------------
Night of Broken Glass
Constables roar into the Bogside to beat up and destroy anything they can, cynically focusing on areas already slated for demolition. When they hear the men getting close, Brendan has Mairead hide in the outside toilet with Maeve and Kieran, then slips Rhuari over their neighbor's yard to toss stones over to him. He builds up a pile until the RUC reaches their house, bursts in and begins breaking everything apart. Then he slings the stones at them as hard and fast as he can, and it seems as if there are several others with him. This forces the constables back, for a moment.
During the respite, Brendan gets Mairead, Maeve and Kieran over to join Rhuari, since has finished trashing their neighbor's home, and lets the constables find him sitting alone in the back yard. He asks if they're done so he can get to work cleaning up. They search for all the others but find none so beat him. They would arrest him but news photographers are around and he's bloodied and looks like he's only ten. They leave while making threats.
Brendan enters the house to find everything wrecked. Mairead finally comes back and finds him seated near the back window. He has Bernadette's Dresden figurine and says he thinks he can fix it well-enough. She takes him to Mrs. O'Canainn's, down the way, and he's fixed up, fed a stew and given a glass of ale...then sleeps from exhaustion.
With Tur's help, he replaces the broken window panes and they get replacement furniture, then a couple months later they're moved to a house on Clíodhna Place. It's larger with an indoor toilet and a real garden hutch in the back yard. Danny helps Brendan fix things up. Mairead reveals Tur has asked her to marry him, so Brendan, Tur and Danny make the hutch into a room for them. Danny does so well with the wiring, Tur suggests he apprentice as an electrician, which makes him very happy. Then Tur and Mairead are wed and move in, with their first born slated for birth in October.
Semi-New World
Because Christmas had been quiet, Mairead initiates Christmas, again, with their new neighbors, all of whom the family already knew. The previous tenants were not liked, and Brendan only knew one of their nine children. Now the Kinsellas live between the Keoghs, whose children are all grown and off to other lands, and the Whites, whose three wild sons Brendan knows too well but was protected from by being mates with Colm. Around them are the Haggertys, the Paynes, the Sellars, the Dohertys, the McCorys, and the Mahons, all with children too old or too young for Brendan to bother with but whom Rhuari, Maeve and Kieran can join.
Snow and the shift to a new currency for the British pound keeps Brendan and Danny busy; Colm is rarely around but always has some pot or a bottle to share. Paidrig is kept home to watch his nieces and nephews while his sisters-in-law work a shirt factory. Mairead has to stop work so Tur is the only income. Wee Eammon is ill, again, and his mother even more frantic so when the Chinas do meet, it's in a burned out building to hide from her. There they play cards, smoke pot and drink.
Then comes the gathering in Guildhall Square to commemorate the 1916 uprising. RUC constables behave like wild beasts, again, and so badly injure Mr. Devanny, a man who'd stayed home that day, he died a few months later. His funeral was attended by everyone, Brendan included. There's political chaos in Belfast, half fomented by Ian Paisley, and nothing is being achieved. Brendan is still treated poorly by his mother while Eamonn is being drawn deeper into the Nationalist cause.
One day, Mrs. McKittrick waylays Brendan and asks him to repair her watch but have Eamonn bring it to her. He's wary about it but does so and learns Eamonn has broken up with the woman. She moves away in the middle of marching season, when Protestants celebrate gaining control of Ireland's north. There is rioting on July 12th, mainly in Belfast where people were burned out of their homes. Neither side is talking to the other, by this point.
The Battle of Bogside
August 12th is a Protestant celebration for the apprentice boys who shut the gates of Derry against a Catholic army, and Apprentice boys march around Derry to lord it over Catholics in insulting ways. Brendan tries to finish some business before the march but is caught in it and is affected by the boiling anger in the Catholic community. The RUC does its usual thing of beating people, but this time they are finding themselves in a real fight. Rocks are thrown as well as fists, and Brendan joins in.
Catholic youths and men retreat up Waterloo and William into the Bogside. Barricades are built and the RUC is battered by the nonstop hail of rocks and firebombs. Buildings go up in flames. Constables fire rubber bullets. Tear gas is shot into the area, affecting everyone -- old, young, participant, not, male, female -- but the cannisters are also slung back at the constables. Brendan makes firebombs, nonstop, with wee Eammon's help. Colm and Danny ferry them up to the top of Rossville Flats, nine-story apartment buildings in the middle of the fighting, and the RUC cannot keep them from raining down on them.
Wee Eammon is badly affected by the tear gas and lost his inhaler, so Brendan races to his flat to get his spare then takes him to Creggan. He finds Ma, his sisters and brothers at the Devlin's. Word is the Irish Army is setting up a field hospital across the border. Looking back down the hill at the Bogside remind Brendan of painting of 19th Century battles. He returns to the fight and uses a mask soaked in vinegar against the gas, but it does little good.
There is no stopping for two days. Bernadette Devlin comes to help organize the barricades, as do others. A radio station broadcasts updates from a shortwave radio setup. Rumors fly that Protestant hoards are forming to support the RUC because there are riots in sympathy in Belfast and other cities so the constables are stretched thin. Brendan wonders how they can keep it up. They are running low on fuel and bottles and exhaustion is threatening to take over. He thinks of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, as learned in school, and how it turned out -- obliteration.
Then comes word the British Army is en route. Fear spreads. This will the end of it. They cannot hold out against the army. Suddenly, there is silence. The army is heard marching in...then seen...but instead of attacking the citizens they set up barricades of their own and put themselves between the Bogside and RUC. With a wild joy, Brendan realizes they have won the battle.
No comments:
Post a Comment