Molly [Mrs. John] Gaffney, Randalstown townland, Donaghpatrick parish, County Meath, to her daughter, Margaret Gaffney, Potsdam, St. Lawrence Co., New York, 4 July 1844
Molly [Mrs. John] Gaffney, Randalstown townland, Donaghpatrick parish, County Meath, to her daughter, Margaret Gaffney, Potsdam, St. Lawrence Co., New York, 4 July 1844
Description
Molly Gaffney was prompted to write by a report she heard from Pat Dowd, a poor returned emigrant, who related that her daughter, Margaret, was in bad health or impoverished. Another son, Paddy, had died in America, leaving a wife and two children in Randalstown. Family occupations are unknown, but the letter's fluency suggests bourgeois status. It illustrates Catholic apprehension, on the eve of the Great Famine, for Ireland's future due to: continued economic stagnation; the prospect of poor potato harvests; and, most important, the collapse of the Repeal movement and the imprisonment of Catholic nationalist hero, Daniel O'Connell.
Date
04/07/1844
Date Issued
27/03/2023
Resource Type
Text
Archival Record Id
p155/6/2
Publisher
University of Galway
Extent
5pp
Topic
Gaffney-McNally Letters
Geographic
Randalstown (townland),Meath (county),Ireland,Potsdam (town),St. Lawrence (county),New York (state),United States
Temporal
Nineteenth century,Eighteen forties
Genre
Transcript,Reproduction
Note
Title, description and transcript text by Professor Kerby Miller.