1949 Read Online Free PDF

difficulties caused by…well, we both love the same God and that’s good enough for us.
    â€œWhen the baby was born with dark hair and eyes I thought she looked rather Spanish. Henry wanted to name her for me but I hated the idea. I didn’t want to become ‘Big Ella,’ or worse yet, ‘Old Ella.’ So I suggested Isabella as a compromise. It’s a lovely Spanish name and ends in Ella. Of course Henry’s called her Bella ever since. You know how he is about nicknames.”
    â€œThere’s not a drop of Spanish blood in my daughter,” Henry asserted. “One of my ancestors was a Welshman, that’s where she got her coloring. Children carry the history of their forebears like chapters in a book, if one knew how to read them.”
    Ursula stiffened. “What are you trying to tell me, Uncle Henry? Is there something I should know?”
    Obfuscation and circumlocution were traits the Irish had developed to an art form over the centuries. Talking around something rather than addressing it directly was a survival mechanism, a way of avoiding confrontation. Ursula Halloran was the exception. She asked straight questions and wanted straight answers.
    Her bluntness caught Henry off-guard. He had not meant anything in particular by the remark. “I…mmm…was just making conversation, Little Business.”
    â€œBut you had some urgent reason for wanting me to come to Dublin. What was it?”
    Henry slumped in his seat. “I’m thoroughly browned off with this country, if you must know. Sick of living with a sword hanging over our heads. The Civil War hasn’t really ended. Former comrades-in-arms are shouting at one another in Dáil Éireann, * accusing old friends of being traitors and murderers. Government agents are scouring the countryside for illegal arms and decent men and women are being charged with treason. I can’t bear to see what’s happened to this country.”
    Ursula said hotly, “It’s the fault of this hateful Saorstát Éireann the Anglo-Irish Treaty lumbered us with. Irish Free State indeed! What’s free about it? We’re still within the Empire. We have a British governor-general who has to sign our legislation before it can become law, and the government is run for the benefit of big business and big farmers, just as it was under British rule.
    â€œRemember Pádraic Pearse’s vision of the Irish Republic, Uncle Henry? ‘A non-sectarian society where the poor and the old will be cherished and the hero and the poet alike will have honor.’ That’s what we fought for. If Pearse’s Republic were restored everything would be all right.”
    Henry was touched by the ardor of the young that admitted no obstacles. “Life isn’t that simple, Little Business.” From his waistcoat he took a silver pocket watch. “This stopped the other day. You might say, wind the watch and everything will be all right.” He wound the stem. Nothing happened.
    With his thumbnail Henry opened the back of the watch and held it out to show Ursula. “See those tiny cogs and gears? They’re totally interdependent. One bent wheel and the entire mechanism can break down. Irish society is like these watchworks, which is why the simplistic approach has never worked here and never will. If we had the Republic tomorrow we would just have a new set of problems.”
    â€œOur politicians could sort things out if they didn’t have any British interference,” Ursula declared.
    â€œPoliticians.” Henry gave a snort. “Like most revolutions, ours devoured its most imaginative leaders. What’s left to run the country is a different breed. Cautious to a fault, most of ’em. They’ve retained the British administrative machinery because that’s all they know, so we’re lumbered with the same old colonial policies we fought so hard to be rid of. The only real