V
Grandma wont talk to Mam anymore because of what I did with
God in her backyard. Mam doesnt talk to her sister,Aunt Aggie, or her
brother Uncle Tom. Dad doesnt talk to anyone in Mams family and
they dont talk to him because hes from the North and he has the odd
manner. No one talks to Uncle Toms wife, Jane, because shes from
Galway and she has the look of a Spaniard. Everyone talks to Mams
brother Uncle Pat,because he was dropped on his head,hes simple,and
he sells newspapers. Everyone calls him The Abbot or Ab Sheehan and
no one knows why. Everyone talks to Uncle Pa Keating because he was
gassed in the war and married Aunt Aggie and if they didnt talk to him
he wouldnt give a fiddlers fart anyway and thats why the men in
Souths pub call him a gas man.
Thats the way Id like to be in the world, a gas man, not giving
a fiddlers fart, and thats what I tell the Angel on the Seventh Step
till I remember youre not supposed to say fart in the presence of an
angel.
Uncle Tom and Galway Jane have children but were not supposed
to talk to them because our parents are not talking.They have a son and
daughter, Gerry and Peggy, and Mam will yell at us for talking to them
but we dont know how not to talk to our cousins.
People in families in the lanes of Limerick have their ways of not
132