"In association with the BCI and TG4, ROSG presents..." ""Graveyard Clay" by Méirtin O Cadhain" "Adapted for the screen by Macdara O Fétharta and Robert Quinn." "Spring 1943" "Dad!" "Méirin." "Padraig!" "I beg of you Padraig, my child:" "Bury me in the Pound Plot." "The Pound Plot." "Put a cross of island limestone over me like Peadar the Pub,.." "...and railings around the grave like Siobhan the Shop with an inscription in Irish:" ""Caitriona Phéidin, wife of Sean 0 Loideéin."" "Méirin." "Go and get Little Céit and Bid Shorcha." "May God have mercy on her soul!" "Amen." "Thank God, this is the last one." "It's not a bad day." "No, it's much improved." "So, Pédraig's Mule is gone, Mag;" "at last." "It's to your mother that Baba will leave every penny now, Peadar." "With Caitriona gone, there's only Nell left and Baba who's in America." "BY dad!" "Lay out Caitriona Phéidin?" "I'll never grace that village again, I'm finished with it." "The journey is too long now and with my back the way it is." "She's a fine corpse, is Caitriona, Nell." "May God have mercy on her." "I don't like to say much about her, she was my sister after all." "She was a fine hardworking woman." "She was, but she wasn't as clean as the next person." "That shroud is filthy!" "You'd think she'd be ashamed!" "I'll get Baba's inheritance now!" "To keen Caitriona Phéidin?" "Damned nor stir a foot." "I've cried every tear in my head for them and what respect have they for me?" "Buried in the Pound Plot?" "Daughter of Néra Sheéinin!" "Indeed!" "You're quite right, Nell." "The Fifteen Shilling Plot is good enough for anyone." "We're not nobility!" "And a cross of island limestone!" "Big Brian!" "That doltish bitch scarcely deserves a cross!" "Her kind never had crosses." "Now you've said it, Mag." "I'm sorry for your trouble, Padraig." "It can't be helped, Bileachai." "I'm sorry for your trouble, Padraig." "It can't be helped, Schoolmistress." "Buried in the Fifteen Shilling Plot!" "Caitriona won't be too pleased about that." "She won't be pleased, Bileachai." "You're right there!" "Who are you?" "Are you long here?" "I'm Mairéad Phroinsiais." "Good God!" "Mairead Phroinsiais who's always been my next door neighbour." "I'm Caitriona Phéidin." "I've always heard it said, Caitriona:" ""The graveyard must get its dues from the living."" "Do you remember me, Mairead?" "Or do life's memories fade from your minds here?" "Life is the same here as it was in the "Ould Country" and we are neighbours again, Caitriona." "How long have you been here?" "I don't know how long I'm here." "I don't know was it St. Patrick's Day orthe following day that I died." "Four years next Easter, since I died myself." "It's true for you!" "It was I who closed your eyes forthe last time, Mairéad." "Myself and Little Céit laid you out." "Everyone said you looked lovely and that you were a fine corpse." "You were so reposed, so smooth as though you had been smoothed by an iron on the boards." "What caused your death?" "The kidneys were affected for a long time." "The pain began in my stomach and went from there right up to my gullet." "I had hardship all my life and it took its toll." "Mind you, that hussy from Gon Ribeach didn't help." "Néra Shez'ainin's daughter!" "Daughter of Néirin of the Rotten Feet from Gort Ribeach." "What possessed my son Padraig to marry her in the first place." ""Padraig, dear," says I "did you hear her mother is keeping company with a sailor in Brightcity?"" "She didn't do a thing then for three long months on account ofthe baby." "But, the next one will give her plenty to do!" "How's Nell?" "She's my sister, Mairéad but I thought I'd last a few more years and bury the hag." "She's happy now, herself and Big Brian's Mag who's married to her son Peadar." "Peadar was hit by a lorry a year and a half ago and his hip was smashed to bits." "He hasn't done a tap since but hopping about on crutches." "Everyone thought his game was up." "Wasn't the road as wide for him as for everyone else?" "He was on the wrong side of the road!" "He's to bring the lorry driver to the High Court in Dublin." "The courts won't leave Nell with a brass fanhing." "Serves her right!" " Is Baba still in America?" " She hasn't long left now." "She's my dear sister, Mairéad but when she gets news of my death she'll know her own time is short." "She'll surely make herwill." "It's to Nell she'll leave every penny." "Nell has Baba milked dry." "Baba's always had great affection for Big Brian's Mag." "I wouldn't mind but my Padraig could've been married to Mag rather than to the daughter of Néirin ofthe Rotten Feet." "Is Jack the Farmer still alive?" "Poor Jack isn't his best these days, indeed." "Damned the bit of care Nell ever gave him nor Big Brian's Mag either, since she moved in." "How's Tomas Inside?" "Same as ever!" "Still in his hovel." "But it'll fall in on him any day soon!" "Tomas Inside is like rats on a sinking ship." "It's to us he has to come to escape the downpour and it's to my Padraig he'll leave his patch of land." "I don't know if it's in the Pound Plot orthe Fifteen Shilling Plot I'm buried?" "The Fifteen Shilling Plot, Caitriona." "The Fifteen Shilling Plot." "By my word, you're right!" "After all the warnings I gave them." "The morning I died I called Padraig up from the kitchen." ""I beg of you Padraig, my child," says I." ""Bury me in the Pound Plot." "The Pound Plot."" "It was Nell that made Padraig bury me in the Fifteen Shilling Plot instead." "Nell herself will be buried in the Pound Plot, surely." "I'll vent my rage on Nell yet and I'll vent my rage on Néra Shez'ainin's daughter." "She'll be here on her next childbirth, to be sure." "And I'll vent my rage on her mother, Néra Shez'ainin Néirin ofthe Rotten Feet." "She's here - listening to the Big schoolmaster she is, every day." "To the Big schoolmaster, the poor creature." "He reads to her." "Reading to Néra Sheéinin!" "Isn't it little respect he has for himself?" "Devil a word of learning has she in her jowl." "A woman that never stood in a school except on voting day." "He's very fond of her, all the same." "He doesn't know her!" "If her daughter had been housed up with him for 16 years as she was with me." "But I'll tell him..." "of sailors and more..." "The title ofthis one is:" ""The Burning Kiss."" "The title ofthis one is:" ""The Burning Kiss."" ""The Burning Kiss," schoolmaster." "Listen now, Néra Sheéinin:" ""Nuala had been an innocent girl till she met Charles Ap Rhys in the nightclub."" "We've no peace, seclusion, nor chance of culture here, Master." "I know!" "They only talk of petty little affairs." "There's no time here for whoever wishes to cultivate his intellect." "This place is so ill-mannered, slow-witted,  since those sansculottes, who piled up their money on the dole,.." "...began to be buried here in the Fifteen Shilling Plot." "And without any chance of culture, Schoolmaster." ""Nuala had been an innocent girl, till..."" ""..she met Charles Ap Rhys in a nightclub."" "I've never been to a nightclub, schoolmaster." "A nightclub is not unlike this place." "Are there sailors in nightclubs?" "The places sailors frequent aren't the same as nightclubs." "They are dives, Néra." "The cultured-type go to nightclubs." "I'd like to visit one." "It wouldn't be a bad undertaking;" "...to put the finishing touches, to smooth the edges,.." "...to put a cachet on your education." "I myself once visited a nightclub in London when the teachers' wages were increased before the two reductions." "I saw an African prince there, as black as a berry and him drinking champagne." "I'd dearly love to go to a nightclub, schoolmaster." "Aren't you the sexy one, Néra?" "Naughty girl, Néra." "Naughty!" "The novelette, schoolmaster." "Novelette, in Gon Ribeach." "Néra of the Rotten Feet with a novelette!" "You brazen bitch!" "Nightclubs!" "May you not live to enjoy it, indeed." "If you knew her like I do, you would have little to say to her." "Squandering yourtime with her?" "She never spent one day in school and she'd quicker recognise flea marks than the ABC." "Don't let on that you hear her at all she has no culture." " Who's this?" " Caitriona Phéidin." "Welcome!" "However long it takes, this is the final shelter for us all." "I'm afraid, Caitriona, that you're, how should I say a little too severe on Néra ofthe Rotten..." "Néra Sheéinin." "The Big schoolmaster!" "Listen here, Caitriona:" "That letter I wrote for you, to your sister Babe in America it was the last letter I wrote." "L was stricken by my fatal illness the following day." "We got a reply to that letter, schoolmaster:" ""I will make my will in good time when I deem it necessary," she says." "I don't think it'll be long before the Schoolmistress it's your wife I'm referring to, before she fixes herself up again." "A strong sprightly young woman she is yet, God bless her." "Fixing herself up again?" "I beg your pardon, schoolmaster." "The Schoolmistress?" "Don't take any heed of what I might say." "I do ramble on like that." "My wife... schoolmaster, my dear, I shouldn't have mentioned it." "I thought you'd be delighted to hear of it." "Who is the man?" "Don't ask me to name him." "I'm no blabbermouth." "Who is he, Caitriona?" "Schoolmaster, had I known it would upset you so much..." "She swore that ifl died she'd never marry another man." "Have you never heard: "Women are more fun after their denials."" "You'd barely gone cold when she had cocked her eye on another man." "I think she was always a bit flighty." "The Little schoolmaster?" "No, himself and the Parish Priest's sister- that miserable slip that wears the trousers - are to marry soon." "He'll get the new school then." "The red-haired Policeman?" "He's set himself up with a buxom nurse in Brightcity." " The Potato Man?" " Keep guessing now." "Peaidin?" "Peaidin has gone off to England." "Bileachai the Post?" "The very man!" "Bileachai the Post." "You've some head on you Master, no matter what they say." "Bileachai the Post?" "There was more than letters drawing Bileachai around to the house." "I think, Schoolmasten that she was always a bit flighty was your wife." "Mind yourself on Néra Sheéinin!" "Oh, I could tell you things, schoolmaster..." "Your stabbing lies won'thur1 me!" "A schoolmaster wouldn't speak to you anywhere but in a graveyard." "You're only upset that you died before Nell." "I'd hear you on the road, blathering away to yourself:" ""l'll bury Nell before me in the graveyard clay."" "It was a woeful day for me the first day I saw you or your daughter under my roof." "Everyone here knows what dowry I gave my daughter when she married into your house." "Honest." "Six score pounds in gold guineas." "Ah boo boona!" "There was never six score pounds in Gon Ribeach." "Six score fleas!" "Six thousand fleas!" "It seems you didn't leave your filthy lies behind you above ground." "The graveyard knows the Devil loaned you his tongue and you used it so well that he never asked for it back." "You brawling hag." "You're jealous that you didn't get to marry Jack." "Ah, boo boona..." "Come here to me - one kiss!" "Do you rememberthe night Nell sat in Jack the Farmer's lap?" "The eternal triangle, as you might say!" "I never sat in a sailor's lap!" "You never had the chance, Caitriona!" ""We'll leave Big Brian to you, Caitriona," says Nell as she sat in Jack the Farmer's lap." "I had refused Big Brian before that." "You hag!" " Harlot!" " Rotten Feet!" " Trollop!" " Duck milkers!" "Big Brian was right when he called you a jennet!" "The ugly scoundrel!" "Honest!" "Big Brian wasn't right." "The jennet is a very cultured creature." "The Red-heads of Baile Dhonncha had a jennet and he would eat raisin-bread out of my hand." "Raisin-bread in Gon Ribeach." "I'll explode!" "I'll explode!" "The jennet is a very cultured creature." "You have no culture." "Duck milking people with culture!" "I have a beautiful fine cross over me." ""Smashing!" said the Big schoolmaster." "Honest!" "Thanks to that idiot brother of yours who was home from America." "You'd be a long time milking ducks to pay for a cross." "I must listen to another piece from the novelette." ""An is long and time is fleeting."" "You're obsessed with "fleet" - fleet and sailors!" "Hey, Mairéad." "Did you hear Néirin ofthe Ducks?" ""We'll leave Big Brian to you."" "I nevertold you... the night Nell married that's what the little snout threw at me:" ""Oh, I've got Jack, we'll leave Big Brian to you, Caitriona."" "Twice he proposed to me, in fact." "It was soon after Nell marrying when here he comes back again, as large as life." ""Will you marry me, Caitriona?" said he, straight out." ""It's well I've earned you, coming here for the second time!"" ""I'm in poor health for want of a strapping strong woman."" "I didn't flinch but ran straight across the floor at him a kettle of boiling water in my hand." "Get away from me, you filthy thing and stay away." "But he had fled out the door." ""We'll leave Big Brian to you."" "Those words hurt me more than all the injustices she ever did me." "She's my sister, Mairead, but may no corpse beat her to the grave!" "Spring 1944" "Who are you?" "Are you my son's wife?" "Who are you?" "Seéinin Liam they called me in the place I just left." "The heart, Caitriona!" "Seéinin Liam." "What son of funeral had I, Seéinin?" "Funeral?" "The heart, Caitriona!" "I'd been to get the pension." "I neverfelt a thing." "I had a drop of tea and went down the garden with a creel of seaweed.." "...and when I was laying it down I wrenched my side and I was left without a breath." "The heart." "The heart is a bad thing!" "A weak heart!" "The Devil have your heart!" "What matter, but we had great weather for a long time." "Weather!" "Time!" "They're two things that won't worry you here, Seéinin." " Had I a big funeral?" " A fine big funeral!" "A fine big funeral, you say!" "What was the offering at my funeral?" "A fine big offering!" "Peadar the Pub had a fine big offering and Siobhan the Shop, Mairéad Phroinsiais and Cite..." "I know, but what was the offering at my funeral" " Caitriona Phaidin?" "Seventeen pounds?" "Or sixteen pounds?" "Or fourteen pounds?" "Ten pounds twelve shillings." "Ten pounds!" "Ten pounds!" "Ten pounds, Caitriona!" "Oh, the heart!" "Desolation and ruin on your heart!" "Now, Seéinin, were the mountain folk there?" "They didn't get news of it." "The heart." "A weak heart." "Would that your heart was a poisonous tumour in Nell's throat!" "What was my coffin like?" "The best coffin in Tadhg's house three half-barrels of porter and a good dash of poteen." "I drank 12 mugs that night!" "As much as I loved and respected you I wouldn't have drunk near that much had I known I had a weak heart." "You didn't hear anything about Padraig saying he'd bury me elsewhere in the graveyard?" "You wouldn't be left unburied, no matter how much drink was there." "You're the greatest eejit ever, since Adam ate the apple!" "Padraig was to bury you in the Pound Plot but Nell said the Fifteen Shilling Plot was good enough for anyone." "The rotten old hag." "She was at the house then?" "She was!" "Oh, she was!" ""She was a fine hardworking woman, was Caitriona," says I to Nell." ""She was," says she. "But she wasn't as clean as the next person!"" ""See how dirty that shroud is!"" ""Isn't she a disgrace?"" "Blessed Virgin Mary!" "It was my son's wife or the children who dinied them either that or whoever laid me out." "Who laid me out, Seéinin?" "Néra Shez'ainin's daughter and Nell." "Little Céit and Bid Shorcha were sent for, but they wouldn't come." "Sponging after drink is all Bid Shorcha does." "She won't utter a single wall till she gets herfill ofdrink." "She'll cry tearfully then, the rotten hag." "But she'll pay the price when she comes here." "Was Nell prattling to the priest at the funeral?" "The priest wasn't there at all." "He was at the funeral of Siobhan the Shop's cousin." "But he lit eight candles at the wake." "That's more than was on any corpse before." "Ifone ofthem hadn't blown out the bad omen, Caitriona." "You heard nothing of Padraig saying he'd put a cross on me?" "A brand new cross of island limestone, Caitriona." " Soon?" " Very soon!" "And my son's wife?" "My son's wife?" "My son had no wife, Caitriona." "And I told him what he'd better do is..." "Go to the doctor about his heart, Seéinin for fear he got the disease from you." "My son's wife!" "Néra Shez'ainin's daughter?" "Néra Shez'ainin's daughter." "She's sickly!" "I knewthat much myself." "Did you hear any talk of Baba?" "She hasn't made a will yet but the nuns have taken Padraig's eldest daughter away with them." "Méirin?" "Yes, to take her off and to make a schoolmistress of her." "When she has enough learning." "Good for her!" "She was always one for the books!" "That's one-up on Nell." "Nell was never so good as on the day you were buried, Caitriona." "Clear off you grumpy old sod;" "yourself and your old rotten heart!" "Off down to the Half-Guinea Plot!" "It's where you belong." " Who are you?" " He who has the weak heart!" "Ah, Seéinin Liam!" "Seéinin, how's herself?" "The Schoolmistress, how is she?" "I've never seen her so well, schoolmaster." "Do you know that it's younger she's getting." "She must have a healthy heart, schoolmaster." "People were talking." "Does he come around to the house?" "Doesn't everyone say that Bileachai the Post never leaves your house, schoolmaster." "In my house?" "I wouldn't mind but in the school he gives the letters to the schoolchildren and himself and the Schoolmistress go out to the hall to chat!" "You don't know the half of it, schoolmaster." "But I had my own worries." "I was left without a breath." "The heart, schoolmaster, the heart." "Oh, the hussy!" "Winter 1945" "Another corpse, upon my word." "My son's wife, surely." " It's Brid Turley." " Oh, Caitriona." "It can't be." "You were meant to be here for ages." "You've had the palsy and rheum and pyrosis for as long as I remember." "I fell in the fire." "I hadn't the strength to pull myself out." "It was no small misfortune." "Whisper me this..." "I didn't come here for gossip." "It's peace I need." "Now, aren't we the uppity one!" "Is there a cross to be put on me, Brid?" "It's been promised." "But how soon?" "A fortnight?" "A month?" "I don't know!" "Oh, you seldom knew very much." "They didn't leave anyone to mind me and I fell in the fire." "For an old hag like you:" "you're better off dead!" "But you won't fall here." "If you do, you won't fall far." "Is my son's wife still sickly?" "She had another child." "A girl." "And it didn't kill her off?" "But she'll never recover from this childbirth." "Néra, they named her." "Naming her after Néra of the Rotten Feet." "Your Padraig has only the carrot patch of potatoes set this year." "Nell has two meadows in potatoes." "How's her son, Peadar?" "In the best of form again." "Doing odd jobs." "Ah boo boona!" "He only works secretly;" "the crutches close at hand." "There's talk of making a road to Nell's house." "The priest will be able to get over with a motorcar." "May she not live to make use of her road." "Bid Shorcha is fairly crippled - the kidneys." "Good enough for her!" "There's few outside Nell or my son's wife that I'd prefer to see coming here than her." "You didn't hear any word from America about Baba's will?" "Big Brian said Baba will leave her money to Neil in the end." ""If not," he said "she'd hardly leave it to a woman who's in a hole in the ground."" "And what else would he say and his own daughter married to Nell's son?" "Tomas Inside is still mad to get married." "Did you hear anything about...?" "Oh, give me peace!" "You don't deserve peace." "You slovenly bitch!" "It's peace I need now." "Have your peace then." "But you won't be creeping up to my quarters." "Scorched woman!" "One of Péidin's people buried in the Fifteen Shilling Plot!" "Clear out of here, you slovenly bitch or I'll tell you in front of the graveyard who you are." "I raised your father since all he could get at home was potatoes and salted milk." "You still haven't a cross as fine as Néra Sheéinin's!" "But I will, you slovenly bitch, a cross of island limestone." "It's yourself, schoolmaster!" "Fall in the fire is what I did." "The first science lesson I always gave was to keep the air from a fire." "There was no one left behind to keep the air from me." "I'm afraid science would have no remedy for a situation like that." "It's peace I need now!" "I'm afraid science has no remedy for a situation like that either!" "You can be proud of your wife, schoolmaster." "The Schoolmistress?" "There was an abundance of everything;" "bread, tea, six kinds of meat, whiskey and porter, and champagne." "As generous as though you were alive yourself, schoolmaster." "I went up to the house to her two nights in advance." ""I plan to have a great wedding."" ""A great wedding," she said." ""He'd prefer it that way, God rest him."" ""l neverthought, Schoolmistress, that you'd marry again," says I." ""I would not," says she, "was it not for what the schoolmaster said a few days before he died."" ""What shall I do ifanything ever happens to you," says I." ""What would you do but marry again," says he." ""L'll not have peace in the graveyard clay," says he if you don't promise me you'll marry again!"" "That's what she said, schoolmaster." "The hussy!" ""You're going to great expense, Schoolmistress," says I." ""Ah, the Big Schoolmaster was a prudent man, Brid," says she." ""He wasn't a man for drink or debauchery and he saved a pretty penny." That's what she said." "The hussy!" "She wouldn't be half as quick to put a cross on me." ""The poor Big Schoolmaster has gone to his eternal reward," says she." ""And naturally, it's not crosses that's worrying him now."" "The hussy!" ""It was no lie calling him the Big schoolmaster, Brid," says she "he was big in heart and more..."" "The hussy!" "That's exactly what she said, schoolmaster." "Spring 1947" "Alas, that I'm not in England." "L was all set to go to England." "Who are you?" "I'm Padraig Labhrés's son." "The second or the third fellow?" "The third fellow." "I was only nineteen." "Young enough to be staning at this game." "Nine months I was ailing." "Consumption." "That's the girl." "She has fattened this graveyard." "You were to go off to England." "The youths of Baile Dhonncha went and those from Gon Ribeach last week." "May they not return, indeed." "Those from Clochar Shaibhe have gone one by one." "The savages." "They'll eat everything in sight over in England!" "Ifonly I was in England!" "Was it me that stopped you?" "You didn't hear anything about a cross being put over me?" "There's no talk of it now." "Not a breath." "Big Brian said..." "What did he say?" ""That doltish bitch scarcely deserves a cross," he said." ""Caitriona's son Padraig, a man who can't support his children talking about putting up a cross of island limestone!"" ""Her kind never had crosses."" "He still holds a grudge for me." "Big Brian was in Dublin." "The ugly scowler, up in Dublin!" "The judge praised him for coming all that way to help the court." "It was to help his daughter and her husband he went there." "What did you hear ofthe court?" "Nell's son got £800." "£800?" "It was the priest's doing, what else!" "He has the crutches thrown aside now completely." "My good God!" "Ifl were in England..." "Don't go... till you tell me more." "Jack the Farmer is not the best." "Ah, the poor creature." "He'll be here any day now." "Did you hear anything about Baba's will?" "Not athing." "How could you and the excitement you had going off to England?" "What about Tomas Inside?" "He's still in his hovel." "Pédraig's wife threw Nell in the fire." "I love her!" "Good on her!" "You're certain she threw Nell in the fire?" "She went up to Nell's house and in the door and caught Big Brian's Mag by the hair!" "Ara, you can't be right!" "Nell went to protect Mag and your son's wife threw her in the fire." "Oh, may God grant her health!" "I didn't think the daughter of Néra ofthe Rotten Feet had the spunk." "Well, yourtalk is full ofjoy, young lad." "That's the first report that raised my heart from this cold clay." "Pédraig's wife is working hard ever since the fight." "She has neither pain nor distress now." "And I was sure she'd be here any moment." "Padraig is doing very well too." "But Big Brian said..." "What did he say?" ""He's lucky that old bitch of a mother of his isn't alive to be giving him bad advice."" "The ugly wretch!" "Where have you gone, young fellow?" "Hey, did you all hearthat piece of news from up above?" "Pédraig's wife threw Nell head-first into the fire and she didn't leave a scrap of hair nor a dangling bit of skin,.." "...nor a stitch of clothes on Big Brian's daughter." "She smashed the dishes." "She overturned the churn that Big Brian's daughterwas using." "She flattened against the wall the silver teapot that Nell had on show on the dresser." "And she sent the clock that Baba gave Nell as a present out through the window." "Oh, she's some woman." "Summer 1947" "The bed is very hard." "It's a long time to be bedridden." "God help us!" "Who's this I have?" "Méirfin Pockfaced." "Méirfin Pockfaced, upon my word!" "It was time you came." "I'm here a long while, and we were the same age." "Caitriona Phéidin!" "The same woman." "Bedsores I had, Caitriona." "The bed was terribly hard on my poor buttocks." "My thighs were left without a flap of skin." "They had surplus!" "How are they up above?" "Bid Shorcha is still above ground." "We wouldn't prefer her here!" "Bid and myself were competing to see who would last longer." "Yes, and she buried you before her!" "Such things can't be helped." "She would have died long ago if she wasn't so shameless." "It's surprising she didn't get bedsores with the love she has for the bed." "Damned a day passed but she was sick, except a funeral day." "Red-haired Tom is laid up." "Another one." "Has the hovel fallen in yet on Tomas Inside?" "Damned if it has." "Nell put a dresser, table and a bed in there." "Even a bed, well!" "For fear of bedsores in the old bed." "For fear she wouldn't get his patch of land." "Big Brian is going well." "That fellow will never die, until he's doused in paraffin and has a match put to him." "That ugly scoundrel won't get bedsores." "His death will be sudden!" "Far from us his heap of bones!" "Your Baba is laid up in America." "Ha dad!" "Bedsores, maybe!" "On her?" "She had thighs twice as fat as yours." "And she can afford to keep a soft bed under her too." "There are soft beds in America for those with money." "You didn't hear any reports of herwriting home?" "Devil a thing!" "Or if Nell had been to the priest?" "I had more to do - bedsores." "She'll eat up the inheritance." "The new road to Nell's is said to be finished." "Ah, boo boona!" "A road!" "She's talking now about building a slate-roofed house." "A slate-roofed house, the cocky bitch!" "Unless she's already got some ofthe will!" "Of course, there was the court money." "She'll be buried in the Pound Plot now." "Jack the Farmer is ailing again." "Ah, the poor man." "Your Pédraig's wife is up with the dawn chorus every morning." "And me thinking she'd be here any day." "You wouldn't know anything about a baby?" "I had my own worries..." "Bedsores." "Something has to kill you and bedsores are as good a killer as any." "Your cross has been abandoned." "Ah, boo boona!" "Nell was speaking to your Padraig about it." "Out with your story." "I don't know for fear of telling lies what he said." "Quit your fear of telling lies." "Nell would have little fear of telling lies about you." "The bed was terribly hard." "You're finished with the bed from now on." "Out with your story." "Listen, a while." "Maybe Nell said something like this to my Padraig:" ""Padraig, you have enough demands without the cross."" "It was Néra Sheainin's daughter who said that." "Let her be grateful to be buried in a graveyard at all." "She would say it." "Daughter of Rotten Feet." "But she's learning it from Nell." "May no corpse come to the graveyard before her." "Néra Shez'ainin's grandson has gone off on a ship from Brightcity." "He got himself a job on board." "His grandmother had a penchant for the sailors." "Nell's grandson is off to be a priest." "Say that again." "You heard me." "Big Brian's grandson off to be a priest!" "A Priest!" "That little shit-scout off to be a priest." "He wore the priest's suit around at home." "Ah boo boona!" " And the collar." " And the collar." "And a massive big prayer book under his arm as he read his office going up and down the road." "And you wouldn't think he'd be made a priest that quickly." "He's not a priest yet, he's just attending college." "They might never make a priest of him, Méirfin Pockfaced." "Big Brian said..." "Out with it." "The bed was very hard, Caitriona." "Out with it." ""My daughter has money to spend," says he, "on making priests."" ""Not like Caitriona Phz'aidin's son who couldn't afford to put a ragged petticoat on his daughter."" "scurrilous Brian." "The foul sod." "Nell sings away to herself going up the new road every day." "A blight on you!" "Clear off you pockmarked fool of the reddened arse!" "Seldom do you or your kind have good news." "Ah!" "The Big schoolmaster!" "My dear Master, the bed was very hard indeed under my poor buttocks." "We'll leave the bed aside, Méirfin Pockfaced!" "How is herself?" "The Schoolmistress?" "Like a young one." "Earning her money at school every day and taking care of Bileachai from dusk till dawn." "The hussy!" "She brought three doctors from Dublin to see him." "He couldn't have escaped having bedsores." "May he have a long lying without relief!" "A score and seventeen diseases ofthe Ark on him!" "Lazarus's plague on him!" "Swine fever on him!" "Dire constipation on him!" "Disease of pity on him!" "The ancient diseases ofthe Old Hag of Beara on him!" "Black blindness on him, and Oisin's Blindness after that!" "May he get gall from cruppers and then be bitten by fleas!" "Bedsores is the worst ofthe lot, schoolmaster." "She does the Stations ofthe Cross for him and a pilgrimage to Cill lne's Well, and Colmcille's Well Mary's Well, Briocz'an's Well Céilin's Well, Sionach's Well, Doigh Bhride..." "She has her kneecaps worn bare." "May the Blessed Virgin help and cure you." "Pity I'm not alive!" "I'd bail Briocz'an's Well dry on the scoundrel." ""L was sorrowful after the Big schoolmaster," she says." "Oh, the hussy!" "If only you knew!" "But you wouldn't understand." "The things that hussy said to me..." "Both of us down at the creek." "A young seagull proudly urged by its mother and father on its first attempts at flight like a shy young maiden going to the altar." "The oars of a currach returning from its fishing grounds splashing in the water." " And me reciting poetry!" " I understand you, schoolmaster." "I bought a motorcar, purposely to take her off into the countryside." "We would go off together to teacher meetings." "I rememberthe day I needed a can of turf:" "your motor was by the roadside at the steep rise and both of you over in the glen." "We'll leave that aside now, Méinin." "She told me, Mairtin, that her love for me was deeper than the sea." "She told me that her love for me was eternity itself." "And me on my death bed;" "she took my hand." "She vowed and she swore that she'd never marry again." "She did now!" "Me, hertrue love, underthe cold earth, and her in the arms of Bileachai the Post." "In the arms of Bileachai!" "I myself saw..." "but one has to turn a blind eye." "Now he's in my bed." "If she brought even one doctor to me!" "Would you believe what she said about you, schoolmaster:" ""The Big schoolmaster was beyond cure."" ""He was too good for this world," says she." "The hussy!" "The loose hussy!" "Oh, my!" "schoolmaster!" "The culture, schoolmaster!" "Honest." "Don't make Caitriona Phéidin of yourself." "Wench of the Rotten Feet." "I remember the day I got the paper about the pension." "No one in our house knew what it meant." ""The Big Schoolmaster's the man!" says I." "I waited till the schoolchildren had all gone past." "Over I went then." "When I came to the school gate there wasn't a peep nor a sound from inside." "I looked in through the window." "My word but you were screwing her inside." "Ha Dad!" "You should be ashamed of yourself, schoolmaster." "Who would have thought it?" ""The schoolmaster is gone to the Lost Letters Office, ...says Bileachai the Post, the day you died." "The thief!" "Who keened me?" "Bid Shorcha." "Then she sang "Let Erin Remember"." " Drunk again." " Who laid me out?" "The Schoolmistress, Little Céit..." "and Bileachai." "You weren't seen to until you'd stiffened." "You were cramped up there and the three ofthem working on you." ""Someone fetch a lump hammer," says Bileachai." ""And you'll see how I'll straighten his knees for him."" "The beggar." "The horny lout." "Were there many at my funeral?" "The Parish Priest, the Chaplain the schoolmaster and Mistress from Doire Locha two brothers from Brightcity." "Yes indeed... and Bileachai." "It was he who tightened the bolts on your coffin and lowered it into the grave." "Then he grabbed his shovel." "The cocky little prick!" "Upon my word but you were screwing her inside." "Wait till you see the new car." "Doesn't she look lovely?" "Summer 1948" "Isn't she nice!" "Isn't she beautiful!" "Come along for a spin." "How are you today, Red-haired Tom?" "Some say I'm poorly." "I could be." "It's a wise person who would say." "There's many a thing said that's neither noted nor recorded." "Now then!" "I'll say nothing." "Tom!" "What the hell...?" "Who are you?" "Is it deaf or dumb you are?" "Your soul torn from the devil, who are you?" "I don't know!" "By the will ofthe blenny fish!" "Red-haired Tom!" "I'm Caitriona Phéidin, Tom." "Caitriona Phéidin." "You're Caitriona Phéidin?" "Well now." "Caitriona Phéidin, now." "You've no need to make a song and dance of it." "How are they up there?" "Some ofthem are well." "Some ofthem are poorly." "Tell me something I don't know!" "Who is well?" "It's a wise person who would say, Caitriona." "And who is poorly?" "It's a wise person who would say who is well and who is poorly." "And you from the nearest village to them is our Padraig well or poorly?" "His wife?" "Jack the Farmer?" "I was in the village nearest them, Caitriona." "It's no lie, but I was in the village nearest them." "There's no need to be making strange here any more than above ground." "Who is well and who is poorly?" "Little Céit and Bid Shorcha are sick at times." "I never saw a day when they weren't sick." "Are they dying?" "Some say they'll recover." "Some say they won't." "And Jack the Farmer?" "Jack the Farmer." "Jack the Farmer." "Well, by my word." "Jack the Farmer." "Some say he's poorly." "Some say he's poorly." "He may be!" "But much is said that is neither noted nor recorded." "Maybe there's nothing wrong with him!" "But has he taken to the bed?" "I don't know. lfl wasn't to tell you a lie." "You'd think it was your first lie." "How's sourpuss Nell faring?" "Nell." "Yes, Nell." "Nell and Jack the Farmer." "Nell Phéidin!" "Some say she's poorly." "Some say it surely." "But is she?" "Some say she is." "Some say surely." "But much is said that is neither noted nor recorded." "A death scream at dawn on your gums you'd hear if she'd taken to the bed." "Taken to the bed." "She could be, upon my word, she could indeed." "My God and my Christ!" "How's our Babe in America?" "Baba Phéidin." "She's in America, to be sure." "Baba Phéidin is in America." "But how is she?" "I don't know Caitriona, I swear I don't." "Surely to the Devil, you heard some talk?" "That she wasn't well, maybe?" "Some say she's poorly, she could be." "Who says it?" "I don't know, Caitriona." "And who'll get Baba's money?" "Baba Phz'aidin's money?" "Yes!" "What else?" "Baba's money." "Indeed, I don't know." "She didn't make any will?" "It's a wise person who would say." "Some say it's Nell will get it." "Some say it's Padraig will get it." "Much is said that is neither noted nor recorded." "You dopey fool." "Everyone was alright until you turned up." "How is the world treating Tomas Inside?" "Do you hear me?" "I do." "I hearthat surely, Caitriona." "Tomas Inside." "Such a man exists, to be sure." "Where is he now?" "In your village." "Where else?" "I thought you knew well where he was." "He's always been in your village, it seems to me, or has he?" "May you have warble-worm on your grimacing face!" "Where is Tomas Inside now?" "Damned ifl know. lfl knew what time of day it is, but I don't!" "But, before you died, where was he?" " In your village, in your village.." " But in which house?" "Damned ifl know, Caitriona." "You'd know if he left his house because of the leaks?" "Some say he's in Pédraig's house." "Ha dad!" "Others say he's in Nell's." "But, he's not in his own house?" "Tomas Inside in his own house?" "He could be, upon my word." "In his own house." "It's a wise person..." "You blubbering eejit, Red-haired Tom!" "Who has got Tomas lnside's land?" "Yes, indeed!" "Tomas lnside has got land." "He has land alright." "But who has his land now?" "Does our Padraig have it, or does Nell have it?" "Padraig?" "Nell?" "Tomas Inside, yes now..." "Padraig..." "Nell..." "May you have the Devil's hooves, tell me who has Tomas lnside's land." "Some say Nell has it." "Some say Padraig has it." "Much is said that's neither noted nor recorded." "But you're sure that Tomas Inside himself doesn't have the land?" "Yes he has land, indeed, he has." "You slovenly shit!" "What a nice present I've been awarded:" "Red-haired Tom!" "Diseased heap!" "It's a bad illness that brought you here." "But for that, you wouldn't come till you decomposed." "You wouldn't get any mortal blow on account of your tongue." "Be off with you, you red slovenly heap." "Scoot!" "Autumn 1948" ""Hey, Méire, your bags and your belts..."" ""And lady of the stack of barley,"" ""I'd love to be..."" ""Hey, Méire, your bags and your belts..."" ""And lady of the stack of barley, I'd love to be..."" "What's this?" "Beanla Black Foot, upon my word!" "Welcome, Beanla!" ""Hey there, Méire, your bags and your belts..."" "Well, it heartily becomes you, son of Black Foot." "Bloody Tour an' Ouns, who do we have here?" "Caitriona Phéidin." "Caitriona Phéidin!" "Bloody Tour an' Ouns, Caitriona we'll be neighbours again." "You're not buried in the right grave." "What does it matter where they throw your bundle of old bones?" ""Hey, Méire, your bags and your belts..."" "Death didn't upset you much, Beanla." "What caused your death?" "No cause." "I stretched out and not a drop of life was left." "That's cause enough." "How are they faring up above?" "As you've ever seen them:" "One coming, one going, and another in between." "Isn't that how it is and how it has to be, as Big Brian says." "That snotty grouch will be backbiting until death gets lodged in his tongue." "It won't be long now." "The Devil's welcome to him." "Don't you know he's finished when he hadn't the strength to go to Jack the Farmer's funeral?" "Ah, boo boona!" "Jack the Farmer, here!" "You're spinning lies, son of Black Foot." "Isn't he here three weeks?" "Oh, woe forever, poor Jack!" "All that time, and neither ofthem would tell me." "Seéinin Liam, Brid Turley and Red-haired Tom would all be bundled down in the one grave with me but not Jack the Farmer." "She buried him in the Pound Plot then." "In a grave next to Siobhan the Shop." "It's a bad article that's next to poor Jack." "But what does that nag, Nell, care but to throw him into any hole." "Bloody Tour an' Ouns, Caitriona she sent a hearse with him." "There was full and plenty at the wake and the funeral." "A High Mass was said for him four or five priests singing the Earl up in the gallery along with Lord Cockton." "She was always very fond of the priests and the Lords." "I'll wager she didn't shed a tear for the poor man." "She did!" "Herself and Big Brian's Mag cried a trunkful of big white handkerchiefs for him." "Everyone said they never heard a finer wall from Bid Shorcha." "I thought that sponger had taken to the bed fulltime now." "And so she has." "Big Brian said about herself, Little Céit, and Bileachai the Post:" ""The priest has spent so much oil on those three," says he "that there won't be a drop left for us when we need it."" "And Bid Shorcha came to Nell?" "Didn't she send a motor for herself and Little Céit?" "But Little Céit came on foot." "The scent of the corpse." "What else?" "They came to Nell and they wouldn't come to decent people at all." "Nell has no intention of coming here herself?" "She was never as young and sprightly as she is now." "With the pure joy of sending Old Jack packing." "Oh, and it's easy for her, with a motor under her arse to take her where she likes." "Lord Cockton's motor." "Hasn't she little decency or shame to be going off pleasure-seeking like that." "Why would she, when it belongs to herself?" "Belongs to herself!" "A boo boona!" "The car couldn't belong to her?" "Haven't you heard she bought a motor for her son Peadar?" "She didn't!" "Ah, Beanla, she didn't!" "She did." "He's doing well from it - driving people about in emergencies." "I suppose it makes some racket passing our house." "I'm glad I'm not alive." "Doesn't she wear a hat now anytime she goes far from home!" "Oh!" "Beanla Black Foot." "A hat!" "A hat as garish as the one the Earl's wife wears." "But, as Big Brian says, "Hens will soon be laying in that hat!"" "I'm convinced she has lured some ofthe money from Baba." "She has, and for four months now." "Two thousand pounds." "Two thousand pounds!" "Two thousand pounds!" "That's how she bought the motor and isn't she buying a beautiful window for the church?" "Baba wouldn'tpar1 with her money till she died." "Bloody Tour an' Ouns, isn't she dead a long time?" "Nell has some odd hundreds to get yet." "My Padraig won't get enough to cover the palm of his hand." "Some say he will but that he won't get as much as Nell." ""Hey, Méire, your bags and your belts..."" "Oh, good God!" "Baba's will." "Jack like a spent match, thrown to waste." "A new road to the house." "Her grandson to be a priest." "The sourpuss in a slate-roofed house." "A motorcar." "Tomas lnside's land..." "No-one has Tomas lnside's land." " But, isn't he at Nell's house?" " He's at your Pédraig's house." "Baba left him two hundred pounds and he hasn't taken his snout out ofthe drink since." "He found the pubs too far from Nell's." "Tomas Inside is a slovenly heap." "That's the pure truth." "Slovenly indeed!" "One night, Top-of-the-Road's son got Peadar Nell to drive himself and the priest's sister to a dance in Brightcity." "Tomas Inside was after coming home from Peadarthe Pub's and, what do you think but, he sits in the motorcar." ""L'll go to the dance too," says he." ""Your soul from the docks!" "There'll be some fine women there."" "The old blubberer." "He was chewing tobacco and if he didn't spit out a mouthful!" "There wasn't much said about it at the time but the priest's sister had to change her trousers before the dance." "Served her right, the little wretch." "Mag and Peadar asked him to go into Nell's house." "He refused." "But doesn't Top-of-the-Road's son catch him by the tail-end and throw him out on the street and give him two walloping kicks." "Bloody Tour an' Ouns, if he doesn't go down to your Pédraig's house where he's been skulking since." "He'd be some sight in a motor." "He'll leave the land outright to Padraig." ""Hey, Méire, your bags and your belts..."" "No one knows who Tomas Inside will leave his patch of land to." "You didn't hear anything about a cross, Beanla?" "Crosses?" "What does it matter to anyone whether he has a cross over him or not." "But you didn't hear if Padraig was to put a cross over me?" "Himself and Nell are often off in the motor since Jack the Farmer was buried,.." "...on some business with crosses or wills." "It won't do him any good going about with that sleek snout." "Bloody Tour an' Ouns, Caitriona, your Padraig is prospering." "He never had as many animals on his land." "He produced two litters of pigs with rumps as hot as loaves from the bakers." "Aren't two of his gone off to college?" " Two of them?" " The eldest girl and the next." "May God reward him." "Didn't Big Brian say..." "What did miserable Brian say?" ""Hey, Méire, your bags and your belts..."" "What did he say, Beanla?" "It was a slip ofthe tongue." "What harm?" "Tell me, God bless you, it'll do me good." "It won't do you any good, Caitriona, nor even a bit of it." "Tell me, Beanla." "Since it is a riot, let it be a riot." ""Caitriona's Padraig has the wind behind him," says Big Brian "since he left that bitch of a mother in that hole."" ""He should have put her under a pot long ago, put a fire underneath and given her a cat's death in the smoke."" "Nell is happy now since she got Jack the one-way ticket to these lodgings." ""We'll leave Big Brian to you, Caitriona."" "But, I'm closer to Jack the Farmer now than she is." "Nell will be raging, to see Méirin becoming a Schoolmistress." "Going down through church every Sunday wearing a hat, a pair of gloves and a parasol,.." "...going up to the gallery to play the piano." "It was from my daughter she got the brains and if not, it's hardly from Péidin's people." "Brains!" "Daughter of Néirin the ducks with brains!" "She had culture in her bones." "Honest, she had." "Our people had intellect." "Myself, for instance." "My leanings were mostly with literature." "Sailors." "Sailors." ""We'll leave Big Brian to you, Caitriona."" "You nit-ridden Rotten Feet." "There was another rumpus between myself and Caitriona, schoolmaster." "A "stink" is what the cultured class call it." "We'll begin a new novelette!" "Leave me alone." "You picked a fine time for novelettes." "Red-haired Tom!" "I've a question for you, Tom." "Is Bileachai the Post poorly?" "Bileachai the Post?" "My word, there is such a man, schoolmaster." "And is he poorly, the pussy-cock?" "Some say he is." "Some say he's not." "It's a wise person who would say." "I ask you humbly and meekly." "I implore of you in the name oftraditional neighbourly gossip to tell me." "You are my hearfs delight, Tom." "My most precious thing, tell me will he die soon?" "It's a wise person who would say." "You are all that I hold dear in the world, you're the white of my eye in the name ofthe duty that's upon us all to promote the natural foundation of marriage I beg you to tell me." "Ifl was to tell a thing I'd tell it to yourself." "But I won't tell a thing." "This is no place for gossip." "The graves have ears." "May you be seven shrieks worse tonight and tomorrow and a year from tomorrow, you red-haired antichrist you leftover of diseases,.." "...you aborted example that frightened even death itself such that it had to send a bad illness to fetch you you spawn, you spewed-out remnants, you red brawling hag!" "Oh, my!" "schoolmaster!" "Remember that you're a noble cultured Christian." "It's soon you'll be able to keep a bickering quarrel with that hooligan Caitriona Phéidin herself." "Respond to her, Master." "You have the learning." "Answer Néirin." "Don't pretend you hear that so-and-so at all." "So-and-so!" "The "fleas' nest" calling me a so-and-so!" "Oh, I'll explode!" "I'll explode!" "Both of us down by the creek." "The gentle wavelets ofthe tide licking the rocks at our feet." "A wisp of her hair stroking my cheek." "She said her love for me was more enduring than eternity itself!" "The hussy!" "Oh, my!" "How romantic!" "Just like my own sailor, schoolmaster." "Delightful is the life of a sailor." "In his elegant romantic uniform." "I loved and adored him." "His adventures in Marseilles, Port Said Singapore, San Francisco." "We spurned one another after that." "It was a regular lovers' tiff." "Sitting next to me on the sofa." ""You are beautiful, Nérég," says he." "Then he grabbed at my calf." ""Oh, my," says I. "Don't be grabbing at my calf!"" ""The curve of your calf is lovelier than a seagull's trail in a ship's wake."" "He caught my calf again." "I took the book I was reading and hit him in the face with the edge of the book." "But you told me, Norog, that it was a pot-hook that you took to him." "Honest, Brid!" "And that he drew a knife and that it was customary in his country to caress a woman's calf." "Brid!" "And that another sailor told you he was stabbed in a Bistro in Marseilles." "I wouldn't like anyone to hear that he drew a knife or that I would do anything as uncultured as to lift a pot-hook to anyone!" "Uch!" "You hadn't as much culture then as you have now." "I've always had culture, Brid." "Even here I have an affaire de coeur, as the culture calls it,.." "...with the Big schoolmaster." "But it's a harmless affair." "Platonic; cultured." "I was a very young widow, Brid." "Tomas Inside was crazy after me:" ""l'll marry you, Néra Sheéinin, my star of light and sun of autumn."" ""My lass ofthe amber coloured hair and all I hold dear."" "He would be pulling at me in the village trying to get me to go in drinking." "I never drank a drop in my life, Brid." "Ah, boo boona!" "Did you hear the drunkard of Gon Ribeach ofthe ducks who had to be carried home from Peadar the Pub's." "Don't let on, Brid..." "She would stan throwing bottles in her drunkenness." "You're a liar, you windbag." "Gug goog!" "What are you gug-googing at?" "Don't give it any more to drink..." "Peadar himself told me you brought a big billy goat into the pub out of drunken tomfoolery and that you began to comb its goatee and to feed it por1er and that you gave Tomas Inside a big hug." "Don't believe that uncultured jade." "Drinking in secret." "You're left now without a cross without a sign;" "like a letter posted without an address." "You drunkard." "You sailors' bit of skin." "Flea-ridden calves." "Spring 1949" "Give us a bottle of whiskey there, good woman." "What's that?" "A bottle of whiskey." "Your soul from the docks, but I'll marry yet!" "I've a nice bit of land and a half-guinea pension..." "I've heard there's no stop to your drinking." "I drink the odd sup." "My advice to you, Tomas." "Give up the drinking sprees." "And heed my advice." "Your soul from the docks!" "Ach, indeed!" "Your soul from the docks they let my hut fall in on top of me in the end." "Tomas Inside is here!" "The leaks were hitting me between the beak and the eye no matter where in the house I put the bed." "How's tricks, Thomas?" "Who's that?" "Tomas Inside buried in the Fifteen Shilling Plot!" "Caitriona had an idler of a son, Nell had another idler and they wouldn't put a strip ofthatch on my hut." "What caused your death, Tomas?" "I never had any pain or illness;" "damned but I died all the same." "Nell buried you before her." "She's alive and kicking, Caitriona." "She spent a month in bed but she's as good as ever again." "Oh, she would be, the arse-in-the-bracken!" "As for me.. no pain or illness damned but didn't I die all the same?" "Were you hoping you'd live forever?" "Your soul from the docks, Caitriona;" "the priest!" "The day he attacked me on the road." ""My advice to you, Tomas lnside:" says he "Give up your drinking sprees and heed my advice."" "The next thing I was half dead and half alive." "I've never had any pain or illness and damned but I died after all." "Bursting on the side ofthe road like the tube of a bike." "But I didn't die, Caitriona for Peadar Nell came just in time and drove me up to the house." "I'd have died in your house only for that." "I never had pain or illness and damned but I died after all." "You never strained yourself, you good-for-nothing." "Your soul from the docks, I've had a hard life of it too." "You've had a hard life of it with drinking and coarseness!" "I'd be hung-over the odd Saturday." "You would and every Saturday, and every Sunday, and every Monday and a good many Tuesdays and Wednesdays too." "You've always got the tongue at the ready, Caitriona." "I've always said that Nell was more kind-hearted by far than you." "That's the dote, Thomas." "Who's that?" "Ara, don't let on you hear that bitch at all." "You only looked after me to spite Nell." "On the level, Thomas!" "But, who is she?" "What did you do with your patch of land?" "I left it to them: to Padraig and Nell." "Half each?" "Itwasn'twor1h halving." "You little fool." "Nell hoodwinked you." "Did you hear a thing about a cross being put on me?" "They say the island limestone is depleting and that it's not easy to get good rock for making crosses." "You seldom had any good news, you grump." "But your cross, Caitriona, is..." "What about my cross?" "Listen, Thomas." "That's the dote." "This tiff with Caitriona won't..." "Your soul from the docks, "tiff"." "It will only vulgarise your mind." "Gug goog, Néirin!" "Honest to heavens, Thomas." "It's not proper to be shouting "gug goog" about the graveyard." "Say "Okey-do"." "Is it Néra Sheéinin I have at all?" "Do you think will I get an accent like that in the graveyard clay?" "Ah, indeed, you had a fine homely accent in the old days!" "I was always very cultured, but you couldn't see it." "It was obvious during the first affaire de coeur we had together." "I'll give you a lecture on platonic love." "I'll have nothing to do with you." "I've had enough of you." "Thomas!" "Anytime I'd set foot in Peadar the Pub's, you'd be at my heels, sponging." "Oh, my!" "Thomas." "Many a fine pint of porter I bought you." "Honest to God, Thomas, you're awfully mean." "Néra Shez'ainin women are as transient as a rainbow on its hunkers." "Your soul from the docks!" "Upon my word, schoolmaster." "I'm shocked... by Tomas." "Shut your cheeky gob, Néra Sheéinin!" "You're a fine example of womanhood!" "Tomas!" "Schoolmaster, my dear!" "Do you think, seriously, Tomas, will he die?" "Bileachai?" "He'll soon have the dock leafthrough his ear." "Do you think so?" "Have no fear..." "look at me!" "All the same, isn't she lovely herself?" " The hussy!" " She'll marry again." "A strong woman, blessed by good grace." "She's lovely." "I met her, schoolmaster, a couple of months after you were buried." ""Gug goog, Schoolmistress," says I." ""Gug goog, Tomas," says she." "But anyhow, we didn't get time for a chat for along came scissor nostrils the post on his bicycle." "The thief; the sour-snout;" "the tasselled prick." "What were you saying about my cross?" "Crosses from morning till sunset!" "You can't drink enough porter without dragging crosses into it." "You can't walk your land without seeing crosses in every field." "But what were you saying about my cross?" "Bileachai the Post is at hand." "Will it be long before the Schoolmistress remarries, Bileachal?" "Ah!" "Is it really him, the tramp, where is he?" "This is a nice welcome to the graveyard clay." "You criminal!" "Opening my letters!" "Going straight to your house and placing them warm from the bag into your hand." "Not every postman would do that." "It was to see my wife you'd come." ""Bill the Post," the poor creature would say." ""I did my best, but he was beyond the doctors' help."" ""The thing is, Bill, the Master was too good for this world."" "Oh, the accursed antichrist." "To make a long story short, Schoolmasten she had the car out on the road." "I pumped her tyres up for her." "He pumped up her tyres!" "Oh, he pumped her up." "Oh, my!" "How romantic!" "Shut yourself up, Néra Sheéinin." "The hussy!" "Control yourself, schoolmaster." "Hear the story." ""Sit in now," she says." ""You'll drive the car, Bill."" ""If you know the Rosses Harbour you'll know that few sights are more beautiful with the lights on the headlands and uplands across the bay." "To make a long story short, Schoolmasten she told me her love for me was deeper than the sea." "A score and seventeen diseases ofthe Ark on you!" "To make a long story short I was on my death bed." "She sat on the edge ofthe bed; she took my hand..." "May you have a long lying without relief." ""If you don't recover, Bill," said the poor creature "l'll bury you decently."" "Down into the gas chambers you should be cast." "You tramp, you thief, you criminal." "Ifl had known that she'd lower me down thigh by thigh with you I'd never have married her." "You didn't hear Padraig say anything about putting a cross over me?" "Your cross is all ready, Caitriona my dear, and paid for." "But, when Jack died Nell and Padraig said they'd leave yours for now and that both would be erected together." "My cross and Jack the Farmer's?" "Everyone who's seen it said it was lovely." "I won't have peace in the graveyard clay till I have a cross over me." "My own cross and Jack the Farmer's cross." "It's made of island limestone in that case, Bileachai?" "Oh, I can't say that much, my dear." "Oh, it's a wise person who would say." "I thought the island limestone was depleted." "Shut your mouth, you guttersnipe." "It was bought in McCormack's in Brightcity." "McCormack's don't have crosses of island limestone." ""Hey, Maire your bags and your belts...!"" "It's Moran's that have island limestone." "It's not of island limestone in that case!" "If it's not made from island limestone I haven't a blind-nut's regard for her." "McCormack's...?" "It's not made from island limestone so." "It's made from island limestone!" "It's not made from island limestone." "It's Moran's that has..." "It's not made from island limestone, if it was bought in McCormack's." "I sure enough heard, Caitriona that it was a cross of island limestone that Nell was reserving for herself." ""Hey, Maire your bags and your belts..."" "The morning ofthe day I died I called Padraig up from the kitchen." ""I beg of you, Padraig, my child," says I." ""Put a cross of island limestone on me."" "He said he would." "And an inscription in Irish:" ""Caitriona, wife of Sean 0 Loideéin."" "He said he would, and that he'd put flowers over me." "They've forgotten about me over ground." "That's how it is, God help us!" "Jack the Farmer!" "Your cross is not of island limestone, nor is mine." "Mairéad!" "Hey, Mairéad!" "Why are you not talking?" "Argument is better than loneliness!" "Néra Sheéinin!" "Some darkness has come over you." "Making clay, is it...?"