Primrose Day

From that lost land where every dream is sweet
I have brought you a little shining star.
I strew my primroses beneath your feet.
                               
                                  from Nera's Song by Eva Gore-Booth.

The primrose grows wild in Ireland, decorating damp woods, shady banks and the hedgerows of country lanes.  It is considered a harbinger of spring, appearing from March until May. The flower held a special place in Irish mythology long before the Victorians created Primrose Day.  Nera, the harper, brought primroses to Queen Maeve's court to prove that he had spent a year with the aos sí.  On May Day (Bealtaine), garlands of primrose flowers were placed over the threshold of cottages to guard them against the faeries. 

Margaret Leahy was born in Kinsale. Her family had lived there longer than public records can attest. In 1907, she married William Fitzpatrick, a Kinsale blacksmith, from a family of Kinsale blacksmiths. They were blessed with seven children, one of whom was Nora.

Nora left home to work in Dublin when she was eighteen. During 1929, on the eve of the Great Depression, she took the civil service exam, and won a place at the Department of Education on Marlborough Street. There she met James Walsh, and they were married on the 19th of April 1939, Primrose Day.

To commemorate their wedding anniversary, Nora's mother would dig up a sod of earth containing a primrose, and then carefully pack it into a cardboard box. Air-holes were cut into the box, which was then sent to Dublin on the train. This, of course, was done in a gentler age, a time when attention could be given to such fragile cargo and steam trains still had a goods van. [1]

Expecting its arrival, Jimmy would cycle from the Department of Defence, where he worked, to Kingsbridge station, now Heuston Station. Once the primrose had been collected, it was strapped on the carrier at the back of the bicycle, and carried through the Phoenix Park to his home, where it was joyfully planted in the garden.

[1] Sadly, Iarnród Éireann ended its parcel delivery service, FasTrack, in 2009.