Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Dedication
- List of illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Editorial notes
- Introduction
- 1 ‘It is well to gain that shore’: Irish migration and New Zealand settlement
- 2 ‘Very perfection of a letter writer’: an overview of Irish–New Zealand correspondence
- 3 ‘Seas may divide’: the voyage
- 4 ‘How different it is from home’: comparing Ireland and New Zealand
- 5 ‘No rough work here like at home’: work in New Zealand and Ireland
- 6 ‘Bands of fellowship’: familial relations and social networks in New Zealand
- 7 ‘I must have you home’: return migration, home, and relationships in Ireland
- 8 ‘Never denie your country’: politics and identity in the Old and New Worlds
- 9 ‘Out of darkness into light’: the importance of faith
- Conclusion
- Appendix: Letters
- Bibliography
- Personal name index
- Place name index
- Thematic index
7 - ‘I must have you home’: return migration, home, and relationships in Ireland
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 March 2023
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Dedication
- List of illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Editorial notes
- Introduction
- 1 ‘It is well to gain that shore’: Irish migration and New Zealand settlement
- 2 ‘Very perfection of a letter writer’: an overview of Irish–New Zealand correspondence
- 3 ‘Seas may divide’: the voyage
- 4 ‘How different it is from home’: comparing Ireland and New Zealand
- 5 ‘No rough work here like at home’: work in New Zealand and Ireland
- 6 ‘Bands of fellowship’: familial relations and social networks in New Zealand
- 7 ‘I must have you home’: return migration, home, and relationships in Ireland
- 8 ‘Never denie your country’: politics and identity in the Old and New Worlds
- 9 ‘Out of darkness into light’: the importance of faith
- Conclusion
- Appendix: Letters
- Bibliography
- Personal name index
- Place name index
- Thematic index
Summary
In December 1869 William Lysaght wrote from his father's farm at Knocknacarriga, County Limerick, imploring his brother Edward to return to Ireland:
I am speaking against my own interest brother when I refuse to send you the money because it would be far cheaper for me to give you £150 where you are than to bring you home here. But I must have you home. Our name must not run out here. You know I am the last – the only remaining one of our family and it is with regret I say that there is no chance of my lifting a few young Lysaghts so the family will have to continue through you. (Ly 2)
Despite his claim, William was clearly contemplating marriage: ‘Women are easily to be got here brother. I could get marry with plenty of money if I wished but I must keep clear of marriaye. Anything in that line would put me out of the world in a short time. Besides if I married at all the woman Id choose has no money’ (Ly 4). In May 1871, despite his protestations, William Lysaght married
a young woman without fortune. My Father knew it. Done his best to prevent me. Went so far as to make a will in your [?favour] leaving you all he had. I disregarded all and marr[ied] her. He cooled down in a little and asked myself and wife to come here to live with him just as we were going off to America. (Ly 5)
The friction documented between William Lysaght and his father Edmund also surfaced between the brothers, though in a more physical form. This sibling tension culminated in 1872 when Edward Lysaght briefly returned to Ireland, a visit primarily designed to extract funds from his father Edmund. As Edmund Lysaght wrote despondently after Edward's brief visit, ‘I cant see what great reason you have to complain of me but I have more reason to complain of you for when you came home you gave me the greatest scandel and beat your brother in in presence of the publick’ (Ly 8).
These extracts from the Lysaght letters are particularly revealing on several issues. They illuminate the reasons for enticing Edward to return to Ireland from Auckland, focusing on the word ‘home’ and the family's lineage. They show too that Edward's motives for returning were generated by financial considerations.
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- Chapter
- Information
- Irish Migrants in New Zealand, 1840-1937'The Desired Haven', pp. 190 - 209Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2005