“It was Michael Collins,” said Seamus, “that struck the first blow against the British Empire. Did you know that?”
I turned my head slowly to look at him feeling vaguely grateful. Disadvantaged by the whiskey though I was I could still sense what he was at. He was trying to steer the conversation away from the rocky road to Dublin. Or so it seemed to me anyway.
“Aye, that’s true,” nodded Jim. “And with a bit of luck this wee town of ours could finish them off.
“What do they say?” said Braddock carefully ignoring Jim’s remark. “The sun never sets on the British Empire?”
“That’s because it doesn’t trust them in the dark,” said Margie. This remark brought a smile to Big Bill’s face, a rare occurrence as he’s a forbidding sort of git most of the time, and loud laughter from all others present except myself for reasons that shouldn’t need explaining here.
“England’s nothing but a pup,” said Seamus. “A mongrel pup too.”
“A bastard pup,” added Willie Henry passionately. There was a look about him now that made me worry. This man was in need of a drink and there was no telling what he might end up saying or doing.
“Oh dear,” said Margie. “Maybe we shouldn’t be using language like that, showing disrespect for Maud that’s lying there.”
“Not at all,” Seamus reassured her. “Maud knows nothing that’s going on here now. Sure the soul only stays in the body three hours and then after that it’s in heaven.”
“Or the other place,” Willie Henry said clawing at his front of his trousers like there was something at him again or maybe it was the nerves. Ready for the hills anyway.
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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...
