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hotel management, had recently married and was no longer running the Hodson Bay for my
father as previously. He told me he had a job for me now and that I could take over from Anne. So I stayed at home and worked in the hotel for a good salary, also helping out my brother Paddy in
the haulage business he had just set up. I had Enda in Athlone too of course, and that was all I wanted in my life. And I was delighted to be in my home town again.

Chapter
2
    CARPE DIEM
    I was 22 and Enda was 24 when we got married. Enda did the traditional thing and spoke to my father. My father was in Dublin on business and Enda
and I went there and got the ring and then we met him for lunch in a place called The Bailey, which was a classy pub-cum-hotel. Enda told him, ‘I want to marry Mary’, and luckily my
father agreed to it. Naturally, we got married in my local parish church and had the reception in the Hodson Bay Hotel. We went for two weeks’ honeymoon to the Channel Islands, which was an
unusual choice in those days. We had a lovely time, and the first morning we opened our door to happen upon another couple from Athlone who were staying only two doors down from us! I still
remember that. We hired a car and went everywhere there was to go and did everything there was to do.
    When we came home, we lived for a month in the Hodson Bay Hotel, as we were in the process of building the house which was to become our family home, and in which I still live to this day. My
father had a couple of sites on the same road and he gave us one as a present, which was fine. We needed a county council loan to build the house, as I wasn’t working at that time, and Enda
was earning £10 a week with a wholesaler, Michael Hanley, in Athlone, working as a seller from the vans. He would take orders from the shopkeepers and then deliver to them when all was ready.
We borrowed £2,200 from the council, to be paid off at £2 2s a week, which sounds quaint now no doubt, but was a huge amount of money in those days and in fact the maximum you could
borrow at the time.
    Once we got married, Enda and I wanted a family. My two brothers and sister had each married in their turn and within the year they all had had their first child, with child number two arriving
the following year. So I thought it was only a question of getting married and you would have children as a matter of course. However, it isn’t always the case, and it didn’t work out
like that for me. It wasn’t because we weren’t trying — we had a very active sexual life — but it just didn’t happen. We used to wonder why, and every month I would
think I would get pregnant, but I didn’t. I didn’t start to worry for about two years. We had a great social life and were very much enjoying ourselves. I remember how on Sundays, we
would fly out of the house at 10 a.m. and not come back until midnight — we would drive to different towns and eat in hotels, and we thought we were wonderful and had a great life. And we did
have a fantastic married life from the very start. I look back on our early years now with great joy. We had no responsibilities whatsoever: imagine — 22 and 24, and no responsibilities at
all!
    When we were about three years married and there was still no sign of a baby, I decided it was about time to do something about it. I went to my local GP , Dr Jim Keane,
and he made an appointment for me to see a man called Éamon De Valera, who was the most eminent gynaecologist in Ireland. I can still remember the day I went to Dublin to see him. I was
really quite modern: I went up on the train and then got a taxi. I can vividly remember sitting in the waiting room, surrounded by other women. I went in and told the great man my tale: that I was
married and that we had satisfactory sexual relations. He asked me how often. How often? How often
not
!
    Dr de Valera was a lovely man. He did all the examinations, including an internal and told me I would become