-------
Danny
It's 1970, and Brendan turns 14 with celebration, including a cap with an Apollo 11 patch on it. He gives his Apollo 7 cap to Rhuari. Ma is still joyous about Michael Paul, and Mairead is pregnant, again, and let go from her job. Eamonn is at Queens. Brendan does half-days at school, works steadily at McClosky's, and still does extra jobs. While looking into repairing a TV, he sees Father Jack's Cortina nearby, even though the man is supposed to be in Dublin.
Heading home, he sees Colm, Paidrig and wee Eammon heading up to Long Tower for some footy, so joins them. They see Father Jack drive past, on Bishop, with someone who looks familiar with him, then come across a moody Danny. Paidrig makes a funny comment then Danny attacks him. The others separate them then Danny runs up on the walls. Brendan chases after him as Colm and wee Eammon tend to Paidrig. In a bastion overlooking the Bogside, Danny reveals he knows about Joanna and tells Brendan her father is in the Ulster Volunteer Force, a virulent anti-Catholic group. Brendan fears for her safety, but Danny says he's told no one else about them.
They talk about how the British are paying more attention to Protestants than Catholics, and how the Bodgside wasn't so much protected by the Army as made into a ghetto. It comes out that Danny was at a meeting with Father Jack and Father Demian, and he told of being molested by the latter one. It was denied and Danny's own parents backed up the priest, and Danny is torn up about it.
Brendan recalls an earlier occasion when he saw Danny struck by his father during an argument and he ran off, bleeding. Brendan took him to an older woman's house to get him cleaned up then they went to Woolworth's for candy. But then Brendan said something wrong and Danny crushed the candy under his heel. They never spoke of it, again, but now Brendan sees it was part of a pattern and wonders if Danny's father blackmailed the church into giving him a good job. Brendan then considers the possibility something similar happened to his father at the orphanage he'd lived in.
They share a joint and Danny comments on how Brendan sometimes seems to play both sides of the fence, especially now he's seeing a Protestant girl. He's almost back to normal but turns down Brendan's offer to go to the circle fort and smoke and drink and look at the stars all night. Danny leaves and the next day his family moves to Armagh, letting Mairead and Tur sneak into their house to take over. Eamonn takes over the hutch so Brendan is alone in his bed. He tries to find out more about his father but his mother furiously beats him and demands he stop. He does...for now.
Hidey Holes
The RUC is re-organized into the Police Authority with no real change. Demonstrations keep devolving into rock-throwing, which the Army is growing impatient with. Brendan's mother is drawn deeper into Nationalist organizations and harsher with her disparaging of him. With Mairead gone, the tension between them is on the rise.
Eamonn comes home from Belfast and says he will not return to Queens. His clothes carry the scent of burned wood. Brendan knows what's happening there thanks to a news agent letting him read the Belfast papers, and asks Eamonn about it. Most of the fires were in the Ardoyne, away from Queens. Eamonn reveals he hasn't been at Queens for some time, and Brendan works out that he's joined with the Provisional IRA. He reveals he smuggled a pistol into Derry and asks Brendan to hide it.
Brendan takes the pistol apart and hides it all over the house, in pieces. He also finds a box of bullets in the hutch and hides those, as well, irritated. He refuses to let Eamonn know where the pieces are because the push and shove between Catholics, Protestants and the British army is growing more and more intense. Bernadette Devlin is sent to jail for aiding in the Battle of Bogside and Derry is not happy about it. More families are burned out of their homes, and a British politician begins talking about an acceptable level of violence.
Brendan and Joanna keep managing to meet, but on the Protestant of the Foyle, at Marianne's Tea Shop. They keep it going till Brendan's 15th birthday, in 1971. The first British soldier is killed. The Catholics are blamed. Bombs are now going off, almost daily. Cars are hijacked, Catholics rousted by the Army with some being killed, businesses on both sides are being forced to donate to their respective causes -- IRA or UVF. Aunt Mari stops sending money because of restrictions on mail. McClosky's is burned out so Brendan has no job, just the occasional work. The area is spiraling close and closer to full civil war. He wonders why stupid people are always in charge.
No comments:
Post a Comment