I deal here with JJ's final moves, from Bayly Farm to Dundrum, then to Stillorgan, and then finally to my sister's place in Nenagh. I also deal briefly with my own family situation.

Bayly farm, near Nenagh, was quite remote and isolated, and JJ used to travel by train up to TCD in the mid week, for the Board meetings, and such College work as he had. This left my mother on her own, supported by Margaret Egan, a housekeeper with Nenagh background, with whom she had had a relationship dating from the 1930s. She had serviced my sister's family also. My sister's family, then at school and in College, used to look in from time to time, during vacation. After the death of my brother-in-law Dermot Carmody, my sister had to vacate the Nenagh rectory. She built a house at Stonyhigh, north of the town. The family by this time was scattered, and she developed her medical practice. There was less reason for JJ to be near my sister, and the Berkeley project was taking shape. So they moved back to Dublin, taking a bungalow in Ballaly Drive, Dundrum, where I visited them from time to time, helping in the garden. This would have been about 1964, after Dermot's death.

My father Joe, at about this time.

JJ at this time was still driving, in his mid-70s, and he used to call to our house in Rathmines to take Una and/or Fergus and/or Aileen to various places, which he enjoyed doing, though it upset Mairin, who felt it was a risk. Then in or about 1967 he crashed the car, at a blind junction on Taney Road, east of Dundrum, and the car was a write-off. He was unscathed, but indignant that he could no longer get insurance for a new car. This triggered the next move.

They went to 53 Thornhill Road, then the house of JJ's nephew Alec, Sam's son, and his German wife Klothilde, now owned by their son Douglas. JJ had fostered Sam's sons, Tommy, Alec and Geddes, in the 1920s, and this was a 'thank you' arrangement, which lasted a few years, until an extension was built to my sister's house near Nenagh, in which they ended their days. They had two rooms, and they shared meals. The arrangement became necessary after JJ had his hip replacement operation in 1969, and my mother was also by then becoming too fragile to do the housekeeping.

My mother Claire, at about this time.

Claire Carmody my sister's youngest was married to David Armit on July 19 1969 and I have recollections connected with this wedding which have bearing on the political state of Sinn Fein immediately before the August crisis. I treat this elsewhere.

My own relationship with Mairin cooled off during the 1960s; it was increasingly evident that there was a temperamental incompatibility. We eventually came to an amicable signed agreement to separate, after a period which for a while was somewhat stormy. During the intense political period of the latter half of the 1960s I was not by any stretch of imagination a good family man, and I regret the extent to which I neglected the younger generation. I did 'carry on' with some agreeable female companions during this transition period, which episodes it would not be tactful to go into, except to say that in all cases they were on a basis of equality and mutual respect. Most, but not all, were in the context of political work; the final one was with Janice, and this has persisted.

Some navigational notes:

Copyright Dr Roy Johnston 2003