‘That’s what you say! You come here day after day. Oh, don’t think I don’t know. Driving my girl to fecking distraction with your mawing and your jawing! You think you had a smack off our Eileen? Wait ’til my Briony gets here, she’ll wipe the fecking floor with you! And as for that great galloping eejit of a son of yours, my Eileen’s never known a minute’s peace since she walked down that aisle with him. Not two weeks wed and she’s like a poor distracted maniac. He’s like your husband, madam, one of them sex fiends! Everyone knew about O‘Malley. By Christ, as long as it was breathing, he’d bed it!’

Elizabeth O‘Malley’s mouth stretched to its fullest. ‘YOU BITCH!’

‘Yeah, I’m a bitch, but you’re a vixen of the first order and my Briony will take the jump from your gallop, by Christ she will. She’ll maul the face off you!’

Briony walked in at the back door just as they started fighting properly. Separating the two women, she looked at them both in disbelief and said: ‘What the hell is going on here?’

Molly pushed her rival in the chest, sending her careering across the kitchen and into the dresser, the plates and mugs dropping to the floor with a resounding crash.

‘That whore of hell there, Bri, her, she’s the blame. Her and that boy of hers. Call himself a man! Huh! I’ve seen better men laid out in coffins!’

‘Where’s Eileen?’

‘She’s upstairs, and if you ask me she needs to see a doctor. She’s out of her mind and my boy ain’t responsible for a madwoman, no way. She’s your bad blood, not ours. Yours!’

Briony looked into Elizabeth O‘Malley’s face and said low, ‘If I was you, old lady, I’d keep my trap shut. Only I ain’t in the mood for hag, and I’m that far from losing me temper.’

She held out a finger and thumb to emphasise her point.

‘That’s it, Bri, rip the cheeks from her...’

‘MUM! Will you give it a rest and let me see Eileen? You two can fight and argue the day away, but for fuck’s sake take it out into the street. This is neither the time nor the place.’

Both women shut up then, though both would fight ’til the cows came home left to themselves.

‘That’s better. Now make a cup of tea, I’m gasping, and keep it down. I’ll go on up and see what I can do.’