Letters Home: Correspondence, 1950-1963

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She reassures herself of hope, she outlines the future because there is one!, and she ensures that everyone knows how excited the world makes her, how inspiring life is, and how much time she pours into her writing, as well as how joyful poetry makes her. Reading Noky’s letter to her, Olivia says: “To my best friend, from the second I was born I have looked up to you in every single way – we were meant to be sisters.” And this, is it not, is one of the greatest reasons why we read. The best writing can break down the walls that separate us from each other - it can overcome the limitations of perception so we can understand what other people feel. "It is as if a hand has reached out, and taken yours." It is a whisper in the darkness as you lie awake at night, unable to sleep: You are not alone.

We here in Ireland know only too well those voices – voices who were opposed to an end to a new beginning; those who remained wedded to the past because they had no trust or belief or place in the future. Those voices are omnipresent throughout the world, whatever the conflict; and those who march and protest for peace and an end to violence must be vigilant and stand up to those who would rather see war as a means to pursue their own narrow agendas. Otherwise the song will remain the same. But it’s too easy to lay his emotional contortions at his mother’s feet. He was deeply loved by her: a gift, however claustrophobic at times, that should have made relationships easier, not more difficult. “When I am in I want to be out, and when I am out I want to be in,” he writes to Eva from Belfast, of his faltering social life. Una breve esistenza vissuta a pieno tra i brillanti studi universitari allo Smith College, il suo sogno di un "matrimonio letterario" con il poeta inglese Ted Hughes, il successivo trasferimento in Inghilterra, la nascita dei piccoli Frieda e Nicholas, il divorzio e la sua nuova vita da madre single, nella casa londinese precedentemente appartenuta al poeta e drammaturgo irlandese William Butler Yeats.attachment to above) COVID – Invitation letter for parents of children aged 12 to 15 years of age Haringey On Thursday 28 thMay between 13:00 and 14:30 we are running 2 virtual workshops to promote positive emotional wellbeing for families to help manage anxiety through uncertainty. The first aimed specifically at under 7s and the other for over 7’s. Advice for parents will mainly be in the over 7’s webinar but there will be specific advice for supporting younger children in the under 7’s for parents who only have younger ones. Over the last few months we have all been learning to live with a ‘new normal’. Over the next few months there will be lots of change and with change comes understandable anxieties. The webinars are designed to look at strategies to help with this. Please sign up using the links below: Both Jones and another of his lovers, Maeve Brennan, believed that Eva got in the way of Larkin’s relationship with them, and at one point in these letters, Larkin writes expressly of the fact that he must neglect either Eva or Monica over Christmas, and how impossible this is for him. The Good Friday/Belfast Agreement, which is not fully operational, has had the effect of passively establishing the principle of peace and bringing it about. For many decades, Northern Ireland only knew of war, but the GFA/BA sold people the idea and ideal of peace and the possibility of reconciliation.

Headteacher’s letter to Year 10 parent\carers regarding Covid 19 cases in the yeargroup – 21st October 2020

October 2023

But I found that I did care in the end. This old, brown world of hissing gas fires, strange smells on the stairs, and filial duty worn like some heavy overcoat: how it hypnotises. When I wasn’t crying with laughter – “you can’t expect to enjoy yourself on holiday as you do at home” is among the more Hilda Ogden-ish advice Larkin dispenses to his ma – I was often close to sobbing at the sweet-sadness of it all. Behind the belly-aching and the penny-pinching, the making-do and the clay-cold depression, there is an immensity of kindness here, and the fact that this was sometimes so effortful on Larkin’s part only makes it the more tender (Eva, so anxious she could not sleep in her own house alone, frequently drove her son halfway round the bend). It's difficult not to read her poetry and such autobiographically - I feel so desperately sorry for her because of how everything she did seems to be coloured by her marriage to Ted Hughes and her suicide and a sort of hysterical, whining feminism (and there is a little voice in my head that says that none of this would ever have happened if she was a man). Similarly, it's hard not to read her letters autobiographically, hard not to be continually searching for some evidence of a hormonal imbalance in the brain. And you find it, too, in what seems like the almost desperate happiness that comes through when she writes (though probably it is sincere and the desperation is the product of your imagination). And when she mentions her "old resilient optimism" and says she should " never commit suicide, because something unexpected always happens", you tut and shake your head in disbelief. Because doesn't this imply that she has already considered suicide? And is that not the saddest thing? The snow is fast disappearing now. I came across an article in a paper the other day about this district and it said that 14 or 15 years ago bears used to roam around hear [sic], but there seems to be nothing around now excepting the wild fowl, which are very numorous. I believe salmon are numerous at certain times of the year. Finally, reading Matty’s letter to him, Yinrun says: “Dear Matty. It’s been great to watch your friendships with your housemates develop. Your humour, kindness and sensitivity has always been at the heart of everything you’ve done.” Big Brother gathers the group and says: “Seeing as you’ve all been such angels while staying in my house, I thought I’d treat you to a little taste of heaven.”

We’re delighted that we’re a step closer, we’re so thankful to everyone who has been working tirelessly to make an MBU for Northern Ireland a reality, but we can’t keep waiting. We need government sign-off, funding to be allocated, commitment to a time frame, and an interim solution so that women can be treated safely now. Reading Jordan’s letter to him, Henry says: “The whole of my office is watching your every move and they know all about your behaviour in the bushes! Everyone loves your humour and thinks you’re a gentleman. I adore Henry – lifelong friends and potential son-in-law.”

November 2023

The Zepp was bombed from an aeroplane above, with an incendiary bomb by a Lieutenany Robertson (Johnson?). We have some relics some wire and wood framework. Housemates are gathered in the lounge and Big Brother says: “Housemates. Before the gates of heaven close for the day, I wanted to give you all the ultimate heavenly gift – your letters from home.” The relative calm and peace that Northern Ireland is now experiencing is to be highly commended. It is of course a very fragile peace. However, many things have built on small beginnings and we should not lose sight of that. At the same time let’s not be complacent and continue to struggle to defeat the plans of detrimental forces in our society. But the love that's undenably there is very special. I've spent years reading about Sylvia Plath. That's what girls from 15 to 30 are supposed to do, right? I've always loved her books, poems and most of all, diaries, which is what her letters to her mother most closely resemble. While Plath's letters to Ted Hughes, her husband, show her as strong, romantic and stubborn, the Sivvy who writes letters to her mother is another person entirely. To Aurelia Plath, Sylvia Plath does what she rarely was able to: tell the truth--the real truth, not just some confessional, grotesque, mouth-gaping version of it, but the actual truth according to Sylvia.