So there you are, sitting in a Taxi, on the way from a north city suburb back to town agreeing with the Taxi Driver that yeah the traffic is mental, as you do, wondering if you should pick up something in town for dinner and if so what that might be, as you do. The Taxi driver is is off on a riff of his own, supported by your murmured "Yeahs?. You are not really listening. And then you hear this;
"So they just scattered, like leaves in the wind they were. You could see the fear on their faces. As soon as the nun clap-clapped, gone, all of them gone. Sure they were only talking, like."
"Eh?"
"Yeah, I was chopping down trees in there, used to do a bit to that, and I saw them. "
He inclines his head to the right, towards a high wall, trees weeping over the rim.
"They came over to me, just asking me like, what I was doing. I was just telling them how you fell the trees at the spongy bit. They were curious, they were doing no harm. Lovely they were, lovely friendly girls."
"Girls?"
"Well some young, some middle aged. Girls, women, dressed different though. To everyone else, I mean. You could the fear on their faces when the nun came and clapped. Sharp like. Clap clap. Said nothing. Its only later like you realize they were Magdalenes. That was a Convent laundry."
"Right."
We're stuck in traffic now, rooted to that spot.
"The Religious have a lot to answer for, only. Sure your parents used to tell you when I was a child they'd put you in Artane. If you mitched school. So I was always afraid. But I used to mitch school anyway. Sometimes. They put a chap I knew in there and I was always asking him after what it was like. I was so afraid of it. Sometimes he'd tell you things, twitchy he was, always nervous. Dead now. He told me, he said he was abused in there by the brothers. And another chap he knew, thin delicate little chap, the first night he was there he got pulled out of bed and sent to one priest. Thought he had done something wrong, he did, he told my friend that . But that wasn't it. The priest raped him, that night and the next, and always after that. Always him. Till one night he jumped out of a window. Just jumped. And afterwards the Brothers said he'd run off. Told the guards that too. That's all they had to say. The chap I knew used to clam up after that.
"Right. God. God Almighty."
The car has left the convent behind now. We are on our way into town.
"So, why did they put him in there, your friend?"
"For mitching, I told you. I was lucky. I was never caught. So I always wanted to know what it was went on in there. We only knew, we were only told whatever it was, it was bad."
You walk past the GPO and turn unto Henry Street thinking about how the dead speak. They are legion. Telling the living the story, throwing up bones, shadows, elliptic dreams. Only listen. Hear my story, remember this, acknowledge me. And the living channel the deadspeak so seamlessly that you miss it most of the time, you miss it but still it persists, long after the news story is over, the soundbite done, till you see them at last.
"So they just scattered, like leaves in the wind they were. You could see the fear on their faces. As soon as the nun clap-clapped, gone, all of them gone. Sure they were only talking, like."
"Eh?"
"Yeah, I was chopping down trees in there, used to do a bit to that, and I saw them. "
He inclines his head to the right, towards a high wall, trees weeping over the rim.
"They came over to me, just asking me like, what I was doing. I was just telling them how you fell the trees at the spongy bit. They were curious, they were doing no harm. Lovely they were, lovely friendly girls."
"Girls?"
"Well some young, some middle aged. Girls, women, dressed different though. To everyone else, I mean. You could the fear on their faces when the nun came and clapped. Sharp like. Clap clap. Said nothing. Its only later like you realize they were Magdalenes. That was a Convent laundry."
"Right."
We're stuck in traffic now, rooted to that spot.
"The Religious have a lot to answer for, only. Sure your parents used to tell you when I was a child they'd put you in Artane. If you mitched school. So I was always afraid. But I used to mitch school anyway. Sometimes. They put a chap I knew in there and I was always asking him after what it was like. I was so afraid of it. Sometimes he'd tell you things, twitchy he was, always nervous. Dead now. He told me, he said he was abused in there by the brothers. And another chap he knew, thin delicate little chap, the first night he was there he got pulled out of bed and sent to one priest. Thought he had done something wrong, he did, he told my friend that . But that wasn't it. The priest raped him, that night and the next, and always after that. Always him. Till one night he jumped out of a window. Just jumped. And afterwards the Brothers said he'd run off. Told the guards that too. That's all they had to say. The chap I knew used to clam up after that.
"Right. God. God Almighty."
The car has left the convent behind now. We are on our way into town.
"So, why did they put him in there, your friend?"
"For mitching, I told you. I was lucky. I was never caught. So I always wanted to know what it was went on in there. We only knew, we were only told whatever it was, it was bad."
You walk past the GPO and turn unto Henry Street thinking about how the dead speak. They are legion. Telling the living the story, throwing up bones, shadows, elliptic dreams. Only listen. Hear my story, remember this, acknowledge me. And the living channel the deadspeak so seamlessly that you miss it most of the time, you miss it but still it persists, long after the news story is over, the soundbite done, till you see them at last.
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