Whatever part of Ireland you left that time going to America, you'd have to pass through Cork and then down to Queenstown.
They'd travelled on for fifteen miles by the banks of the River Lea.
Spike Island soon came into view and the convicts there did see.
They all put up in Mackey's Hotel, nine dozen of them or more,
and they sang and danced the whole night long as they did the night before.
In the morning they'd go out in the tender, out the harbour to where the ship was waiting.
They'd go on board and sail away.
And the last thing they'd see, often I heard those who came back remark on it,
the last sight of home was the Skellig's Rock, the half-circle of foam at the base of Skellig Vigil.
As here I stand upon the deck and watch the fading shore,
fond thoughts arise within my mind of friends I'll see no more.
Of moonlit streams and sunny hours, while fast the tears roll down.
O God be with you, Ireland, and sweet King Williamstown.
Now that they were gone, the people at home sat back and waited for the money.
The first Christmas cards we as children saw came from New York.
And they had lovely drawings of St. Joseph and the Holy Family,
but lovely in all.
Those drawings were, they couldn't hold a candle to the picture of George Washington.
And if George Washington or General Grant weren't inside in the crib with the Holy Family,
there wouldn't be much welcome for that Christmas card.
Indeed, I heard of one man who used to cut open the letter, shake it,
and if a few dollars didn't fall out, he wouldn't bother reading it.
What bank could change a Christmas card?
But to be fair, the money nearly always came to the mother.
It was the indoor and outdoor relief,
the dole, grant, and social welfare of the time.
And she would put it to good use.
It would go to buy a few luxuries they'd otherwise have to do without at Christmas time.
It would go to improve the house, to put extra stock on the farm,
to educate a child.
Where did the civil service come from?
And as people got old, the money would go to take out the appendix
and to put in false teeth.