When the Irish Revival began to be appreciable Mrs Kearney determined
to take advantage of her daughter’s name and brought an Irish teacher
to the house. Kathleen and her sister sent Irish picture postcards to
their friends and these friends sent back other Irish picture
postcards. On special Sundays, when Mr Kearney went with his family to
the pro-cathedral, a little crowd of people would assemble after mass
at the corner of Cathedral Street. They were all friends of the
Kearneys—musical friends or Nationalist friends; and, when they had
played every little counter of gossip, they shook hands with one
another all together, laughing at the crossing of so many hands, and
said good-bye to one another in Irish. Soon the name of Miss Kathleen
Kearney began to be heard often on people’s lips. People said that she
was very clever at music and a very nice girl and, moreover, that she
was a believer in the language movement. Mrs Kearney was well content
at this. Therefore she was not surprised when one day Mr Holohan came
to her and proposed that her daughter should be the accompanist at a
series of four grand concerts which his Society was going to give in
the Antient Concert Rooms. She brought him into the drawing-room, made
him sit down and brought out the decanter and the silver
biscuit-barrel. She entered heart and soul into the details of the
enterprise, advised and dissuaded; and finally a contract was drawn up
by which Kathleen was to receive eight guineas for her services as
accompanist at the four grand concerts.
As Mr Holohan was a novice in such delicate matters as the wording of
bills and the disposing of items for a programme, Mrs Kearney helped
him. She had tact. She knew what _artistes_ should go into capitals and
what _artistes_ should go into small type. She knew that the first
tenor would not like to come on after Mr Meade’s comic turn. To keep
the audience continually diverted she slipped the doubtful items in
between the old favourites. Mr Holohan called to see her every day to
have her advice on some point. She was invariably friendly and
advising—homely, in fact. She pushed the decanter towards him, saying:
“Now, help yourself, Mr Holohan!”
And while he was helping himself she said:
“Don’t be afraid! Don’t be afraid of it!”
Everything went on smoothly. Mrs Kearney bought some lovely blush-pink
charmeuse in Brown Thomas’s to let into the front of Kathleen’s dress.
It cost a pretty penny; but there are occasions when a little expense
is justifiable. She took a dozen of two-shilling tickets for the final
concert and sent them to those friends who could not be trusted to come
otherwise. She forgot nothing and, thanks to her, everything that was
to be done was done.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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