Brendan Harris heard about the arrests on the radio and called Donnybrook Garda Station. He had known that arrests would be made, but he hadn’t known who the culprits would be. His first response, when he heard Richard’s name, was to say out loud to the empty kitchen, ‘I knew it.’ As the day wore on, he began to wonder what exactly he had meant by this.

Barry Fox’s father rang Maurice O’Brien, who was also calling barrister friends and political cronies. (Do I need to point out, at this late stage, that everyone Peter Culhane rang had gone to Brookfield and that everyone Maurice O’Brien rang had gone to Merrion Academy?)

‘Don’t worry,’ Maurice said. ‘We’ll sort this out.’

People began to say this all the time: We’ll sort this out. People said it to Richard and Stephen and Barry. They said it to Peter and Maurice. They said it to Eileen and Brendan Harris. There were variations: We’ll sort this whole thing out and This whole thing will be sorted out and We’ll get this sorted, don’t you worry.

Gerald Clinch and Peter Mason said it to the boys: ‘We’ll sort this out.’

They were friends, Clinch and Mason. They’d gone to UCD together.

Michael Feather spoke to Richard first. Richard said he thought Conor Harris had thrown the first punch but Richard didn’t know why the fight had started. He said that he himself had been peripheral to the fight. He admitted his own involvement but he said it was minimal. He said he couldn’t remember Stephen or Barry being involved but he conceded that it was possible they had been. He said he had had a lot to drink but that he hadn’t become aggressive. He said he was deeply sorry that Conor had died and that he deeply regretted his involvement in the incident. He insisted that he was innocent of Conor’s manslaughter.

During all of this Gerald Clinch rapidly clicked a retractable ballpoint and nodded narrowly in waltz time.

Stephen O’Brien was next. He explained that Conor had been acting aggressively in the moments that led up to the fight. He insisted that his own involvement was peripheral. He confessed that he had thrown the occasional punch but that the fight had been so messy that it was hard to work out who had done what to whom. He said he had had a lot to drink but that he hadn’t become aggressive.

During all of this Peter Mason wrote on a refill pad in a small neat script.

Then it was Barry Fox’s turn.

Barry admitted he had been one of the people who kicked Conor in the head as he lay on the street. He said he was certain that Richard Culhane had been involved in the fight from the very beginning. He didn’t know who threw the first punch either, but he said he thought it might have been Richard. He said that Richard had been drinking heavily all night and that he had become aggressive. He said that Stephen O’Brien had been the first person to jump into the fight when it began. He said that he had wanted to call an ambulance for Conor but that Richard had convinced everyone to leave.