Spies by Brian Gallagher

Author:Brian Gallagher [Brian Gallagher]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781788490733
Publisher: The O'Brien Press
Published: 2018-11-05T16:00:00+00:00

Johnny lowered the letter and sat unmoving on the bed. His emotions were in turmoil, having gone from fear of rejection to joy at his mother’s desire to see him. He looked again at the phrase your loving mother and tears formed in his eyes. Then he turned back to the first page and, savouring every word, began to read the letter again.

Chapter Fifteen

‘So what’s going on with Johnny Dunne?’

‘How do you mean?’ answered Stella, knowing she had to be very cautious in responding. She was standing on the pavement with Alice and some of the other Chess Club members, warmly wrapped against the evening chill, and waiting for the club to open. The questioner was Esther Moore, the girl who had spotted Johnny cycling over O’Connell Bridge.

‘I heard he was back in Balbriggan,’ said Esther. ‘That he was at your granddad’s Mass last Sunday.’

‘Yes, he travelled up, but couldn’t stay long,’ replied Stella.

‘Why not?’

‘He had to get back to Dublin.’

‘So was I right about him working as a telegraph boy?’

‘Eh…yes, that’s what he’s working at.’

‘Even though he was supposed to be moving to Tipperary.’

‘That was just temporary, Esther,’ explained Alice, ‘while he was waiting for the telegraph job to come through.’

‘Right.’

Stella was relieved that her friend had come up with an explanation that Esther seemed to believe. Before she could relax, however, she saw Padraig Egan was looking at her appraisingly.

‘So, Stella, what do you think of the death sentence on Kevin Barry?’ he asked.

Although the boy’s tone was conversational, Stella knew that the question was hostile, and she hesitated. Kevin Barry was an eighteen-year-old rebel who had been captured after the killing of three British soldiers in Dublin the previous month. Stella had been upset by their deaths – partly because the death of any young man was sad, but also because it brought home to her that her father, as a British officer, could also be a target.

Kevin Barry had been sentenced to be hanged, and if the killing went ahead it would be the first execution of a rebel prisoner since the 1916 Rising. To make matters worse, Terence MacSwiney’s hunger strike had ended with his death three days previously, and public feeling was running high.

She could see that the other club members were awaiting her answer to Padraig’s question, and this time Alice couldn’t rescue her. So far, most people that Stella encountered didn’t hold it against her that her father was a British officer. But that could easily change, and now she chose her words carefully.

‘I hope the death sentence isn’t carried out,’ she said.

‘So you’re for the rebels now, are you?’ said Padraig.

‘No. But I’m against the idea of hanging prisoners.’

‘I hope so. Hanging a lad who’s only eighteen – it’s barbaric!’

Stella sensed that this was something that Padraig had heard others saying. She was actually more sympathetic to the rebels than she admitted to Padraig, but she wouldn’t be publicly disloyal to her father. She hesitated, knowing that it might be wise not to argue further.

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