I’ve found a red-brick two-storey house with a small garden. It’s in the east suburbs, off the Hollywood road. There are two bedrooms with fireplaces, and a sitting room with a huge blue-tiled fireplace and mantelpiece. The walls are a terrible pink, but we could get rid of that. There are beautiful leaded lights to the front of the house.

You can see Belfast Lough from where your study will be. Will I rent it?

I think I should. I know you’ll come. I can’t wait to see you. The only thing that frightens me is that this is strictly a Protestant area. But no one will know you are there – you’ll be safe. I’ll hide you away from everyone. Is it possible that we will be happy?

I’m opening in a show at the Guild Hall in Derry in a couple of weeks. It’s a big break for me. Get the Derry Express. Come to the show on the last night. We can travel back to Belfast together. I’ll have everything ready. A place for your books, a desk. You’ll be happy to know that I spied a well-stocked off-licence down the road.

I wake sometimes at night with an awful longing for you. And full of sordid imaginings that you might be with someone else. My carnal desires are dreadful and ludicrous.

I loved last summer. I can’t believe that soon we’ll be living together. And then we will be faithful to each other, for that’s the most important thing of all.

All my love,

Catherine

“Are you waiting on the bus?” an auld fellow asked as he plucked his hat.

“I am,” said Jack.

“I came across the eyes bitten out of a sheep,” he explained, “just this very morning.”

“Could be the golden eagle,” another suggested.

“The golden eagle?” the old man gasped, “Oh sacred! Do they get down this far?”

“Or it could be the mink,” the second speculated.

To their left Christian Brothers were belting golf balls along the sand dunes. From above came the high, unending call of a lark. Out of a bed-and-breakfast a group of mental patients streamed onto the street chaperoned by two female nurses who the night before had led them in song in a lounge bar. Now everyone was looking sheepishly at the ground. They climbed into a minibus and were spirited away. On the other side of the street the pensioners and Jack stepped on board the Ballina bus. One behind the other, the two buses travelled across West Mayo till they went their separate ways at the crossroads by the power station.