*

I take a seat in front of this curtain, this black nicotine-stained curtain that smelt of boiled meat and fucking – sadness. Tommy’s ma – her name was Josie – gives me a mug of tea with Prince Philip’s face on it. Tommy looks over at me. When he was that nervous way of his, he would start with the fiddling with his hair, wrapping it round his finger and pulling it out. He was sensitive about his bald patches but he was his own worst enemy. That’s what he’s doing right then.

I clear my throat, I’m like that, how are you doing in there, Mr Kentigern? I says to him. It’s your man Samuel, I says to him, come to say hello. There’s an endless silence, then a coughing fit. Finally he replies to me. How the fuck do you think I’m doing? he says. Aye, it’s hard times, I says to him. It’s hard times, isn’t it, Mr Kentigern? I says. What’s so fucking hard about your times? he says to me. We’re all struggling, I says to him. We’re all part of the struggle. I’m fucking struggling to get out my bed, he says to me. Last I heard you were struggling with some wee bird down The Shamrock.

Tommy’s ma looked at me like I was a germ at this point. Aye, there’s some cracking wee birds down that Shamrock, I says to him, I’m not about to lie. I see Tommy put his head in his hands. His ma is banging the saucepans this way and that. Don’t talk to me about cracking wee birds, his da says to me, and this floating fist comes through the curtain like a ghost in a play.

Has this bastard come to taunt me? he says. Do you think I lie here day in day out because I’m trying to attract the wee birds? he says to me. Then Josie speaks up. He sacrificed his life for the troubles, she says to us. It wasn’t all about birds and glory back then. Youse all think youse are a bunch of celebrities this weather. Look, I says, I’ve not come here to make light of anybody’s contribution. Quite the opposite. I’ve actually come with a commendation. Certain people, let’s say, are very aware of the quality of your service and your loyalty and the sacrifices what you have made for the cause (basically I was talking like a prize-winning author). I’m here to say thanks, I says to him, and to ask if there is any way in which we can help extend the great work you did in the past and perhaps, you know, secure your legacy for the future.