January, 1927, Sunday 16

[Written by mistake under Sunday 23]

The first of the proscription lists! Finished up the hols with a pleasant ‘grub-and-wireless’ party at Prof. Sullivan’s and a riotous night at the second part of ‘Les Misérables’ – The Barricades – with Ivor and Joe in which we took part in a first-class practical joke on Joe O’Flynn, a modern Beau Nash. It is fine, all the same, to be back at school.14 I have plunged with great enjoyment into serious work. Got a terrible fright to learn that my piano exam. is in March !!! I expected it to be in June. So I must instantly begin all my work again, doing 3 hours on Sunday and Wednesdays. – Fr. Dalton is giving us fine notes on the old miracle plays and Renaissance. – Went to Hilsers’15 party. They are charming but I could only alleviate my despair and hopelessness this morning by doing 6 hours heavy work. Had a private play at Betty’s to-day, with some exciting hide-and-seek.

There is an extraordinary mystery about Miss O’Brien’s visit to France. Our letters are reaching her but are sent back anon.

  1. Aloys now attended St Finbarr’s College, Farranferris, where his father was music teacher. It was the diocesan seminary, a boarding school for boys. Students did not have to undertake a commitment to study for the priesthood; boys living in the city could attend as day students. It closed in 2006. His first school was the MacSwiney sisters’ Scoil Ita from September 1916; later he was sent to the Christian Brothers’ College. [↩]
  2. The Hilsers were German jewellers who settled in Cork. The father was interned in Oldcastle with Aloys Fleischmann senior. Two of the girls, Mary and Elsie Hilser, were among Tilly Fleischmann´s best piano students. [↩]