Excerpt
…to govern themselves in their own way. Britain is attempting to guarantee those freedoms to each of the small nations of Ireland. The only people who are attempting to deny freedom to Irishmen and to put down their national aspirations are the IRA.”
“Don’t talk nonsense, Clifford.” Flynn was seething with anger inside. “The IRA are fighting for the unity and wholeness of Ireland. They are struggling to preserve the freedom of all of Ireland from the yoke of the British government.”
“Then let the Irish people themselves decide. The northerners have already made it clear by signing the Covenant in their thousands that they don’t want you making decisions for them. And they have right on their side. They are a determined people, Flynn. Your romantic vision of one Ireland under a Catholic Church and a Celtic mythology is not for them. Northern Ireland has become a modern, industrial nation. Let the people of the North go their own way in peace. Trying to drag them off into your peasant backwater by force of arms will only end in bloody war. And when all the fighting and murdering and destroying are over, and you are lying face down in some dirty ditch with the back of your head blown away, what then? You still won’t have a united Ireland. You’ll never unite Ireland by war. That’s certain. So why not work together to unite it by peace?”
“You don’t buy peace with the mutilated body of Ireland.”
Clifford shook his head in hopeless resignation. “Very well. But don’t say you weren’t warned.”
At that moment Nora approached from the sitting room, laughing happily.
She really is a radiant young wife and mother, Clifford thought. God help her.
Nora took Flynn by the hand. “One more dance and then we have to go. “We can’t leave Dermot with young Angela all day. It’s nearly dark already, and she’ll be wanting her tea.”
“All right then,” Flynn said. “One more dance.” As Nora led him away, Flynn looked back at Clifford and grinned. “What will you be doing when the fighting’s over, Clifford?” he asked.
҂
Mother Ross waited in the hall while Liam Devlin cranked his motor-car outside. Caitlin and Michael emerged hand in hand from the crowd in the sitting room, breathless but smiling after a fast four-hand reel.
Libros Libertad 