JOHN HEALY

We had people and we exported them faster than cattle, and like cattle, and while fathers, sons, and daughters cried all the way to the train and the bus and the ship, the flow back of emigrant cheques and money orders evaporated the maternal and wifely tears so that on the threshold of the Post Office or the Hibernian Bank below in main street you would make a little more with every passing week.

We had people and we exported them faster than cattle, and like cattle, and while fathers, sons, and daughters cried all the way to the train and the bus and the ship, the flow back of emigrant cheques and money orders evaporated the maternal and wifely tears so that on the threshold of the Post Office or the Hibernian Bank below in main street you would make a little more with every passing week.