Poignant story & so well-written. Sorry to hear about the trail of destruction your father left behind. My grandmother’s father also deserted his first family- immigrating from the north west of Ireland to America. He left behind his young wife & baby girl & kept in touch for a while. He worked in Buffalo & Philadelphia. Then the trail went cold. Over the years, our family tried to track him down, but to no avail. Granny always thought she was an only child until sometime in the 1990s, a man got in touch with distant cousins in Leitrim. It turned out that her father- Patrick Gallagher- had settled in California & had a family of 7 with a German woman. He was a hard & autocratic man, and was deceased by the time his son found my granny in Ireland. Patrick claimed to his Californian family that he had no close family remaining in Ireland. His children were delighted to learn that they had a half sister in Ireland. My granny met all her half siblings, making the trip to California a couple of times, while Bill (Patrick) Gallagher- her half brother- made an annual pilgrimage to Sligo to visit her, her children (she has 8), 25 grandchildren & extended family. Bill has since died, as have several of granny’s younger half siblings. At 96, she’s still living, but unfortunately is affected by vascular dementia, so this story has long gone from her memory 🥲