Mam takes Malachy and me to the St.Vincent de Paul Society to stand in the queue and see if there’s any chance of getting something for the Christmas  dinner—a  goose  or  a  ham, but  the  man  says  everyone  in Limerick is desperate this Christmas.He gives her a docket for groceries at McGrath’s shop and another one for the butcher. No  goose,  says  the  butcher,  no  ham.  No  fancy  items  when  you bring the docket from the St.Vincent de Paul.What you can have now, missus, is black pudding and tripe or a sheep’s head or a nice pig’s head. No harm in a pig’s head, missus, plenty of meat and children love it, slice that cheek, slather it with mustard and you’re in heaven, though I suppose they wouldn’t have the likes of that in America where they’re mad for the steak and all classes of poultry, flying, walking or swim- ming itself. He tells Mam, no, she can’t have boiled bacon or sausages and if she has any sense she’ll take the pig’s head before they’re all gone the way the poor people of Limerick are clamoring for them. Mam says the pig’s head isn’t right for Christmas and he says ’tis more than the Holy Family had in that cold stable in Bethlehem long ago.You wouldn’t find them complaining if someone offered them a nice fat pig’s head. No, they wouldn’t complain, says Mam, but they’d never eat the pig’s head.They were Jewish. And what does that have to do with it? A pig’s head is a pig’s head. And a Jew is a Jew and ’tis against their religion and I don’t blame them. The butcher says, Are you a bit of an expert,missus,on the Jews and the pig. I am not, says Mam, but there was a Jewish woman, Mrs. Leibowitz, in New York, and I don’t know what we would have done without her. The butcher takes the pig’s head off a shelf and when Malachy says, Ooh, look at the dead dog, the butcher and Mam burst out laughing. He wraps the head in newspaper, hands it to Mam and says, Happy Christmas. Then he wraps up some sausages and tells her, Take these sausages for your breakfast on Christmas Day. Mam says, Oh, I can’t afford sausages, and he says, Am I asking you for money? Am I? Take these sausages. They might help make up for the lack of a goose or a ham. Sure, you don’t have to do that, says Mam. 97