Mam shakes her head, no.
Ah,now,missus,surely you should have a nice egg in your condition.
But Mam shakes her head and I wonder how she can say no to a
soft-boiled egg when theres nothing in the world like it.
All right, maam, says the sergeants wife, a bit of toast, then, and
something for the children and your poor husband.
She goes back to another room and soon theres tea and bread. Dad
drinks his tea but gives us his bread and Mam says,Will you eat your
bread, for Gods sake.You wont be much use to us falling down with
the hunger. He shakes his head and asks the sergeants wife is there any
chance of a cigarette. She brings him the cigarette and tells Mam the
guards in the barracks have taken up a collection to pay our train fares
to Limerick.There will be a motor car to pick up our trunk and leave
us at Kingsbridge Railway Station and,Youll be in Limerick in three
or four hours.
Mam puts up her arms and hugs the sergeants wife. God bless you
and your husband and all the guards, Mam says. I dont know what wed
do without you.God knows tis a lovely thing to be back among our own.
Tis the least we could do, says the sergeants wife.These are lovely
children you have and Im from Cork meself and I know what tis to be
in Dublin without two pennies to rub together.
Dad sits at the other end of the bench, smoking his cigarette, drink-
ing his tea. He stays that way till the motor car comes to take us through
the streets of Dublin. Dad asks the driver if hed mind going by way of
the G.P.O. and the driver says, Is it a stamp you want or what? No, says
Dad. I hear they put up a new statue of Cuchulain to honor the men
who died in 1916 and Id like to show it to my son here who has a great
admiration for Cuchulain.
The driver says he has no notion of who this Cuchulain was but he
wouldnt mind stopping one bit. He might come in himself and see
what the commotion is all about for he hasnt been in the G.P.O. since
he was a boy and the English nearly wrecked it with their big guns fir-
ing up from the Liffey River. He says youll see the bullet holes all over
the front and they should be left there to remind the Irish of English
perfidy. I ask the man whats perfidy and he says ask your father and I
would but were stopping outside a big building with columns and thats
the G.P.O.
Mam stays in the motor car while we follow the driver into the
G.P.O.There he is, he says, theres your man Cuchulain.
55