb-L Archives

From: "Jean Rice" <>
Subject: [IGW] "My Irish Mother" -- (McGOLDRICK, MORLEY)
Date: Sat, 25 Oct 2003 10:22:00 -0700

SNIPPET: Mary Ann McGOLDRICK was born and grew up in the sturdy thatched
roof cottage that still sits high on the hillside of Killavoggy, Co.
Leitrim, near Drumahair. Her late husband was Michael MORLEY formerly of Co.
Mayo. Mary Ann, who emigrated to the United States, would tell her daughter
(Mary) stories about Ireland when she was growing up and often said that "on
a clear day, from that hill you can see for miles and miles the green hills
and the valleys and the beautiful lakes." The life-style in Killavoggy was
rural and simple. Not too far away from the hillside was the small school
house she attended and just beyond it the church she worshipped in. To get
to the hill from the main road she had to cross an old iron bridge. On
Saturday evenings her mother's family, friends and relatives would gather on
that bridge to dance and sing to the music of a fiddler. Mary Ann would
say, "I often wondered how that old bridge ever stood up with all the
dancing that went on there. Thank goodness they finally built a new steel
one."

In 1916, when Mary Ann was 18, she left Killavoggy in a cart pulled by a
donkey, down the narrow dirt roads, past the schoolhouse, the church, and
all the other memorable places that she held so close. She boarded the
train at Dromahair, and the first stop was at Manorhamilton. She remembers
her Uncle Owen, her father's brother, stepping aboard the train briefly and
giving her a kiss good-bye. She recalls, "I felt so sad and alone as I
waved to him from the train window and I wondered whether I would ever see
my mother, father, sister and brothers again." As the train headed for
Queenstown, she said she watched from that train window, and saw for the
first time much of the Irish landscape that up until that time she had only
heard about. In Queenstown she boarded a boat for Liverpool, and from she
sailed on the "Carpathia, " for her trip to America. ("The Carpathia" was
an English liner that in 1912 became famous as the first ship to reach and
rescue some of the passengers from the sinking "Titanic.")

After arriving in NY and going through customs, she took another boat for
Fall River, MA. From there she left by train for South Station in Boston
where her Aunt Bridget and Uncle Mike met her. She lived with Aunt Bridget
for six weeks until she got domestic work in the household of a Jewish
clothing manufacturer where she lived for five years; she looks back with
fondness on the wonderful relationship she had with the manufacturer and his
family. Mary Ann and her cousin from Dorchester would go to Hibernian Hall
dances where Irish immigrants would gather on weekend evenings. She would
later met another Irish immigrant, Mike MORLEY, from Mayo, and they would be
married in a double wedding ceremony; also exchanging vows on that Easter
Sunday was Mary Ann's brother, Jack, who had arrived in America a few years
after his sister, and his bride, Barbara, from Co. Galway. Mary Ann and
Mike bought a house and raised their five children in Everett.

In 1954, Mary Ann returned to the land she had loved so much. Her mother
was now in her 90th year, her father had died a few years before, and her
only sister, Bridget, died in 1918 at age 16 from influenza. Her remaining
brother in Ireland, Martin, was still living and they were reunited after
all those years. Mary Ann's trip to America in 1916 had taken two weeks,
her return trip to Ireland was completed in one day. Her husband was to die
in 1963.

Mary Ann's daughter says that each generation is linked to the next
generation and the generations to come with a wonderful gift of continuity.
As she and her mother sat in the kitchen of her Everett home over tea, Mary
reached over and took her mother's frail hand in hers and asked her how she
felt now, about her life, looking back over the years. In that wonderful
Irish brogue she said, "You know I often think about that hillside. So many
things have changed. At times life hasn't been easy, but as hard as it was,
sure, and I wouldn't have missed it for anything."

-- Excerpts, "My Irish Mother," Mary Morley Armato, 1995 "Leitrim Guardian."

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• [IGW] "My Irish Mother" -- (McGOLDRICK, MORLEY) by "Jean Rice" <>