My sister has seen this and has contributed some additions.

There is a reference in the Garnier letters in 1921 to JJ taking a house in Stillorgan (the Cottage), and to my mother's illness. This more spacious location enabled the two grannies to be taken care of, with less pressure on my mother, and also for Sam's family, Alex, Tommy and Geddes, to be accommodated.

There are among JJ's papers three letters written in 1921-22 by Anne from Budapest where she was attending a conference of the World Student Christian Federation. They are addressed to 'The Cottage', Stillorgan. Two, dated November 21 1921 and January 23 1922, are to JJ, and the other, dated November 29 1921 is to her mother. The latter is concerned with clothing, bedding etc, and Calvinistic theological student encounters.

The letters to JJ have political and economic dimensions, with mention of student unrest arising from the break-up of the Hapsburg Empire, and the price of food and clothing. Students from Serbia or Roumania were apparently not allowed go home for their vacation.

In the second letter she mentions that she had picked up that JJ had been in favour of Central European Relief but that the Provost of TCD was against; she enquires about a Mansion House meeting on the topic. She also mentions meeting the President of the Hungarian Students Union, who had picked up via Queens Belfast that JJ had sent her (Anne) to express goodwill towards Hungary etc: 'That was the first time that I heard that you had sent me..'. She had also heard that JJ had been lecturing in Armagh... 'are they the same lectures as last year?...'.

One can perhaps infer from this that JJ was known in Queens, at least on the radical Christian peace movement network. The Armagh reference could be an early Barrington episode.

There is a further reference in a 1922 Garnier letter which may imply that JJ's ailing brother Sam stayed with JJ prior to his death in Newcastle Sanitorium. The arrangements for JJ to foster his three sons, Alex, Tommy and Geddes would by then have been in place for some time, their mother continuing to work in England as a nurse.

This led to various other housing arrangements, involving Ann and the two grannies. Thee was for a time a flat in Idrone Terrace, Blackrock. Later Granny Wilson had a small house 17 Seapoint Avenue, with Granny Johnston nearby in number 9. The latter then went to live with Ann in a house in 33 Frescati Park. There followed then an idyllic period in Stillorgan, when my sister and her three cousins interacted as a family. It was immortalised in a poem by Geddes, who was of a romantic temperament; the MS is to hand.

Geddes initially got a job working in a bank, but was miserable there, although he put energy into football. This pleased his uncle John in India, who was contributing to the family support fund: '..it will sweat the vice out of him and keep him healthy..' he wrote to JJ on 01/01/1928. Geddes however aspired to a life in the open air, abroad, and JJ in the end managed to fix him up on a ranch in the Argentine, through Mahaffey in TCD; there was a Traill property there. This is the start of the Geddes saga, about which there is much correspondence, extending into the 30s. It ends abruptly, so it must have got sorted out. Geddes joined the RAF in 1940 and was shot down over North Africa. It would be somewhat of a red herring to develop the Geddes saga in full here, but there are indications that it may surface in another context.

By about 1925 or so the accommodation situation was again changed, in that Alex and Tommy went to live in Blackrock with Ann and Granny Johnston (Mary Geddes), and the coast was clear for JJ to look for a more suitable place to live. He bought a house in Blackrock, no 20 Waltham Terrace, and settled in there, apparently for good, as it was an excellent house, convenient to all amenities, suitable for someone of aspirant professorial status.

I suspect this picture might have been taken of my parents and my sister Maureen in or about 1926, perhaps in the context of their trip to Paris in the Albert Kahn Foundation context.

Despite having achieved suitable housing, with my mother settling in to a social life among the Dublin intelligentsia, attending the RDS chamber-music concerts, meetings in the Arts Club etc, JJ, somewhat perversely and to the dismay of his colleagues, felt the call of the land. He sought a farm in reach of Dublin, to keep in touch with farming practice, for his economic studies. He found a house with a garden and about 10 acres of land at Priorland, near Dundalk, which was in reach of Dublin via the Great Northern Railway, within a schedule which enabled him to fulfil his College duties. There was a yard with mews lodgings for a gardener.

The house at Priorland, in or about 1930; the pony and trap serviced my mother's needs for transport when JJ was in Dublin.

In November 1929 I was born, somewhat unexpectedly; my mother's fertility was in question due to her earlier illness. This must have disrupted JJ's plans somewhat, but on the whole it would seem that they were pleased.

I have recollections of the garden and house at Priorland, and of being taken to the railway bridge near the house, where JJ's train would pass on its way to Dundalk station. I also recollect a large walled garden, with fruit.

My sister at this time went to at Dundalk Grammar School, which was in easy cycling distance. JJ made contacts with farming neighbours, especially the Barrows, at Castlebellingham, whose experience in running a substantial farm figures significantly in JJ's papers to the SSISI.

Some navigational notes:

Copyright Dr Roy Johnston 1999