sins.Willie Harold is whispering about his big sin, that he looked at his
sisters naked body. Paddy Hartigan says he stole ten shillings from his
aunts purse and made himself sick with ice cream and chips. Question
Quigley says he ran away from home and spent half the night in a ditch
with four goats. I try to tell them about Cuchulain and Emer but the
master catches me talking and gives me a thump on the head.
We kneel in the pews by the confession box and I wonder if my
Emer sin is as bad as looking at your sisters naked body because I know
now that some things in the world are worse than others.Thats why
they have different sins, the sacrilege, the mortal sin, the venial sin.Then
the masters and grown-up people in general talk about the unforgiv-
able sin, which is a great mystery. No one knows what it is and you
wonder how you can know if youve committed it if you dont know
what it is. If I tell a priest about Great Bladdered Emer and the pissing
contest he might say thats the unforgivable sin and kick me out of the
confession box and Ill be disgraced all over Limerick and doomed to
hell tormented forever by devils who have nothing else to do but stab
me with hot pitchforks till Im worn out.
I try to listen to Willies confession when he goes in but all I can
hear is a hissing from the priest and when Willie comes out hes crying.
Its my turn. The confession box is dark and theres a big crucifix
hanging over my head. I can hear a boy mumbling his confession on the
other side. I wonder if theres any use trying to talk to the Angel on the
Seventh Step. I know hes not supposed to be hanging around confession
boxes but I feel the light in my head and the voice is telling me, Fear not.
The panel slides back before my face and the priest says,Yes, my
child?
Bless me, Father, for I have sinned.This is my First Confession.
Yes, my child, and what sins have you committed?
I told a lie. I hit my brother. I took a penny from my mothers purse.
I said a curse.
Yes, my child.Anything else?
I, I listened to a story about Cuchulain and Emer.
Surely thats not a sin, my child. After all we are assured by certain
writers that Cuchulain turned Catholic in his last moments as did his
King, Conor MacNessa.
Tis about Emer, Father, and how she married him.
How was that, my child?
She won him in a pissing contest.
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