Folklore and fairytales are told to young children growing up and are passed down to their children and so forth. The best stories that are passed down from generation to generation, I believe, are the ones that do not fall under the category of myths and legends. These stories are about our ancestors and show that we too are part of history.
One of my favorite stories is the story of a young woman named Ellen Hallahan, who later became my Great Nana, and her courageous will to give up everything she knew and to move to a new and strange land. Ellen was a cautious and caring individual and did not appear to be the kind of person who would go out and do anything too daring, although when there was an emergency, she would be there to help out. She was the daughter of a blacksmith named Thomas Hallahan and was one of his ten children. She was born in 1897 and lived in Ireland until she was | tweny. During her later teens and into her 20's, The IRA and Britain were engaging in bloody skirmishes against each other. This is where the story begins.
During the early 1900s, Ireland wanted its independence from Britain, which Britain had promised. Britain never gave Ireland its freedom, causing the people of Ireland to become discontented. They formed the IRA and began to attack British soldiers. Britain fought back, injuring and killing people of the IRA. During this time, Ellen Hallahan was working at a hospital as a nurse. The curious aspect about this hospital though, was that it treated both the IRA and the British wounded. The British would come through the front door and members of the IRA would come in the back door. The two opposing groups were of course separated. At night, they would have to pull down curtains to cover the windows, because if someone from the IRA saw, through the window, a British soldier being treated, he would fire upon the soldier, and vice versa.
Since she was a nurse, she saw a lot of death, shooting, and injury. hospital walls. She was not a fan of violence and liked it to be peaceful. Life too, was tough. Though it was many years after the potato famine, food was still scarce, and it was hard to get and keep a job.
During this time, she contemplated gpoing to America, the land of opportunity. Although she was not a daredevil and did not appear to be the type of person who would leave all that was familiar to here to start anew, her desire to get away from the violence and death was great enough to cause her to choose to go to a strange country. Ellen planed on going to America with one of her younger sisters, probably Johanna, but when Johanna chickened out at the last minute, her sister Mary quickly volunteered to join Ellen. She hastily packed her things, which was not very much, for the following day they were to embark on their journey to the United States. The night before their departure, one of Ellen's brothers told her not to plan on taking the bridge to get to the docks. Ellen was surprised and asked why, but her brother just told not to take the bridge. She agreed with him and went off to bed. The next morning, the doctor, who had offered to drive Ellen and Mary to the boat, pulled up in his car and reported the news of the bridge having been blown up. Whether the doctor had known about the plan to blow up the bridge or not was not known, but he had planned another route, which would take them to the docks. Obviously, Ellen's brother was somehow involved with the IRA. Another indication of this is that many years later, in the 1990's, my Great Aunt Mary visited Ireland and the home that Ellen grew up in. During her visit, the roof was being rethatched on Ellen's old house and well hidden in the old thatch was one German riffle that dated back to that time period.
Ellen and Mary did arrive in America safely, and they lived in Boston where they worked as maids. They were not alone in this new country though. They had two brothers, Edward and James, who lived in New Hampshire, and a sister who lived in California, who was eventually joined by Johanna.
When I first heard this story, I was fascinating by the fact that my Great Nana and | her family were part of the struggle between the IRA and Britain. I was also impressed by the fact that, even though some of my family members say that she was not the most daring woman, she was able to muster up enough nerve to leave Ireland and journey to an unfamiliar land. I guess no matter what your personality may be, if something is important to you, you can find the courage to make things happen.
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