Marcy Tierney

Marcy Tierney

Ma's friend Marcy

was the first Irish Catholic

hired to teach
in a small New Hampshire town

Jobs were hard to come by

during the Depression,
but so were good teachers
in small New Hampshire towns.

The principal told her:

"You're by far the best candidate
but these people don't know many Catholics,
particularly the Irish kind.
If hired you must be the best Catholic
that you possibly can be."

Marcy got a dispensation from her confessor,

a Jesuit most likely,
to join the Protestant Grange
and learn their secret signs.

She slept upstairs with a hot brick

to warm her feet in the winter
in a small New Hampshire town.