Snapshots sent to Ireland...

In this snapshot my mother sent to my Aunt Tessie in Maghera, most of the children in my family pose with my father. I am seated on the left, next to my sister Eileen. My sister Marie sits next to my brother Joey, who sits next to my father, John McNamara. In the back row, from left, are my brothers Bernie, Jay, and Billy.

My father left Ireland when he was in his late teens and Tessie, his youngest sister, was only nine years old. It's safe to assume they never knew each other very well, so it must have been fascinating for Tessie to receive photographs showing her older brother and his family in America. No doubt my Aunt Tessie would have shared these snapshots with my grandfather, Patrick McNamara, who was living nearby in Maghera with my father’s sister Ellen and her husband, Michael Broderick. My grandfather must have enjoyed seeing photographs of his grandchildren in America.

In this snapshot, my father stands next to my brother Jay, and I am in the back row on the right. In front, from left, are my brothers Bernie, Joey, and Billy. It appears that my mother took this photograph of my father and the boys as a companion shot to the photograph of my mother posing with my sisters. I don’t recall her saying so, but perhaps my mother was posing all of us on that sunny afternoon specifically so she could send these snapshots to my Aunt Tessie.

Incidentally, if our relatives in Ireland saw this snapshot and assumed the automobile in the background was ours, they would have been mistaken. Neither of my parents ever drove a car.