The Rebels of Ireland (111 page)

One day, her father came home looking thoughtful.

“I met Mr. Charles O'Connell today. Did you know that Mr. Smith, before he came here, was a close companion of Daniel O'Connell himself for over twenty years? I had no idea of it. He never said a word.” He gave a sheepish smile. “When I think of what I…” He broke off.

“What, Father?”

“No matter. It gave me a different view of the man, that's all.”

Maureen was silent for a moment, looking thoughtful.

“He is very fine,” she said with some emotion.

She did not see the curious glance her father gave her.

But even with her father's wages, it was not easy to put food on the table. There was next to nothing in the market now. She was able to buy some Indian meal at a wicked price, some turnips and salt. “They're no better off in the workhouse,” her father told her. “There's to be no Christmas dinner there. Even the Board of Guardians can't get the food.”

On Christmas Eve, Nuala arrived. She, at least, was still being fed, though she told Maureen that the merchant's family were making do with stew on most days now. Maureen noticed that Nuala had a little smile on her face.

“I brought something,” she said. And from the folds of her clothes she produced a little hip flask. “I borrowed the flask,” she said. “They won't notice.”

“What's in it?”

“Brandy.” Nuala grinned. “For the man of the house.” She gave a sly smile. “I've more.” Reaching inside her clothes again, she fumbled for a moment and then drew out, slowly, one, then another, then, with a flourish, a third potato.

“Oh God, Nuala, how did you…?”

“They're only lumpers. Funny, isn't it? The lowest form of potato, Maureen, you wouldn't have looked at once; and now, couldn't I be the Queen of Sheba herself, bringing gifts to Solomon?”

“Yes, but…”

“I stole them, of course. Found them down in the cellar. I'm sure nobody knew they were there. They must have been missed, I suppose. They're old, but they aren't spoiled. Well, not entirely.”

“But Nuala, if they find out…”

“They won't.”

“You'd lose your position.”

“And what of it?” She laughed. “Then I'll sell my body down by the courthouse.”

“Don't even say such a thing.”

“So are you going to cook them?”

“Oh God, Nuala. I am.” She kissed her sister. “Don't tell Father how you got them. Say you bought them.”

Though dusk was falling, their father didn't come home for some reason. And several hours passed without any sign of him. Maureen and Nuala were becoming quite concerned.

“Could he have gone out drinking, do you suppose?” said Nuala. “I see the men coming back from work and spending their wages on drink in the town every day.”

“Father? Never.” Maureen shook her head. “Please God nothing's happened to him,” she whispered, so that the younger ones shouldn't hear.

At last, he came. He was carrying something under his coat. Once safely inside, he pulled it out and put it on the table. It was a hunk of meat.

They looked at it in astonishment.

“Father, however did you…?” Maureen was pale with fear.

“Will you cook that for our Christmas, Maureen?” he said with a tone of satisfaction.

“But where did it come from?”

“It was on a cow when I first saw it. That would be about two hours ago.”

“You killed a cow?”

“More than a dozen of us. There's nothing left of the beast now. What couldn't be eaten is buried.”

There had been numerous incidents of this kind. Gangs of men would go out into the fields after dark, slaughter a cow, and cut it and strip it on the spot, dividing the meat up and vanishing into the night. But it took Maureen a moment to realise that her father had committed a criminal act.

“You could be transported,” she said reproachfully.

“If caught.” He took his coat off. “I think I'll rest a while. I'm a little tired.” He sighed. “I wish,” he confessed, “that I could take a drink.”

Nuala smiled.

“You can,” she said.

But if the family ate well that Christmas, the experience was not to be repeated. Local farmers were guarding their livestock with vigilance; there was less food than ever in the market. Halfway through January, Maureen noticed that tufts of Caitlin's hair were falling out. Then, even more strangely, that as if to compensate, a thick down was growing on her upper face so that she began to look like a sad little monkey. Maureen discovered that several other children in the street looked the same way; it was clearly something to do with their lack of nutrition. Once, after she had been discussing the problem quietly with her father—and out of earshot, as she thought, of the other children—she came in to find little Daniel trying to give his morsel of food to his sister. “So that the hair on her face will go back
to her head,” he said. And overcome with emotion, she put her arm round him and cried, “You dear little boy.”

She had to make sure that he ate his food himself after that.

Relief, of a kind, was at hand. But once again, the government was to display its genius for adding insult and injury to every good deed.

“They are going to set up soup kitchens,” her father announced one day.

“Then we shall have food?”

“Perhaps.” The prospect did not seem to please him. “They will be set up under the Poor Laws. The paupers will be fed.” He breathed heavily. “No Madden has ever been called a pauper.”

“You are not a pauper, Father. You have work.”

“But they're going to close down the public works. Mr. Smith has promised me he'll keep us going as long as he can. They will open two kitchens in Ennis almost at once; the official kitchens will open sometime in February.”

“We must feed the children, whatever we are called, Father,” she said.

“I know.”

But the opening of the kitchens would have one further consequence. For since the Poor Laws placed the cost of providing relief on the local community, the citizens of Ennis were going to have to pay for them. And since it would have been a distortion of the market to subsidise the food, the local people would have to buy in the supplies for the soup kitchens at the present high prices.

Early in February, Nuala appeared at the cottage one morning.

“I've lost my job,” she said simply.

“Oh, Nuala, did they find out about what you took at Christmas?”

“Not at all. It wasn't that. But they've to pay so much extra in rates for the new soup kitchens that they told me: ‘We can afford you, or the soup kitchens, but not both.'”

“Well, this is your home, and we're glad to have you back,” said her father firmly. But after he had gone, Maureen turned to her sister.

“What are we going to do, Nuala?”

“I'll find something,” Nuala promised.

Two days later, Eamonn returned after seeing the man from whom he rented the mock ground.

“He can rent me nothing, even if I can pay for it,” he told them, “because he can't get any seed potatoes for planting. He's rented all his plots to a farmer, for grain.” He made a helpless gesture. “I've asked all round the town, and it's the same everywhere. Blight or no blight, it'll be a miserable potato harvest this year, because so few potatoes will be planted.”

All through that month, news came trickling in from other places. If people in Ennis were living in the borderland of starvation, it seemed that more isolated areas had fared even worse. The soup kitchens, if they reached such places, would come too late. Up in the wilder parts of Galway, Sligo, and Mayo, hundreds, thousands of people had died from starvation. Infants and the old were the first to go, but it had gone beyond that. Those who had given up and walked to the towns had stood a chance; people cut off in the wastes, or who had decided to stay in their homes, had gradually weakened until they could do no more. The priests and clergy were doing what they could, but they had no food to give. Nobody had any idea how many had succumbed.

As well as news, there was also a trickle of people coming into Ennis. Maureen found it hard to believe, but people were still regularly being turned off the land.

“You can't even blame the men turning them off, sometimes,” her father said. “Some of the tenant farmers have rented out parts of their land, and if they don't get paid, they can't meet their own rent. It's only the landowners who can give relief, and you don't know how much debt some of them may be in themselves.” He sighed. “It's like a great wheel, Maureen, rolling over the land and crushing the lives out of all of us.”

Two things made their lives a little easier. Nuala was able to find some work. “It's just helping a woman who takes in laundry, but she
can let me have a few pence most days,” she said. “It's better than nothing.” And the soup kitchens began to function in Ennis. When the first one started, seven hundred people turned up that morning. Soon there were several; half the town seemed to be standing in line, and the people running the kitchens couldn't keep track of whom they were feeding. This favoured Maureen. She wasn't supposed to go to the soup kitchen because her father still had employment, but she took the children with her and stood in the line, and the harassed people doling out the grain and meal just put the little measure into her hands without bothering to ask questions. “I feel bad,” she told Nuala, “because I'm not supposed to have it, and I'm sure I'm taking food from the mouths of those who have nothing at all. But then I look at Caitlin, with her hair still in patches, and I know I must do it.”

“Just feed the children, Maureen,” said Nuala. “You have to.”

Her father was aware of what she was doing, but they did not discuss it.

It was at the end of the month that the men came to see her father. There were half a dozen of them. She didn't know any of them well, but she recognised them—small tenant farmers from near her old home. They clustered round her father eagerly.

“We need you, Eamonn.”

“For what?”

“It's Callan.”

It wasn't a surprise. All their farms came under the agent's management, and they were to be dispossessed. Obviously, Callan had either decided or been instructed to have a general clear-out. And the men weren't going to stand for it.

“Something has to be done, Eamonn. A warning has been prepared. And if it is not heeded…” They seemed in general agreement. “Justice will have to be done.”

“Why come to me? I'm already gone.”

“We thought you might want to strike a blow. You're not the only one here in Ennis that Callan has thrown off his land. There
are others who'll join us. But they look up to you, Eamonn. You were always the one.”

She could see that her father was somewhat pleased by these compliments and this attention. But as she looked at their faces, she saw something else. It was a trap. She could see it clear as day. They wanted to use her father, because he was bolder and braver than they were, and had an old reputation in the area. They'll put you in front of them to do the deed, she wanted to cry out, and when you turn round they'll be gone. She knew she mustn't say it out loud. Not now. It would anger the men and humiliate her father and make him all the more likely to accept. She held her breath.

“Show me the warning,” he said quietly.

It was a wretched thing. Callan's name was across the top, and below it was drawn a coffin. Then, not very literate, a warning to leave off his evil ways or consider the fate of other agents. “Remember them,” it warned. And it was signed “Captain Starlight,” a popular way of ending such missives in the countryside.

Her father considered the document quietly for a minute or two. “Captain Starlight has a fine style,” he remarked drily. “But I will improve his message, if you have pen and ink.” The man who had composed the message produced these articles from his coat pocket. “Very well,” said Eamonn when the man was ready. “There is room for it under the signature. You will write these words of the good Mr. Drummond.” And he carefully dictated:

PROPERTY HAS RIGHTS
PROPERTY ALSO HAS RESPONSIBILITIES

When this was duly written, he glanced up at Maureen and gave her a smile. “I'm sorry not to be coming with you, boys. I've no love for Callan, you may be sure, but I've matters that concern me here. I wish you good luck.” And, to her huge relief, he sent them away.

“Do you think they will kill him?” she asked.

He shook his head.

“They haven't the courage.” He sighed. “Perhaps I haven't, either. But at least I gave the message a little of the dignity it lacked.”

It was one evening in the middle of March that Stephen Smith came to their cottage. He looked tired. Maureen thought it remarkable that he should have gone to such trouble, but for whatever reason, he seemed to feel a personal responsibility for her father.