grandmother in the bed heaving and gasping with the labor pains, pray-
ing to St. Gerard Majella, patron saint of expectant mothers. There is
Nurse OHalloran, the midwife, all dressed up in her finery. Its New
Years Eve and Mrs. OHalloran is anxious for this child to be born so
that she can rush off to the parties and celebrations. She tells my grand-
mother:Will you push, will you, push. Jesus, Mary and holy St. Joseph,
if you dont hurry with this child it wont be born till the New Year and
what good is that to me with me new dress? Never mind St. Gerard
Majella.What can a man do for a woman at a time like this even if he
is a saint? St. Gerard Majella my arse.
My grandmother switches her prayers to St.Ann,patron saint of dif-
ficult labor. But the child wont come. Nurse OHalloran tells my
grandmother, Pray to St. Jude, patron saint of desperate cases.
St. Jude, patron of desperate cases, help me. Im desperate. She
grunts and pushes and the infants head appears, only the head, my
mother, and its the stroke of midnight, the New Year. Limerick City
erupts with whistles, horns, sirens, brass bands, people calling and
singing, Happy New Year. Should auld acquaintance be forgot, and
church bells all over ring out the Angelus and Nurse OHalloran
weeps for the waste of a dress, that child still in there and me in me
finery.Will you come out, child, will you? Grandma gives a great push
and the child is in the world, a lovely girl with black curly hair and sad
blue eyes.
Ah,Lord above,says Nurse OHalloran,this child is a time straddler,
born with her head in the New Year and her arse in the Old or was it
her head in the Old Year and her arse in the New. Youll have to write
to the Pope, missus, to find out what year this child was born in and Ill
save this dress for next year.
And the child was named Angela for the Angelus which rang the
midnight hour, the New Year, the minute of her coming and because
she was a little angel anyway.
Love her as in childhood
Though feeble, old and grey.
For youll never miss a mothers love
Till shes buried beneath the clay.
At the St.Vincent de Paul School, Angela learned to read, write,
and calculate and by her ninth year her schooling was done. She tried
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