The Irish Shawl
This is a photograph taken of my mother, Elizabeth Schultz Daily, at the age of 16 wearing the shawl that her great-grandmother Jane McDonald McCarthy brought over from Ireland when she and my great-great-grandfather John immigrated to America. Jane was born in Dublin in 1814 and John in Blackwater, County Wexford, in 1807.
My mother Elizabeth married Elmer Daily in Boswell, Pennsylvania in 1920. His father, Bernard Byron Daily, immigrated from County Tyrone to Philadelphia in 1860 and later married Catherine Leah Young in 1877.
Elizabeth was not only beautiful but very talented and she achieved a lot in her lifetime. While my father was founding the Middle Atlantic and Pennsylvania Minor Baseball Leagues, my mother owned and managed two hotels in our town, Ebensburg, Pennsylvania. She had a beautiful singing voice and aspired to be an opera singer, but she had to give up her dreams to raise her three daughters during the Great Depression, while my father was trying to create his baseball leagues. Eventually his leagues sent over 500 players to the major leagues during their 25 years in existence from 1925-1952.
I last saw this shawl in 1972 when my cousin Jean Brosnan showed it to me and it was almost in perfect condition. Since then, it has been passed down through Jean’s family. I’m sure that whoever in the family currently has it, he or she is as proud of it as Jane herself was when she brought it over with her from Ireland.
Submitted by Jean Daily Fullerton
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