VIII I’m ten years old and ready to go to St. Joseph’s Church for my Con- firmation. In school the master, Mr. O’Dea, prepares us. We have to know all about Sanctifying Grace, a pearl of great price, bought for us by Jesus in His dying. Mr. O’Dea’s eyes roll in his head when he tells us that with Confirmation we will become part of Divinity.We will have the Gifts of the Holy Ghost:Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Forti- tude, Knowledge, Piety, the Fear of the Lord. Priests and masters tell us Confirmation means you’re a true soldier of the Church and that enti- tles you to die and be a martyr in case we’re invaded by Protestants or Mahommedans or any other class of a heathen. More dying. I want to tell  them  I  won’t  be  able  to  die  for  the  Faith  because  I’m  already booked to die for Ireland. Mikey Molloy says, Is it jokin’ you are? That thing about dying for the Faith is all a cod. ’Tis only a saying they made up to frighten you. Ireland too. No one dies for anything anymore.All the dying is done. I wouldn’t die for Ireland or the Faith. I might die for my mother but that’s all. Mikey knows everything. He’s going on fourteen. He gets the fits. He has visions. The grown-ups tell us it’s a glorious thing to die for the Faith, only we’re  not  ready  for  that  yet  because  Confirmation  day  is  like  First 187