Excitement in an envelope

I love getting post. So much so, that I think I do a lot of my shopping online just to get some mail when I get home. Sad, I know.

However, on Saturday, I got a rather unusual piece of mail. When I was in Ireland, I searched in vain for information about my great grandfather and his activities. A lady at Cork City Gaol suggested that I write to the local paper with information. I did so and forgot all about it.

Until Saturday. When I got home from having my hair cut, I noticed an airmail letter with handwriting I didn't recognise. The handwriting was that of an older person. Then I saw that the stamp was Irish. Confused, I opened it.

The letter was from a man who lives in the same village as my family and with the same surname. He talks about my great-great grandfather smoking outside the dispensary on a summer's evening as an old man and about how my great-grandfather may have had six daughters (he did). He apologised for his vague memories and wrote his mobile number on the letter.

I wrote back, asking questions. I find the whole thing very, very exciting. I hope that he writes back, as I'd begun to despair over the lack of information I was finding. I'm reading lots and lots about the Irish fight for Independence, but I want to connect it to what I already know.

I hope he writes back...