Money-letter at Urlingford

Asenath Nicholson

Ireland's Welcome to the Stranger

1847

Chapter XI (6) | Start of Chapter

I had but just returned my purse to the bag, when I heard a carriage, and a call, "Stop, and take a ride to the next town. Here is the American lady that stopped at my house." This was the Quaker at whose place I stopped on my route to Galway. This ride carried me six miles from Roscrea, to the place where I had stayed at the shopkeeper's, when on my way. I was met and welcomed at the car by a son of the family, with, "We're glad to see you; Uncle has a letter for you at Urlingford, with money in it from America; but he found the seal broken at the office, and thought it might be unsafe to send it on to Galway."

Ireland’s Welome to the Stranger is one of the best accounts of Irish social conditions, customs, quirks and habits that you could wish for. The author, Mrs Asenath Nicholson, was an American widow who travelled extensively in Ireland on the eve of the Great Famine and meticulously observed the Irish peasantry at work and play, as well as noting their living conditions and diet. The book is also available from Kindle.

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An American widow’s account of her travels in Ireland in 1844–45 on the eve of the Great Famine:

Ireland’s Welcome to the Stranger

Sailing from New York, she set out to determine the condition of the Irish poor and discover why so many were emigrating to her home country.

Mrs Nicholson’s recollections of her tour among the peasantry are still revealing and gripping today.

The author returned to Ireland in 1847–49 to help with famine relief and recorded those experiences in the rather harrowing: Annals of the Famine in Ireland.

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