Lonely World

Chapter 2

'Come on then, Ceppi, keep tight hold of my hand.'

The child grinned. 'Will you bring me on a tram?'

Katherine nodded. 'I will so, we're going up to Beresford Place, to a meeting. A big, important meeting

''Sure, what's a meeting? Have I been brought to one before?'

Katherine's explanation lasted until they boarded the tram

. Beresford Place was packed, the crowd thickest at the jumble of half-derelict buildings that used to be the Northumberland Commercial and Family Hotel. The twilight of a day that had taken a long time leaving the sky had finally been blanketed by a heavy darkness. At intervals the flaming, pitch-soaked torches men had attached to the walls of buildings illuminated faces and forms, all pale, all etched with hunger and anxiety. And yet, in their eyes there was a spark of determination and hope.

A double line of grim-faced police officers from both the Royal Irish Constabulary and the Dublin City Constabulary blocked their way to the nearest rank of the crowd. Katherine tapped the shoulder of the officer next to her. 'Would you excuse me, sir? I want to get through.'

The constable looked down at her. 'Now why should a respectable girl like you want to come here and join this mob of reprobates?'

Katherine looked up at him warily. He wasn't very and he was quite good-looking. 'You're RIC?' old '

I am so, I'm a Kerry man.' He had an accent as thick as butter.

'I didn't think it would be like this, not as crowded, but seeing as we're here we might as well stay.'

"Would ye look at all the polis,' Ceppi said in amazement. As long as she was with Katherine she wasn't afraid of them. Katherine was chatting in a friendly way to this one. She sensed the excitement. 'Oh, please let's stay!' she urged.

Katherine agreed warily, unable to resist the child's enthusiasm. '

On your own head be it then,' agreed the policeman, 'but if there's trouble get yourselves home immediately. I'll look out for you. Mind yourself now.'

As they joined the main body of the crowd Ceppi tugged at Katherine's skirt. 'Wasn't the polis man a sort of...?' '

A decent class of a man. But I'm still worried you won't be able to see anything and you might get crushed.'

'I won't! I won't be after letting them walk on me!" Small and thin as Ceppi was, Katherine knew the child could give as good as she got. She'd always had to, just to exist.

The press of bodies increased as more people joined the crowd. The night air became oppressive and it was difficult to hear all that was being said by the speakers. What she had heard she agreed with. Their leader, Big Jim Larkin, had demanded a fair day's pay for a fair day's work and an overtime rate of ninepence an hour. He'd demanded that there be no discrimination against union members. He'd already put a stop to stevedores paying the dockers in pubs and exacting a drink for it. There would be no more restrictive practices.

She looked around at the sea of uplifted faces. The torchlight made some of them look grotesque but there was something else too, a dawning recognition, and resolve to fight for that 'decent day's pay'.

There was some sort of scuffle going on in the crowd behind them and Katherine began to feel very anxious. 'Come on, Ceppi. I think we'd better go home. I'll buy you a hot pie to eat on the way,' she added, forestalling the child's complaints.

With an effort and the aid of the policeman from Kerry they got through the crowd, and they were even more fortunate to get a tram. The driver told her he was on his way back to Nelson's Pillar in Sackville Street. 'That'll be me lot,' he said. "We're going on strike and the back of me hand to Mr William Martin Murphy and his Dublin Tramway Company.'

They walked quickly to the O'Connell monument and then along the Quays, noting how many people were out on the streets. As promised, Katherine bought Ceppi a pie which the child crammed greedily into her mouth.

As they turned the corner they both stopped. There seemed to be some sort of commotion going on around the Harp and Shamrock. The street lighting was dim: just one single gaslight struggled feebly against the darkness, creating deep shadows. A figure emerged from the mêlée by the shop and Katherine recognised it as Ceppi's brother, Con. '

What's wrong, Con? What's going on?'

Con looked wild and distraught, his eyes wide with some sort of panic. 'Ah, God, isn't it me da and your da and the men from the houses,' he panted.

'What men? What's the matter?'

'Me da ... me da's dead and it was your da what did it!'

Katherine was stunned. 'No! No! In the name of God, he couldn't, he... For a second she was stuck for words. '

And now the men are after murderin' him.' '

Oh, Jesus!' Katherine's hands went to her cheeks. Itcouldn't be true. It couldn't! Her da couldn't have killed poor Joe Healy.

'Come back with me now, Ceppi,' Con demanded, catching hold of his sister's arm.

She shook it off. 'What'll I do?' she asked, looking up at Katherine wide-eyed and bewildered.

Katherine felt ill. Her imagination was running wild. They'd come for her next! she thought in panic. "Ceppi, go with Con,' she urged. 'Go back with him.' The little girl stood firm. 'No! I will not! I'm staying with you!' Her confusion seemed to have been replaced by a blind obstinacy.

'Ceppi, please?' '

No!'

It was useless and time wasn't on her side. She caught the child's hand. 'Run! We've got to run, Ceppi. Run for our lives!' They both tore out of the small circle of gaslight back into the darkness. Con watched them disappear, then turned and walked unsteadily away.

They were both panting and shaking by the time they reached the corner of the street. There was a patch of scrubby land there where two of the old houses had finally collapsed from neglect. The streetlamp had suffered a similar fate to the houses and no one had bothered to replace it. They were both grateful for the darkness. Katherine leaned against the soot-blackened bricks of the wall of the corner house. It just couldn't be true. It couldn't be. Oh, she knew her da's temper well enough from experience, but to kill someone and that someone as near to a cripple as Joe Healy had been ... Joe'd never have dared start an argument with anyone, let alone defend himself.

'Oh, God, Ceppi! Why would he do it? He knew your da's a sick man! Maybe it isn't true?' She held tightly to the shred of hope that it was all a misunderstanding, that it had been exaggerated. Things often were and the more people gossiped, the more fictional the accounts became.

The child looked up at Katherine's pale, tear-stained face into eyes that I were full of horror and disbelief. But it must be true, she thought wildly, Con wouldn't make up some thing like that. It was too terrible. She was afraid, very afraid, because she knew it took a lot to get Katherine into a state like this. "What'll we do now?' The child's voice was hoarse with fear

'I don't know, Ceppi. I can't think straight. Give me a few minutes while I try to think. Katherine slid down the wall until she was resting on her heels. She covered her face with her hands. She'd never been so terrified in all her life.

Ceppi crouched down beside her, her large grey-green eyes filled with dread. She was frightened, but she'd make herself stay silent for Katherine. Finally she could bear it no longer. Will I go back to see... to make sure it's true?' Her voic was thin and shaky, They'll make you stay. Maybe it's right that you do stay

Defiance rose in Ceppi's eyes. "It's not right and I won't stay. I won't

'Ceppi, I... I can't look out for you."

"That doesn't matter, I... I'll go!'

Before Katherine could stop her she'd turned and was lost in the darkness.

Katherine wrapped her arms around her body and began to rock to and fro. She felt sick and cold and shocked. If what Con had said were true she had no one to turn to. No one to give her strength or protect her. Maybe it would be best if she were to go on running by herself? Ceppi would be upset but she'd have to go home and a home was more than she could offer at this minute... No, the child doted on her, she couldn't just abandon her. She began to pray but the words were disjointed. She couldn't remember the prayers she'd learned at her mother's knee. Don't let it be true, Lord! The words went round and round in her head, and she seemed powerless to silence them. If life had been miserable before at least it had been secure and stable, but now... Frozen with terror, she peered into the darkness for Ceppi.

There was still a small crowd of people around Ceppi's house, neighbours mostly, but then the child caught sight of Father Flynn's white clerical collar. She stopped. She didn't want to get too close in case her mam saw her and told her to get inside the house and she'd have to go, Father Flynn would see to that, and then what kind of a life would she have? Ignored, left to fend for herself, frequently bawled at and belted too. No, Katherine had been the one person to offer her any real kindness and she'd go to the ends of the earth with her. She caught sight of a figure detaching itself from the crowd and starting to walk up the street. It was her oldest brother, Liam. She rushed up to him. 'Will ye tell me what's going on? Our Con said Da's dead, murdered!'

Liam Healy was sixteen, a tall thin lad with the same mop of red hair all the Healys had. 'He is so and if the lads had had their way they'd be killing that bastard Donovan, but didn't the Father arrive and tell them all to stop. He sent Matt Farrelly for the polis and Joe O'Shaughnessy for the ambulance. Still, Donovan's hurt bad. I hope the bastard dies, he'll go straight to hell." The tears had welled up in Ceppi's eyes and her lower lip trembled. 'Oh, God!' Liam looked down into her face. 'Where have you been that you didn't know?' 'Mind your own business!'