How to get a penpal in 1963!

Did you have a penpal when you were a child?  Do children still have penpals?!

Here's a cute story about how two girls ended up as a penpals. 

So in about 1963, an American Girl was looking for an Irish penpal.  Her father wrote to the Chief of Irish Police and asked could he help.  The policeman wrote to the Editor of one of the National Irish newspapers.

The editor of the paper duly published details of the American Girl and proposed that anyone interested in being her penpal should contact her.  

My aunt was one of the (presumably many) girls who responded to the penpal request and what would you know she was chosen to be the American girl's penpal.  

Even more remarkable than the above story is that 50 years later they are still in correspondence!!   How incredible is this story?!

My aunt went looking for the original newspaper article with the penpal request.  She trawled through papers in the National Library and she did find the article.  

She also found these two letters to the newspapers........perhaps they say something about Ireland in the 1960's?!