regrets. Though he retained a sentimental attachment to the land of his birth, his contacts with his relatives were to be few and far between and confined principally to the sending of occasional sums of money.76 He never expressed any wish to return to Ireland and did not inspire any curiosity in his children to seek out their father’s relatives or his first home.77 Patrick had plainly seen that his future lay in England and he was eager to take up his first curacy there.
