Sunday, September 14, 2014

Ionuin An Bhais Go Bragh

So I was challenged multiple times to post a love story. I resisted but in the end I cam up with this. It is one of my favorites, but then I do have a soft spot for anything I can set in Ireland. Hope you enjoy and one of these days I will figure out how to make the colors work when I copy paste. Again any advice would be appreciated.


Thump, whish; sounds of life supported in misty country from the shadowed corner behind Seth Shamus O’Ceallachain. The elderly man peered into an antiquated basinet. Wiping a single tear with a palsied hand he spoke to the infant.
“It’s a mercy of fate that I remember the names of Caelan and your ma, Mary; the good I have wrought. Yet the evils I have committed run together.
“There are no Irishmen in heaven.  The church urges us to kill for Ireland but does not forgive our actions. A story I have told a million times I will tell you only once. Perhaps it is time to put old stories away with the bombs.”
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Dublin, July 18, 1982, I had two jobs. For money I sheared sheep for a prottie bastard. The job I loved, with the IRA, was the reason I had two bombs in the car. I was on my way to plant those explosives in an Anglican hospital.
Imagining the impending aftermath is why I bumped the car in front of me. Anger filled me from twin valves of worry an officer would find my explosives and annoyance at the delay. Clenching my fist I stepped to the offending vehicle, the urge to strike grew upon seeing my bastard boss.
My hand rose, ready to shout. As I glanced to the passenger seat my fist lost the power of speech. I had never seen a lass so beautiful. I was not a young man even then. While the boss’s daughter was younger she was no spring chicken but rather burned with the beauty of summer. I asked in a near whisper.
“How do I get your daughter’s hand?”
“Earn it and keep the peace.” With those simple words he drove away.
I sold those bombs. Two days later they were used in London to begin the death of the IRA. I put death behind me to become a semi-respectable member of the Sinn Fein and eventually convinced Siobhan to date me.
On our first date she showed me how much devil the protties can have in them. That was not the reason for our love. She did for me what the church could not. She heard everything I had ever done and she forgave me. She loved the man and did not see the monster. In her arms I was always safe.
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Seth jumped as warm arms wrapped around him. “Gra, do you have to fill their heads with sex and violence?”
Leaning into his wife he looked over his shoulder. “You look twenty.”
“You’re still here”
“Making amends.”
“They will all forgive you for passing the day after they announced she was coming. You need your rest.”
“They expected you to follow the day after me. We were one of those couples. You held on though.”
“I promised that I would meet our granddaughter.”
“You have, but now we must go.”
“Where?”

“Not heaven, there are no Irishmen there but anywhere in your arms will be paradise.”






#shortstory #irish #love

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