Breach of the peace by C R Dempsey

Author:C R Dempsey [C R Dempsey]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: C R Dempsey
Published: 2023-01-16T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 23

The second front

Seamus returned to the O'Donnell to give him news of the mission to Leinster and Wicklow and what he had done with O'Neill's men. He returned with mixed feelings, as if his friend's decline in ability and reliability was a reflection on himself. Seamus remembered back to the glory years of Fiach, to his victory at Glenmalure. He was untouchable then. Other lords had led their petty rebellions, which usually ended in dramatic failure, a result mainly of their incompetence and ineptitude and their inability to construct wide-ranging alliances in the disparate clans. But Fiach had remained in the forest, ever the rebel, as his power and prestige waned. It was mainly the O'Neill's ability to construct such alliances that encouraged Seamus to give rebellion one last chance, though the O'Donnell's impatience, jealousy and lack of strategic thinking threatened to undo it.

He arrived at the O'Donnell castle to find that the O'Donnell was not there. He was directed to Eoghan McToole O'Gallagher who was left in charge. Seamus had his horse quartered, and he and his men were fed before O'Gallagher was ready to see him. Seamus was directed up to a small room in the tower to wait. Time passed and the walls of the room crept in to suffocate him. Seamus grew impatient and went over to the window and looked out onto the lands. The sky was an empty blue and the sun a strained yellow dot doing her best to remind everyone it was the middle of summer, but being too stingy to exude enough heat to prove it beyond doubt. The town was busy with the summer fair and market, and the fish trade bustled. The farmlands in the region were showing definitive signs of recovery from the decades of war and famine, and the faint ray of hope was reflected in the sun. Seamus could not help but think that with the war coming, this would be the last time Tirconnell would see such peace and tranquillity in many a year.

O'Gallagher entered, his face etched with concern. His beard and long hair, for years singed with grey, had suffered a decisive defeat to stress and middle age and was beginning to jump ship in parts, having fully succumbed to grey in others. Seamus pointed to the window.

"The town looks well, far better than you do."

"This is what responsibility does for you, just so you know and will recognise it when you see it," said O'Gallagher.

"I've got plenty of responsibility and I'm sure you're going to burden me with some more before I leave?"

"Well, if you ever washed all the mud off you, you may discover the scars of responsibility on yourself."

Seamus smiled and went to the table to pour them a drink from the jug on the tray that the servant who followed O'Gallagher had brought.

"The men were safely dispatched in Wicklow and your young rebel set up to fight in the midlands as you ordered," he said, handing O'Gallagher a mug of ale.

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