Ballycastle, County Mayo. 1847.
A story told in letters.
Posted from Ireland. Kept by you.
Mary. Ballycastle, November 1847.
“Only write, Patrick.
A line on a scrap would do me.”
Patrick. Boston, December 1847.
An ocean between them.
A letter on its way.
Yours, From Ireland
Patrick is a second son with no land coming to him. He leaves for Boston and promises to send for Mary. Her father has a different future in mind.
You meet them through their letters. The waiting, the small things, the words they choose to put on paper.
Read the back story
Two letters arrive each month, one from Ireland and one in reply. Beautiful printed paper, and it arrives ready to open. Posted from Ireland.
Read Mary's opening letter See what arrivesThe opening letters, on film
AI dramatisations of our original historical fiction. Choose a film to play.
Ballycastle, November 1847
Mary waits, dictates her letter, and sends it.
Mary stands at the window. Six weeks and two days. Still no word from Patrick.
At Father Mullan's table, he writes as she dictates: “He is putting down what I say.”
Her letter is folded. “Only write, Patrick. A line on a scrap would do me.”
Read Mary's opening letter. An AI dramatisation of original historical fiction.
Boston, December 1847
A room in Boston. A letter to Mary. A road he is trying to remember.
A dramatisation of Patrick's opening letter. Play to listen.
Patrick sits at a small table in his Boston lodging and begins a letter. We hear his thoughts as he writes.
My dear Mary. I am landed and I am living and I am in work.
The town is very big, Mary, and it is built close, and there is no soft ground anywhere in it.
I will not put the crossing down on paper. It is over, and there is no good in the two of us carrying it.
Tell me the small things.
I do be lying awake putting the road from your house to ours in order in my head, gate by gate, in case I lose it.
Your own, Patrick.
He remembers a lane in Mayo, then returns to his letter and folds the paper.
The correspondence
Twenty-four letters over twelve months. A complete story, 1847 to 1857.
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From the Journal
Choose something personal for someone whose shelves are already full.
Read the guidePaper, photographs and stories, with an honest look at who each gift suits.
Read the guideWays to keep a connection with Ireland, wherever they live now.
Read the guideBallycastle, 8 November 1847
