Letter from Mrs Kathleen Clarke

Letter to Fr Eugene from Mrs Kathleen Clarke in Holloway Prison

Holloway Prison

London

C/o Chief Postal Censor

Strand House, Portugal St

Dear Father Nevin:

Many thanks for your letter and kind remembrance of me. Please pardon me for not replying sooner, home claims two of my three letters now and it’s always a puzzle to me who is to get the other. I am and always have been so sorry for your exile. I do hope it will end soon and that we shall all meet in Dublin again. My health is not as good as before my imprisonment but my spirit is as it always was which is the main thing. We are fairly well treated here – except that it is prison. We have very little to grumble about now unless it be the Censor who to our minds is an absolute fiend. My boys are in the best of health and having the time of their lives having a father and uncle executed and a mother imprisoned for loving their country. People think they cannot make enough fuss about them, the eldest is down at Ring Irish College for the session. The Countess is the same high spirited person in prison as out of it. Madame McBride is in the best of spirits, but getting very thin. The Countess has her paints and paints all day, she never gets weary. We get all the Irish newspapers and it’s quite a joy following the trend of things there. We had Mrs Skeffington here for a day and got all the latest news from home and abroad. Yet we are not allowed visits from relatives. With kindest wishes from self and companions.

Yours very sincerely

Kathleen Clarke