'Horseman, Pass By' - Scene One

 

Horseman, Pass By

 

A play for stage by

 

Daniel Magee

 

Copyright© Daniel Magee

92 Main Street (Apt 219) Deep River, CT06417, U.S.A. Email; magillxy@aol.com Phone; 860 526 5803

 

London Contact: Michael Latimer

1 River Mead Court, Ranelagh Gdns, London SW6 3RT England.

Phone:(0)207 736 7192 EMAIL:michaeljklatimer@btinternet.com

 

ACT ONE

 

Scene I

 

A KITCHEN-CUM-LIVINGROOM WHICH IS DECORATED PLAINLY AND IN GOOD TASTE, BUT NOT EXPENSIVELY.

THE PICTURES ON THE WALL ARE MILLET’S ‘THE ANGELUS’ AND ‘THE GLEANING’.

PRESENT ARE PATRICK, WHO IS SITTING BY THE FIRE, READING, AND ANNIE QUINN, HIS MOTHER WHO IS IN THE PROCESS OF PREPAIRING THE EVENING MEAL.

 

THERE IS A KNOCK AT THE FRONT DOOR. PATRICK STOPS READING, LOOKS TIRESOMLY AROUND AND SLOWLEY GETS UP TO ANSWER IT.

OFF-STAGE WE HEAR HIM TALKING TO SOMEONE.

PATRICK (ENTERS. HE IS FOLLOWED BY A TIRED LOOKING MIDDLEAGED WOMAN) It’s Missus Kelly, Ma …

ANNIE (A BIT BEWILDERED. SMILES0

Hello Mary … What brings you ‘round?

MRS. KELLY Ach, Annie, are you in the middle of the supper

ANNIE Not-at-all, Mary … Sure it’s only a drop of stew …

(ADDRESSES PATRICK0 … Hey, you … c’mon, shift yourself and let Missus Kelly sit down there …

MRS. KELLY Ach, no, Annie … sure I …

ANNIE (IGNORES MRS. KELLY) I thought when I got you that fire up-stairs I’d

get rid of you from under my feet … Go on, shoo … and like that eejit you listen to on the wireless says, give me and Missus Kelly a bit of space …

(PATRICK GETS UP AND GOES)

MRS. KELLY That’s terrible, Annie … chasing the wee lad like that … If I knew you were so busy I wouldn’t have bothered (WATCHES HIM EXIT) God, but he’s a great lad your Patrick … I’d give me right arm to get our Bobby to sit in reading books …

ANNIE Aye, he’s not so bad. His father thinks he’s a bit too quiet … Or, used to, should I say … Since all this carry-on’s started he’s glad to see him sitting here in his own house … Some mornings, Mary, listening to that wireless, you’d think half the lads in this city spent their time sitting outside other peoples houses waiting to blow them up or shoot them …

MRS. KELLY (SEEMS PREOCCUPIED) Aye … (FALLS SILENT)

ANNIE (FEELS SHE HAS TO CONTINUE)

Paddy fitted out the back bedroom for him, y’know … Did a great job … Made him bookshelves, you name it … fitted in his stereogram … built him a desk for his studying … Oh aye … did a great job … Yet I’ve a back door out there and to hear the creaks coming out of it you’d think it was from Dracula’s Castle … But d’you think he’ll fix that

MRS. KELLY (STILL DISTANT) Oh, aye … you’re man was always good with his hands …

ANNIE Jesus, these spuds … with the eyes in them you’d swear they were lined up and shot … (MRS. KELLY REMAINS SILENT – AFTER A PAUSE)

What is it Mary … I’m sure you didn’t come ‘round here to listen to me whinging about spuds …

MRS. KELLY It’s our Bobby …

ANNIE Aye, Bobby?

MRS. KELLY I’m at my wits end … I wouldn’t have come near you except I can’t think what else to do … I’ve begged him … begged him to just listen … I even told him I’d get Father O’Neill to have a word with him … He just laughed … You’re my last hope

ANNIE There, there, Mary … What’s all this about, anyway … Our Brendan, I suppose?

MRS. KELLY As god is my witness, Annie, I think the world of your Brendan … But my Bobby’s too young … sure he’s only out of school … And me and his Da were against that … But his head is full of these troubles …

ANNIE He’s joined up, then?

MRS. KELLY Aye … I don’t understands it, Annie … His Da wouldn’t let him anywhere near riots or stone-throwing when he was a wee nipper … But you can’t lock them up, can you … Liam had him lined up for a job where he is … Said there was a chance of getting him on as an apprentice if he behaved himself … And that’s not an easy thing these days

ANNIE Aye, Mary … Not that it ever was for a Catholic

MRS. KELLY He was no sooner there than he was talking Trade Unionism …

ANNIE As if being a Catholic wasn’t enough … (MRS. KELLY FROWNS AT THIS) That’s likely all it is, Mary … him being a bit of a Jack-the-lad

MRS. KELLY I wish to God you were right, Annie … But he’s changed this while back … He used to have all them poster up … You know, Patrick Pearse and all them aul Rebels … It was harmless … I never paid it any heed … He’d as many football posters up as anything else … The only thing I kept my eye out for was them dirty calendars … As long as he didn’t get into anything like that I was happy enough … Sure there was always one of them 1916 Proclamations in our house ever since I can remember … But nobody ever bothered to read it … If you put a gun to my head and asked me what it said I couldn’t tell you …

ANNIE Aye, Mary …

MRS. KELLY But I’ll bet you, Bobby could … It’s the only thing left on his wall … that and a picture of James Connolly … They’d give you the willeys just looking at them. They’re not them nice, wee ones you used to get … you know … the ones with the green and gold fancy boarders … They’re just black … Like something you’d cut out of a newspaper … only bigger. They depress me every time I look at them … But I daren’t touch them …

ANNIE Mary, why don’t … (MRS. KELLY ISN’T LISTENING)

MRS. KELLY Sometimes I just stand there and stare at that picture of Connelly … And I hate him … There’s a wee smile on his face … A sleeket wee smile that makes me shiver … He frightens me, Annie … The other night his Da was trying to talk some sense into Bobby … Told him not to be throwing his life away for a man who’s long dead and gone … Do you know what Bobby said … That Connolly never died … I swear to God, Annie … a shiver ran the length of my spine that froze me to the spot … All I could see was that wee smile in the picture … I knew then that Liam was wasting his time … (HER WHOLE DEMEANOR CHANGES) … Our Bobby’s right, isn’t he … God and his Holy Mother forgive me … but that man’s not dead … He’s in my house and he’s got my son … And In daren’t touch him … All these years … rearing him … loving him … And it was all for nothing … I’ve lost him …

ANNIE (GOES OVER AND TAKES MRS. KELLY’S HAND)

Now, now, Mary … would you, in the name of God, take a grip of yourself …

MRS. KELLY (CARRIES ON AS THOUGH NOT INTERRUPTED) … He’s not dead … It’s me feels dead … ever since that night … After that … looking at Connolly’s picture … I couldn’t believe it was the same man I’ve been looking at for the last God knows how many years. I never really noticed him before, if you know what I mean … He was so ‘ordinary’ looking … When I heard all about 1916 and how they were all executed I used to think ‘a pity’ of him …

ANNIE A pity of him !?

MRS. KELLY Aye … You know … them having to tie him to a chair to shoot him, and that … It just goes to show how stupid I was … But I always had this idea that he was some sort of a clerk … you know, somebody who took notes, or something … He looked a decent wee, quiet man who wouldn’t harm a fly … Even though I knew they shot him I couldn’t imagine … for the life of me … why! … Even if you told me, I still couldn’t imagine it …

ANNIE But, Mary … James Connolly was the leader of the

Citizens Army

MRS. KELLY (HER FACE CHANGES, IT’S SUDDENLY HARD, COLD. JUST FOR A MOMENT) Now your Brendan’s the leader of the Citizen’s Army … (RETURNS TO THE BEWILDERED DEMEANER)

ANNIE Mary … my Bren… (IS INTERRUPTED)

MRS. KELLY I could believe the rest of them were heroes … they sort of looked like heroes … Especially Patrick Pearse … Even that aul fella … You know, the one with glasses and the big moustache … I could see him dying for his Country … you know … like an old Saint, or something … But your man, Connolly … I couldn’t see him doing anything great … You never heard of him, did you?

ANNIE No, Mary, you didn’t … But what about Bobby?

MRS. KELLY (BREAKS DOWN) I want him back … I just want my son back … Tell your Brendan to leave him alone .. He’s still only a wee fella … I want him back … Give my son back to me …

ANNIE (SNAPS) I haven’t got your son … I’ve lost my own … And I’m praying day and night that I don’t lose my other … (SHE CALMS DOWN) Oh, Mary, Mary … don’t you think I know what you’re going through

MRS. KELLY (HAS BECOME CALM, COLD, HARD) No, Annie … you don’t. You don’t know a thing about what I’m going through … (SNEERINGLY) Annie Quinn praying day and night … My arse … Just look … (GLANCING AROUND THE ROOM) Not one Holy picture … A house without a Sacred Heart in it can’t be right … Do you know the first thing our Bobby took down after your Brendan got his hands on him … The wee Holy Water font his Granny got him for his first Communion … Then he put up that … that … Devil outt’a Hell

ANNIE (cuts in) Missus Kelly, I’ll thank you to …

MRS. KELLY Don’t ‘Missus Kelly’ me … Devil … that’s what I called him and that’s what he is … Satan … Hanging and living on the wall of my son’s room … With his Protestant face like this room … without hind nor sight of God in it …

ANNIE (SHOUTS) Why don’t you take the bloody thing down, then?

MRS. KELLY Oh, you’d like that, wouldn’t you … And when Bobby left? … Where would he end up, eh? … In that fancy, frigging, room you’ve made upstairs for ‘Patrick’ … God forgive me for swearing

ANNIE (SHOUTS) Missus Kelly … (PAUSES) … You have come down here … into my home because you’re worried about your son … but I will not stand and listen to you guldering, ignorant, bigoted … (IS LOST FOR WORDS) … bloody nonsense … about me or mine … Certainly not in my own house … no matter what you think about it … or us …

(THERE IS A TENSE PAUSE)

ANNIE (Cont.) Sit down, Mary

MRS KELLY

I’m at my wits end …

ANNIE I know, I know, Mary … though God alone knows what I can do about it … If he has gone with, Brendan … and it sounds like he has … I’ll have a word with him. But, Mary, if Bobby won’t listen to you what makes you think Brendan will listen to me … He’s very much his own man

MRS KELLY But he is a man … He knows what he’s doing … My Bobby is only a wee fella still …

ANNIE A man? … And do you think that makes any difference … Makes it any easier … He’s my son … man or no man

MRS. KELLY That’s your … (ABORTS)

ANNIE Problem? … There’s one thing I’ll say for you, Mary … You’ve a fine nerve … A bloody fine nerve … You’ve come here pleading for your son, God bless your wit … and you don’t give a tupenny damn for mine

MRS. KELLY If you have any problems you brought them on yourself … Like you brought them up … with fancy notions … giving them airs and graces, like yourself … too good for the rest of us … Never out of the bloody Library reading up on stuff that was none of their bloody business …

ANNIE I’m not prepared to discuss with you, or anybody else, how I brought my children up … One thing I will say … I brought them up to think … ‘think’ …

MRS. KELLY Aye, and look where it’s landed us …

ANNIE With all due respect, Mary. It wasn’t ‘thinking’ landed you anywhere … And as far as Brendan goes, it wasn’t that long ago that you wanted to stop me on the Street to tell me to tell me how you admired him … That was the day I cut you dead … more of my airs and graces … Or maybe waiting for word of him being shot didn’t put me in the humor for discussing what a great fella he was … I used to get a lot of that in the early days … It’s not the same when it’s your own flesh and blood, is it, Mary … When it’s not something you can hang on your wall … You came here on your knees asking me to do for you what I can’t even do for myself … You weren’t here five minutes ‘till you were up off your knees and onto a very high horse and telling me what I should have hanging on my walls …

MRS. KELLY (TRIES TO INTERRUPT) You …

ANNIE No, you … If you’d paid more attention to what was hanging on your own walls, you might not be in the predicament you are today … Now, I’ll ask you to do something … Keep your opinions of me and my family to yourself … And that includes how great … (AT THIS POINT WE HEAR THE FRONT DOOR OPENING AND SHUTTING) … our Brendan is the next time the British Army walk all over your face … Now … that’s Paddy home, and if you don’t mind, I’ll get him his supper … Unless you want a word with him too …

PADDY ENTERS. HE LOOKS SURPRISED TO SEE MRS. KELLY, WHO OTALLY IGNORS HIM.

MRS. KELLY You can tell him from me … Leave our Bobby alone, or … I swear to God … it won’t be the Brits that get him … it’ll be me … (SHE EXITS)

ANNIE (ADDRESSING PADDY) Well, don’t just stand there …, Sit down … I’ll get you your supper … It got a bit burnt

PADDY Not the only thing that got a bit of a roasting by the look of it … What was that missus Kelly was on about?

ANNIE Our Brendan

PADDY Our Brendan … I might have known … Do you know, whenever I go in for a pint these days, one half of the Pub is slapping me on the back and winking at me, while the other half is looking daggers at me … I’m telling you, there’s no joy in a pint anymore

ANNIE No kidding, Paddy

PADDY No … no kidding … I’m nearly a bloody teetotaler out of it …

ANNIE There’s be no harm in that …, If it was true …

PADDY Oh, wouldn’t there … Anyway, what did she want … it didn’t look like an autograph?

ANNIE It’s their Bobby … He’s joined up she reckons

PADDY Wee Bobby … getting himself into that mess … Jasus, what a pity … He’s great wee footballer … What does she want you to do about it?

ANNIE I don’t know … Talk to Brendan

PADDY God bless her wit … He’s writing leaflets and making speeches to get them in and she expects you to get him to start getting them out of it … You know what he’ll tell you, don’t you …,

ANNIE I’ve a good idea …

PADDY That that’s her job

ANNIE Aye

PADDY And she’s failed … Like I failed … like you failed … Are you going to talk to him?

ANNIE Aye, I may as well try … The poor being is half daft with the worry of it

PADDY Aye, alright, then … But do me a favor, will you … Do it sometime I’m not around … If I hear that speech again about what gobshites us ‘aul ones are I’ll break his fu… (ABORTS) his bloody neck

ANNIE Oh, for God’s sake, Paddy lets not have all that again … This is his home, no matter what. It’s bad enough when he’s away for days on end … I wish you’d try

and get on with him a bit more … He might listen to you if you did

PADDY Listen to me ..,. our Brendan … You must be joking … That fella thinks about as much of what I have to say as you do of the dishcloth … Besides, I did try and talk to him … And you weren’t much help

ANNIE Me?!

PADDY Aye, you … When he was getting into all that Civil Rights stuff after watching it on TV from, bloody, America, of all places and they started to march … Jasus, marching … Now-a-days it’s ‘drilling’

ANNIE Now, hold on a minute, Paddy, don’t go running away with yourself

PADDY You were the one who told him marches weren’t enough …

ANNIE Aye … that they had to build a decent Party … Stick with their education

and build a Party … That’s what I said

PADDY And haven’t they just … You and your Party … These fellas have built, bloody Governments … They even have their own armies in case you miss the point

ANNIE They’d pretty good teachers, Paddy

PADDY Don’t get me wrong, Annie. Stormont must have been one of the greatest heaps of manure ever created by so-called civilized man … but putting a bomb in the middle of it didn’t blow it away … It just covered the rest of us in the shit

ANNIE It wasn’t them that made it …

PADDY It was us, I suppose?

ANNIE Well, what we didn’t do, we let be done … So, what’s the, bloody, difference

PADDY And what was I doing in 1935 when we were being burnt out of our homes … giving them matches? … Or would our Brendan have preferred if I’d stayed and become another martyr for ‘aul Ireland … They haven’t even time for them anymore … Sure half the literature he carts around with him isn’t by Irishmen … Bloody Cubans and Black men from America … Do you know what he was telling me … just in case I forgot what an ignoramus I was … that your man, Connolly, was born in Scotrland … Bloody Glasgow

ANNIE Edinburgh

PADDY

There you are now … Trust you to know … Do you read that stuff of his?

ANNIE Aye, Paddy, I do … I have a son out day and night trying to kill people and standing more chance of getting himself killed … Don’t you think I’d like to know why

PADDY Well, you won’t find it in books, you can be damned sure of that … Hasn’t our Patrick enough books up them stairs to sink the Queen Mary … You don’t see him out shooting at anybody … Where is he, anyway?

ANNIE He went up when missus Kelly came in

PADDY Wise, bloody, man …

 

END OF SCENE