Catholic Freeman’s Journal, Sydney, 24th May, 1934 p.38
Headford, Co. Galway
Dear Gumblossom,
Thanks very much for sending on my letter to Mary Downes. I did not know her whole address. She sent me a lovely long letter full of news. Thanks, dear Gumblossom, for your kind invitation. If any of the Pageites write to me I will answer them during the holidays, as I am only allowed to write one letter home every week during the school term. I am at school in the Dominican College, Galway and I like it well. We have a fairly good time. Our games are tennis, camogie and basketball, and there are swings for the small children. We are let out to matinees at the pictures and Irish plays. We have drill and dancing too. We get a month’s holiday at Christmas, a fortnight at Easter and from the middle of June to the beginning of September in summer.
Now I must tell you about Headford. Do you like the pictures enclosed? One is of the part of the street in which our house is, and the other of Ross Abbey. Ross is about a mile from Headford and is a noted ruin. It is used as a burial ground since the seventeenth century. Before that it was a Franciscan Monastery till Cromwell sacked it. Headford is a small town. It has a population of about 500. It is about seventeen miles from Galway city and Lough Corrib is three miles away. Last summer we did a lot of bathing and boating on the Lough. I even did a little fishing, but I have no patience. I enjoy reading the letters in your Page, the Arrows write such funny ones.
Here is a storyette before I finish. When the English King was sick and had to have a transfusion of blood an Irish man offered himself. After the operation the Royal Physician asked,
“How do you feel, your Majesty?”
“Majesty be hanged,” was the reply.
“Up with the Republic.”
Wishing yourself and all the Pageites every success.
Yours sincerely,
Ruby Canavan
The Burren and Beyond 