That evil bastard Cromwell is to blame.

I’d like to ring his bloody neck,’ she called out,

looking around as if he was lurking somewhere.

Emma ran into Caitlin’s arms, who cupped her face,

‘You’ve got the face of a man called Turlough,

one of the rebels deported to prison in that faraway

place called Australia in 1798. Remember his name,

Emma, because he was my daidí, and I loved him,

and your great seanathair, and only the Lord

knows how he suffered and died – because I don’t.

Oh, but I’d like to cut off the balls of every one

of them Redcoat Sasanach soldiers in town.’

CAITLIN/EMMA

SURE IT’S a peat hovel, but it’s our home.

Lorcan’s money from London isn’t enough.

Uncle Lorcan tried to send for me,

but Mamó shouted ‘Over my dead body!’

We eat pheasant and trout to grow her strong.

Old Braden the gamekeeper will never catch me.

Mamó brushes my hair hard every day.

One hundred strokes to keep it shiny.

Rainwater collects in a barrel like noisy drums.

In summer we bathe in the River Camcor.

Mamó sings to me by candlelight.

Outside I see glow worms in the hedgerows.

She’s off to that school place for the learning.

Most of Lorcan’s money goes on the fees.

I can read and I can write and I can count

and I can be good or I can get a right ear-slapping.

She’s on at me to take the donkey track into Birr;

the temptation, now she’s older, of soldiers.

I want to see Parson’s Castle and the shops,

the square, the fancy houses and all those people.

I’ll never let on the awful shame of her mamaí –

how there was no husband to speak of.

These nights I hold Mamó’s body.

Her ribcage barely moves. I worry.

How I prayed my country would be liberated

by the time the Good Lord came for me.

EMMA

CHAPTER 3

Parson’s Castle, Birr, Ireland

CHINTZ, carpets, mahogany, marquetry,

porcelain, damask, bronzes, curtains, chinoiserie,

brass fittings, flagstone floors, ormolu mounts,

rosewood, black-lacquer, Persian rugs,

a sofa veneered with rosewood, plinths inlaid

with stylised arabesques with coil-sprung seats

for comfort; a walnut commode; a red marble-topped

table on a carved frieze above a central column

with spiral fluting surrounded by sphinxes;

a floor-length mirror with a carved softwood frame;

enormous stained-glass windows; ten bed chambers,

a drawing-room, breakfast room, dining-room,

games room, smoking room, garden room, terrace