Clifton, Aghada
August the 23th
1927
Mein Liebling,
Empfang meine innigste, herzlichste Gratulation zu Deinem grossen Erfolge in Deiner letzten Prüfung. Umso hoch erfreuend ist es! Du hast es wohl verdient mein lieber Enkel, durch Deinen unermüdlichen Fleiss, strebsames Wirken und grossartigen Ausdauer. Du fühlst in Dir, was ein deutscher Dichter sagt: zu etwas höherem sind wir geboren.
Gar dass Du 4 First und ein Second Honours erhielst, finde ich das Bedeutendste für Dich.
Gott segne Dich und helfe Dir zu Deinem gewünschten Ziele weiter. Dieses ist mein Wunsch und mein Gebet.
Es freut mich, dass Du für einige Wochen aufs Land gehest. Du brauchst notwendig wirkliche Ruhe damit Du Kraft für den Winter sammelst, zur neuen Arbeit.
Es grüsst und küsst Dich
Deine Dich liebende
Grossmutter
On the back of the letter to Aloys she writes to her daughter Tilly
Liebste Tilly,
Danke herzlich für Deinen lieben Brief; die glückliche Nachricht von Alfie [Aloys Óg] hat mich unendlich gerührt und erfreut. Dieser Junge wird Euch zum Segen sein! D.V.
Ich hoffe dass Elsa mir den Brief bald schicken wird; ich hätte ihn so gern [probably from one of the sons about the death of her husband]. Wird Ferdie überhaupt schreiben? Ich schrieb zu Gertie dankend für ihre grossmütige Güte zu dem armen kranken Manne. Man würde wenige ihresgleichen finden.
Das Wetter ist leider sehr veränderlich gegenwärtig; doch man kann täglich stundenlang im Freien sein.
Ich fühle mich selbst viel besser. Hoffentlich bist Du nicht schon wieder in Zerwirniss (?) –??– doch das Leben etwas leichter.
[in English:] Mrs O’Mullane send her best regards and congratulation to you and family.
Best love and kisses
from your fond
Mother
These are the only letters from her which have survived. She didn’t write to Cork-based Tilly, and we have no papers from any of the other children.
These letters were written some weeks after Hans Conrad’s death during what may have been a rare outing (to Galway?). She was 73. Her eldest daughter and youngest son were dead: Wally had died of TB in January 1918 in Germany aged 37; Leo died one month later in Belgium of the flu while serving in the British army; he was 28.
The German sometimes sounds as though it had become slightly foreign to her. She probably didn’t have much occasion to read German and heard nothing but English around her all day. German will have been the family language while the children lived at home, but the youngest daughters will have left home before 1920: Rosa, born in 1892, married in 1919 and moved to Dublin; Cressie, the youngest, born in 1895, married in 1920 and went to England. Their mother continued to speak German to visiting family members, however, as I remember from a visit in 1945 when (aged three) I marvelled at the strange talk between her, Dad and Granny. Her children seem to have spoken English to each other: Tilly and Wally correspond in English in 1910, and the brothers in America all write to Tilly in English. In this letter, when she passes on the message of congratulation, she switches to English and remains in the language. She had been in Cork for 47 years by this time, having come in 1880 aged 26, himself then 22. He was 21 when he took up the post in St Vincent’s. She had only been back home in Dachau once, in 1901, to bring Tilly to Munich. She was to go again for the Oberammergau passion play in 1930, possibly because he had left her whatever assets he had. Hans Conrad was 48 when he left for Philadelphia, leaving her behind at 52. He was 69 when he died in 1927, she died in 1945 aged 90.
(Aloys Fleischmann Diary, 21st August 1927)
