Dear Fergal,
IKNOW it’s been a long time. First of all, can I thank you for that lovely letter you sent me in July of 1969 and for returning my orange psychedelic scarf which I still recall as my first independent purchase.
You say that to keep such a remembrance in a house full of boys would be impossible and that it would be safer with me. Not so I’m afraid, while the vivid pattern is still imprinted on my brain, the scarf itself is long gone. You said that you would come back to Salthill to meet me the next year and to tell my friend Patricia that Flanagan intents to change places with Maurice when ye come back and that Rory says ‘hello’.
You asked me to write and send a photo of myself. I’m afraid that I just put it on the long finger and to be honest it wasn’t easy to get a decent photo printed at the time. I expect that having to go back to school left me with very few photo opportunities. For this I am truly sorry.
I know you said a few things about how difficult it was for you and your friends living in the north of Ireland but we could never have foreseen the horrors that were to unfold in your native place.
As I look at the address on your letter now, I wonder how you, your brothers and friends have fared in all the madness and mayhem that was to follow. I recall you spoke about your mother in such a nice way when I admired your well-ironed shirt which somehow seemed to take the edge off that rakish lock of hair that fell into your eyes like an accidental James Dean. I hope that she was spared the pain and heartbreak that so many mothers must have suffered in that place in the years that followed.
Well I continued with school and returned to Salthill to work for a few more summers after that, always scanning the faces of the many northern accented lads who arrived faithfully for the July holidays.
Perhaps we passed one another on the street and were distracted by a swooping gull or a screech of brakes or some bawdy revellers or perhaps you never made it back? It’s taken most of 50 years to get around to answering your letter but I feel sure we could pick up the conversation and extend it with the benefit of hindsight and the experiences that have enriched our lives.
I hope this letter finds you well and please don’t leave it as long as I did to reply. Every good wish to you and yours, Marian (Kelly) Quirke
PS. You asked me to put the name of my home place on the back of the photo because you liked the sound of it. It’s Castle Lambert... Sorry, I still don’t have a decent photo to hand to send.
Castle Lambert