He paused, lifted his whiskey glass and took a sip. No sooner had he put it back down on the scrubbed pine table than Nola had filled it again.

‘And now I have news,’ he said with a flourish. ‘An announcement to make that will please every one of you. Joe here has informed me tonight, just before Mass, that he has bought the Carter estate. He is going to turn it into a hotel that everyone in the village can benefit from. He’s going to make it into a… What did you call it, Joe?’

‘A tourist destination,’ said Joe as he raised his glass to the room.

Mary Kate’s heart thumped and her cheeks flushed. How could she have been so stupid. The speech wasn’t to welcome her home but rather to announce how this annoying visitor was about to change everything about the place she loved. ‘What if we don’t want Tarabeg to become a tourist destination?’ she blurted out.

‘What in God’s name is that?’ Teresa Gallagher asked Bridget.

‘I have no idea at all,’ Bridget replied, ‘but it sounds smashing to me.’

‘Smashing?’ Mary Kate leant her hands on the table and was aware that everyone had turned to look at her. ‘There will be cars and people up and down the village road, Miss Gallagher. The place won’t be the same. It will change beyond all recognition. It won’t be Tarabeg,’ she whispered.

Tig frowned at her and muttered to Keeva, ‘She’s fierce mad.’ He raised his voice. ‘Will they be wanting to buy beer at the bar?’ he asked, trying to dispel the silence that had descended on the room.

‘I would imagine they would enjoy a bit of authentic local beer. I do.’ Joe laughed and looked relieved.

‘And will there be jobs so that people don’t have to leave Tarabeg if they don’t want to? Wouldn’t that be grand,’ said Nola as she refilled her own glass.

Mary Kate could barely speak as she stared, open-mouthed, at her grandmother.

‘What about the fishing?’ asked Michael. ‘I sold the licences for the captain and he gave me five shillings for each one.’

‘The river runs through your land,’ said Joe. ‘I think we can come to a fairer and more beneficial arrangement than the one in place now. The stretch that runs through your land should be yours, together with whatever spawns or swims there.’

Michael looked as though he was about to faint with delight.

‘After all, we both know how the land was bought. If my great-grandfather Joe Malone the first had still been alive, he would maybe have been able to support Daedio at the time, who was, after all, the youngest brother, and perhaps they would have struck a harder bargain with the Carters.’

Michael removed his cap, something he never did, and Mary Kate wondered for a moment was he going to fall at the feet of St Joe and kiss them?

‘We can all drink to this,’ shouted Paddy. ‘Send your pots over here.’