In the Autumn of 1918 Emily made the journey to Dublin, she did not know how long she would stay in the capital. She had to leave Achill for some time to secure employment as she was penniless. All her income in stocks and shares had been lost since the outbreak of the Russian Revolution the year before. As things had got worse there, Emily must have realised that the days of financial security from that source was well and truly over.
Reports over the previous months relayed that the Russian Imperial family, the Romanovs were dead, assassinated by the Bolshevik Party. At the time the news was not taken as gospel as not too long afterwards resurfaced that they were still alive. At the time it was impossible to tell truth from ‘fake news’ as it was wartime and propaganda stories were the order of the day. Either way Emily probably knew in her heart that she would have to return to work in order to survive never mind pay off her accumulating debts.
The Romanovs
Emily spent time in Russia in her youth. It was rumored that she had some connection with the Tsars family, although nobody can say exactly how. Her biographer Iosold ni Dheirg, reckoned that hers and their paths crossed at one stage. Emily may have talked about them to her but unfortunately the story is lost in time.
The night of their assassination they were ordered out of bed, told to dress for a long journey, and then ushered downstairs to the basement where they were read the death sentence aloud. Then in a barrage of bullets the entire family’s lives were put to an end. Their bodies were removed by truck and buried in a wood, where they remained for decades.
When the accepted fate of the Romanaov’s became known it may have disturbed Emily terribly. She was always one to take sides with the revolutionaries being one herself, but this time it was different, perhaps her connection with the imperial family made it so. She was said to have a photo of three young girls on her sideboard, when any one inquired on who they were she would say; “my three Russian princesses”, could they have been the Romanaovs?
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Emily had no time to dwell on what was happening abroad even if it was in her interest, there was something looming that would take more lives than the war that was raging at the time. The Spanish flu that was doing the rounds earlier in the year was back again, this time with a vengeance.