The correspondence of some of Annie McCullen's friends and relatives sheds light on the late 19th century lives of Co Louth residents including my great grandmother, Mary Monica Reilly. The letters which Mary Monica wrote give us a great deal of information about our family....tears and laughter.
This book describes the years of four Reilly sons before they left Ireland and never returned:her second youngest son, Maurice Edmund, my grandfather emigrated from Ardee with his older brother Myles in 1910 to Australia. Myles was killed at Broodseinde in WWI. Maurice was classified medically unfit so he remained in Australia. MMOR mentions Phillip and Charlie who also lived and died in Australia. The letters give insight into Charlie the child, who later fought in the second Boer War, WW1 and was in the Natal police force until 1908. The letters also show how vulnerable the family was to many diseases now controlled by vaccination. MMR regretted postponing this new breakthrough with her own children as she describes those of her thirteen who succumbed to smallpox and other diseases. When MMR ceases writing, the family diaspora begins.