_Michael Miskell:_ You didn’t, is it? Well, you could hear it if you
had but ears to hear it. Go across to Lisheen Crannagh and down to
the sea and to Newtown Lynch and the mills of Duras and you’ll find a
Miskell, and as far as Dublin!
_Mike McInerney:_ What signifies Crannagh and the mills of Duras? Look
at all my own generations that are buried at the Seven Churches. And
how many generations of the Miskells are buried in it? Answer me that!
_Michael Miskell:_ I tell you but for the wheat that was to be sowed
there would be more side cars and more common cars at my father’s
funeral (_God rest his soul!_) than at any funeral ever left your own
door. And as to my mother, she was a Cuffe from Claregalway, and it’s
she had the purer blood!
_Mike McInerney:_ And what do you say to the banshee? Isn’t she apt to
have knowledge of the ancient race? Was ever she heard to screech or
to cry for the Miskells? Or for the Cuffes from Claregalway? She was
not, but for the six families, the Hyneses, the Foxes, the Faheys, the
Dooleys, the McInerneys. It is of the nature of the McInerneys she is
I am thinking, crying them the same as a king’s children.
_Michael Miskell:_ It is a pity the banshee not to be crying for
yourself at this minute, and giving you a warning to quit your lies
and your chat and your arguing and your contrary ways; for there is no
one under the rising sun could stand you. I tell you you are not
behaving as in the presence of the Lord!
_Mike McInerney:_ Is it wishful for my death you are? Let it come and
meet me now and welcome so long as it will part me from yourself! And
I say, and I would kiss the book on it, I to have one request only to
be granted, and I leaving it in my will, it is what I would request,
nine furrows of the field, nine ridges of the hills, nine waves of the
ocean to be put between your grave and my own grave the time we will
be laid in the ground!
_Michael Miskell:_ Amen to that! Nine ridges, is it? No, but let the
whole ridge of the world separate us till the Day of Judgment! I would
not be laid anear you at the Seven Churches, I to get Ireland without
a divide!
_Mike McInerney:_ And after that again! I’d sooner than ten pound in
my hand, I to know that my shadow and my ghost will not be knocking
about with your shadow and your ghost, and the both of us waiting our
time. I’d sooner be delayed in Purgatory! Now, have you anything to
say?
_Michael Miskell:_ I have everything to say, if I had but the time to
say it!
_Mike McInerney:_ (_Sitting up._) Let me up out of this till I’ll
choke you!
_Michael Miskell:_ You scolding pauper you!
_Mike McInerney:_ (_Shaking his fist at him._) Wait a while!
_Michael Miskell:_ (_Shaking his fist._) Wait a while yourself!
(_Mrs. Donohoe comes in with a parcel. She is a countrywoman
with a frilled cap and a shawl. She stands still a minute. The
two old men lie down and compose themselves._)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account