“Never mind the drink,” said the priest, “what then?”
“There was dancing first and fighting after. Pat Connex and Peter M’Shane were both there. You know Pat plays the melodion, and he asked Peter to sing, and Peter can’t sing a bit, and he was laughed at. So he grabbed a bit of stick and hit Pat on the head, and hit him badly, too. I hear the doctor had to be sent for.”
“That is always the end of their dancing and drinking,” said the priest. “And what happened then, what happened? After that they went home?”
“Yes, your reverence, they went home.”
“Mary Byrne went home with her own people, I suppose, and Ned went back to his home.”
“I don’t know, your reverence, what they did.”
“Well, what else did Kate Kavanagh tell you?”
“She had just left her brother and Mary, and they were going
