Nothing But Bad Times, Chapter Six, Part Two
The following year seems to have gone by with little happening in this story. It can be viewed as a good thing, for it gave the family little if any restbite from events of the last eighteen months. However, it was short lived. Catherine had applied again for relief, and was refused this time, due to her children being able to provide for her. Her eldest son Charles was now 22 and he had an income of his own, as he had not yet married. Elizabeth seems to have got by without any relief, which I find hard to believe, but there is no record of her applying for parish relief.
Around this time (late 1903), things were taking a turn for the worse again at 69 Piccadilly Street. John Devaney had begun to feel the effects of being refused relief now, and had become depressed, and had turned to the bottle. Eliza felt her husband slowly slipping away from her, and found that she couldn't talk to him anymore. He told her that he felt like he had failed her, and that he had not been a good husband of late. She comforted him, but it seems that a row broke out between the two of them. Devaney, now severely drunk, stormed out of the house, and headed for the relief application office. On entry, he was rowdy, waving his crutch at the inspector, swearing at him. He collapsed onto the hard wooden floor of the office and tugged at the inspector's cloak, in an almost pathetic plea for help. "Please help me" he drooled. "For God's sakes, I cannot work, I cannot eat. My wife is losing faith in me". Devaney was aided to his feet, and was now in tears. "Help me" he screamed. This was the last desperate plea of a man completely fed up with life, completely finished, so it seemed. His life was slowly draining away, and Eliza's future was on a knife edge. The result of this plea was that his case was reviewed, and Devaney was told to wait weeks before he would be sen by the insepctor again.
In this dark hour, we see a glimmer of light. Back in Holytown, Mary Ann had given birth to her fifth child, and chose to call her after her younger sister Ellen. Ellen is my own great granny. She was born on November 17 1903 in Napier's Square.
If we now return back to Devany's struggle with both himself and the poor inspectors, we see them perhaps giving in to his pursuit. On May 3 1904, he was approved to receive three shillings for four weeks, to support Eliza. In a cruel twist of fate, the very next day, Devaney was rushed to Stobhill Hospital, suffering from what is suspected to be a heart attack. Two months later he was taken to Gartloch Asylum in Glasgow. He and Eliza knew now, it was unlikely that he would ever get out alive.
For Catherine, things had gotten much worse than before. She, like her step father, ws refused relief time and time again. In the months from July 11 1904 until September 1905, she applied seven times, and was refused every time. It doesn't make any sense why, but she was. She had been very much abandoned aswell. She lived in severe poverty, for the majority of the next twelve months. In September 1905, she wa given some relief to pay for her children's clothes and schoolbooks. That was all she got. A whole four shillings, for one week.
Surely, this was the worst things were ever going to get? Think again...
Copyright © Matthew Reay, 2008
