Halfway down, he turned back to Keeva. ‘Come on, leave them. This will be the talk of the place in the morning, so it will. They are all fine, and since when has it been that they aren’t? And besides, Keeva, we should have caught on when the drama queens came into Michael’s. What fecking man? Those who can walk, talk and drink are all over the road with us. We should have known.’ Tig was whispering, so that the others couldn’t hear, and trying not to laugh out loud at the same time. ‘There’s not a man in the village who can walk who isn’t half cut already. I’m the one with the gammy leg and even I could keep up with that lot as they ran over the road.’

Keeva let out a long breath. She looked at her husband and a smile lifted the corner of her mouth. ‘Oh, Tig, I will not be responsible for what I do to those boys when I get back over there.’

He reached for her hand, the hand of the woman who had never cared a jot about his disability and had loved him just the same, even though he often had less puff than she did and couldn’t get about as fast. She never chastised him, or became irritable or despaired of their lot. She simply accepted him for the kind man he was. Whenever he made it to Mass, he gave thanks for whatever it was he’d done that had made God think he deserved to have the most wonderful woman in Tarabeg as his wife.

As they made their way down the stairs, they heard the men in the bar and the butcher’s shop. The place was flooded with bright light, courtesy of the newly installed overhead electricity cables, which also allowed Paddy to operate his fridges without a generator. Doors were being opened and closed and raised voices called out to one another.

‘Nothing in the shop has been touched, Paddy,’ shouted Joe as he marched through to the back.

Keeva could hear Paddy in the walk-in fridge, which was never locked. He slammed its door with force and stormed to the rear of the bar.

‘There was no man, Da,’ Tig shouted to him. ‘Keeva and I reckon Aedan was making it up to get himself over the road and in on the party. He was probably jealous that Finn was staying up later than he was.’

‘Fecking bastard. Fecking, fecking, motherless bastard,’ they heard Paddy shout in response.

‘God in heaven, that’s a bit strong. I don’t think he’s that bad, Daddy, he’s just high-spirited,’ said Tig apologetically, flushing with uncustomary anger at the strength of his father’s response.

But Keeva sensed that all was not right. ‘What is it?’ she yelled as she hastened her pace. She hurried through the bar to where the men were standing in a huddle, navigating her way between the tables and the stacks of chairs and stools piled precariously on top, where she’d left them a few hours earlier as she’d cleaned the floor. She knocked one to the ground with a clatter as she rushed past.