‘Not for a moment did she think that Roisin was deserving of any support or any sympathy, and that maybe it was the boy who made her pregnant she should have been blaming, not her. I half-wonder if she knew what her husband was planning to do, and approved of it, or even helped him. If there was any chance of proving it, I swear to God I’d haul her in for aiding and abetting, or even conspiracy.’

‘The pain that religion has caused in this country,’ said Kyna. ‘Sometimes I ask myself what we’ve done to deserve it. Do we not pray hard enough, or often enough? Are we disrespectful to God, without realizing it? Is it because we keep on taking his name in vain?’

They arrived at Carrig View and as soon as Katie opened the front door, Barney and Foltchain went into their usual tail-flapping frenzy of welcome. They could sense the affection between Katie and Kyna, and so they loved Kyna as much as they had been devoted to Conor.

‘You’re loopers, you two,’ said Kyna, stroking Foltchain and tugging at Barney’s ears. ‘If they had a nuthouse for dogs, you’d both be locked up for life.’

Katie had cleaned the hearth and relaid the fire in the living room that morning, and so all she had to do was light it. She took the matchbox from the mantelpiece, slid it open and picked out a match, but then she hesitated.

‘Would you do it?’ she said, holding out the match and the matchbox to Kyna. ‘All of a sudden I’m feeling like I’m going to gawk.’

Kyna knelt down in front of the hearth, struck the match and lit the firelighters. Once the flames were licking up, she got to her feet and held out her arms and gave Katie the closest of hugs, kissing her cheek first, and then her neck.

‘You’ve had too much to put up with, these past few days,’ she told her, kissing her neck again. ‘You’re only human, Katie. Frank Magorian should have granted you compassionate leave for a few weeks after you buried Conor. You’re grieving something terrible, and what have you had to put up with? Not just losing Garrett Quinn, and seeing him all burned like that, but that bombing at UCC, and those shitehawk Riordans raiding The Weavers. And on top of that you’ve had Brendan O’Kane behaving like a pure unmitigated bastard, and all those horrible stories about you in the newspapers. I’m amazed you’ve kept your sanity.’

‘I have to. I don’t want to end up in the nuthouse with Barney and Foltchain, do I?’