~ Sunset Snuggles
🦄 Enthusiast 🏞 Travel Fiend 🐘 Animal Lover
@MissAdventurous that’s how my last cuddle session was! In a platonic way, of course lol
@lonelytauros yess. Love that for you 💗
Push positive thoughts: Positive thinking can be as important as getting enough sleep, eating right and moving more. According to the Mayo Clinic, "positive thinking just means that you approach the unpleasantness in a more positive and productive way. You think the best is going to happen, not the worst." Cut out the negative self-talk and focus on positive thoughts. Positive thinking is great for your overall health and well-being.
If it were that easy, therapists and psychologists would be out of business
Surely one of Ireland's greatest and most tragic love stories is that of Thomas MacDonagh and Muriel Gifford.
Thomas MacDonagh was born in Cloughjordan, Co. Tipperary in 1878. His parents were teachers and his was a middle-class rural Catholic upbringing.
Thomas first studied for the priesthood, before eventually opting to become a teacher.
Muriel Gifford was born in Dublin in 1885 into a large upper-class Protestant home. Her parents were staunch Unionists who believed Ireland belonged in the British Empire.
Thomas MacDonagh became an ardent nationalist around the turn of the twentieth century and increasingly became involved in Irish cultural activities.
He studied the Irish language and visited Connemara and the Aran Islands on numerous occasions.
Eventually, his path crossed with Pádraig Pearse and the pair became firm friends.
Muriel, too, grew interested in Irish culture, in spite of the politics she had been raised with, and would ultimately count WB Yeats, Arthur Griffith and other important nationalists amongst her friends.
When Pearse told Thomas MacDonagh that he was setting up an Irish-medium school in Dublin teaching history, geography and literature from an Irish rather than a British perspective, unheard of at the time, MacDonagh jumped at the chance to become deputy-principal.
The school came to be known as Scoil Éanna, named after the saint of the Aran Islands. It was a truly radical departure for Irish education and attracted many admirers.
One of these was a Mrs Dryhurst who brought two friends of hers, sisters Muriel and Sidney Gifford, to see the newly-opened educational establishment in 1908.
Principal Padraig Pearse was notoriously shy and did not come out to meet the guests but McDonagh, an outgoing and affable man, was said to have come racing down the steps with his hands outstretched.
He welcomed Mrs Dryhurst who returned his greeting before advising him to 'fall in love with one of these girls and marry her.'
Many would have been tongue-tied, although McDonough answered laughingly 'That would be easy. The only difficulty would be to decide which one.'
Muriel and Thomas eventually began a relationship in 1911. They shared similar interests and politics and both took part in protests when the King of England visited Dublin in the same year.
The difference in their religions was an issue in the Ireland of 1911, however, and Muriel's mother was unimpressed at her daughter's choice of suitor.
The couple were unperturbed and married in a secret ceremony in January 1912 in Ranelagh, Co. Dublin. Pádraig Pearse was to act as witness for the wedding but for some reason he failed to arrive. The pair instead asked a man outside the church cutting hedges to act a witness, something which he did gladly.
The pair had a blissfully happy four years and had two children - Donagh and Barbara.
Thomas was becoming increasingly involved in Irish republicanism, however, a cause shared by his wife. As 1916 wore on, it became increasingly obvious to Muriel that something was in planning.
On the night of Easter Sunday 1916, Thomas said to his wife "I may or may not see you tomorrow – if possible, I will come in the morning.’
She never saw him again.
The Rebellion duly began the following morning, lasting six days. MacDonagh was commanding officer in Jacob's Biscuit Factory.
When the order came to surrender, he accepted it reluctantly.
He was court-martialled by the British but offered no defence, being convinced that he would be shot for his leading role in the Rising having signed the Proclamation of the Irish Republic. He believed his sacrifice would spur on future generations to strive for independence, however, something which proved prescient.
From his death cell, he composed a letter to Muriel.
It read:
'My dearest love, Muriel, thank you a million times for all you have been for me. I have only one trouble in leaving life – leaving you so.
Be brave, darling, God will assist and bless you. Goodbye, kiss my darlings for me. I have sent you the few things I have saved out of this war.
Goodbye, my love, till we meet again in Heaven. I have a sure faith of our union there. I kiss this paper that goes to you. I have just heard that I have not been able to reach you. Perhaps it is better so….
God help and sustain you, my love. But for your suffering this would be all joy and glory. Goodbye.
Your loving husband, Thomas MacDonagh.'
He asked to see his wife on numerous occasions before his death.
The British had no objection to this and Muriel was visited by a British soldier who informed her that her husband was to be executed that night. She was told that she had permission to visit him.
She set off immediately but was stopped at an army checkpoint. Dublin was under curfew and she had not been given a permit. For this reason, she was turned around and told to go home.
Tragically, McDonagh was left unaware of this and unsure why Muriel did not visit.
Thomas McDonagh was executed by firing squad on 3 May 1916. Muriel learned of her husband’s death in the following morning's newspaper.
Muriel and her two children lived on in Dublin, bereft of their husband and father.
On 9 July 1917, another unspeakable tragedy occurred when Muriel was drowned off the coast of Skerries. She was an exceptionally strong swimmer and was swimming to Shenick Island off the Dublin coast.
Her sister Grace later said that Muriel was bringing out an Irish tricolour to fly on the island as the police had been ripping down tricolours on the mainland that day. This is possible, although she may have just been caught in a rip current.
Muriel's sudden death left two small children suddenly orphaned.
Her funeral was enormous. The men of 1916 had been denied funerals and many saw Muriel Gifford's send-off as a fitting way to pay a tribute to her life and that of the cause she and Thomas had believed passionately in.
Go ndéana Troócaire orthu.
'Here to-day we stand at last, Laughing in our new-born mirth, At the life that in the past, Was a phantasy of earth, Vigil of our life's true birth, Which is joy and fate in one, Now the wisdom of the earth, And the dooms of death are done.
So my bride is wise to-day, All to trust to love alone: Other wisdom is the clay, That into the grave is thrown: This is the awakening blown, By the Spirit of the Spring: Laughing Summer follows soon, And no bitter songs I sing.'
Thomas MacDonagh's Poem 'The Song of Joy.'
Pictured is Thomas and Muriel MacDonagh with their son Donagh. Photo: National Library of Ireland.
LOL quote from my app today ...
Another tragic love story
Reported and reviewed. Removing comment due to its sexual nature. [CharlieBear]