Seamus shook with silent merriment but straightened his face as Kate turned to leave the kitchen. When she was gone Bill returned to the question of the anti-treaty league.
“I think you may be right about that,” he said to Seamus. “I don’t remember ever reading of any such body. They were known only as the Republicans although of course they later became the political party Fianna Fáil.”
A groan from Willie Henry getting geared up, trying to open sleepstuck eyes, slapping his knee. And hark! a voice like thunder spake, the west’s awake! the west’s awake! “And Fianna failed us!” he shouted. “Dirty scuts!”
“Foiled us,” said Seamus nodding. “Fianna foiled us.”
“Filed us,” added Margie between laughing and serious. “They’re supposed to be the Republican party and they filed us away for another day.”
“I wouldn’t say that,” said Bill. “I think there are certain moves being made behind the scenes from Dublin. I think you might soon see our bold Captain O’Neill being summoned to the headmaster’s office in Downing Street and given some lines to say.”
Willie Henry didn’t seem ready to accept this bit of surmising. Looking fiercely into his glass he said: “Dublin? I wouldn’t trust that crowd a wankers as far as I’d throw them. Fianna foul!”
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The Wake - Table of contents
HumorTHE YEAR is 1968 and the Swinging Sixties are still swinging - though not in Ireland. But wait! An old woman dies in a northern Irish town and her wake becomes a rendezvous for lesbians, bisexuals and political revolutionaries. And in there among t...
