The Field (8 page)

Bird:
You're after going too far. I don't like the look of him.

Bull:
Get back to the pub!

[The Bull pushes them off an turns to look down at William]

Bull:
Why couldn't you stay away, you foolish boy? Look at the trouble you drew on yourself, you headstrong foolish boy, with your wife and family depending on you … Jesus Christ –

[He kneels and examines William. He is suddenly aware that William is dead. He looks desperately around, then rises and remains looking down at William. He then suddenly kneels and takes William's head in his lap and whispers an act of contrition. Looks around him and disappears into the night]

[Leamy and Maimie preparing to leave for Mass]

Maimie:
Put their scarves and hats on, Aoife.

Aoife:
[Offstage]
Give me your hand. Off you go, wait for me at the corner.

Leamy:
Has the bishop spoken here before?

Maimie:
I can't remember. Your father would know.

Leamy:
Muddy …?

Maimie:
Yes, love?

Leamy:
Muddy, why are the Bull McCabe and Tadhg and my father and the Sergeant such bullies?

Maimie:
The McCabes are bullies. Your father isn't a real bully and the Sergeant isn't a real bully.

Leamy:
Oh, but they are!

Maimie:
Aoife, take the girls to Mass.

Leamy:
Do you remember the day of the big hurling match, when the Blezzop brothers nearly beat the man to death …

Maimie:
Yes.

Leamy:
Well, afterwards they came into the pub and my father served them with drinks. He started praising them and telling them they were great men and then the small man, Mr Broderick, said to the older brother, ‘Out of my way, I wouldn't drink in the same house with the likes of you', and then the Blezzop brothers attacked him and were beating him up. I wanted to run out from behind the counter and help Mr Broderick, but what could I do? So I ran up to the barracks and told the guard on duty. It was two hours later the Sergeant came down.

Maimie:
Leamy!

Leamy:
He asked my father if everything was all right and my father said it was. I was so ashamed. Later on, the guard who was on duty came in and himself and my father were saying that Mr Broderick was an awkward man and that he'd look out for him in the future …

Maimie:
It's time to go to Mass, love!

Leamy:
I was thinking of goin' to the barracks again and telling the Sergeant about the Bull.

Maimie:
No … not this time! There are hundred of guards, and detectives and the pressure is on for the first time and it's on from the outside. The Bull McCabe won't suffer, Leamy. A few years in jail or a dismissal, but it's you, Leamy … it's you who will suffer because, don't you see, it's you who will have done all the work and you'll be a freak for ever more, different from the rest of us.

Leamy:
But I want to be different from them, Muddy!

Maimie:
Do you love me, Leamy?

Leamy:
Yes.

Maimie:
Then say no more about this. If you love me and trust me, you will say no more … never again until my family is reared and able to look out for themselves.

Leamy:
Are you afraid, Mud?

Maimie:
I was never afraid once. I feared nothing that walked the face of the earth until my first child was born. A child makes a prisoner of a woman, but Leamy, you're a lovely gaoler … come on to Mass …

[They start to cross to exit]

Maimie:
God, we're a pity, Leamy … the whole bunch of us.

Leamy:
Except for the small man, that Mr Broderick, and he's gone to England. He was no pity. He was a brave man.

Maimie:
Promise me, on your word of honour, no more talk about the killing. No matter who asks you.

Leamy:
Yes, Muddy. I promise. I'll always do whatever you tell me.

Maimie:
[Heartbroken]
And what can I tell you, love?

[Leamy exits. Maimie follows into church. They take their place among the parishioners and we cut to the bishop's sermon]

Bishop:
‘Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather be afraid of him who is able to destroy both body and soul in Hell.'

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, Amen.

Dearly beloved brethren, these are the words of Christ Himself. He was speaking about truth. How many of you would deny Christ? How many of you, like Peter, would stand up and say: ‘I know not the Man!' but you can lie without saying a word; you can lie without opening your lips; you can lie by silence.

Five weeks ago in this parish, a man was murdered – he was brutally beaten to death. For five weeks the police have investigated and not one single person has come forward to assist them. Everywhere they turned, they were met by silence, a silence of the most frightful and diabolical kind – the silence of the lie. In God's name, I beg you, I implore you, if any of you knows anything, to come forward and to speak without fear.

This is a parish in which you understand hunger. But there are many hungers. There is a hunger for good – a natural hunger. There is the hunger of the flesh – a natural understandable hunger. There is a hunger for home, for love, for children. These things are good – they are good because they are necessary. But there is also the hunger for land. And in this parish, you, and your fathers before you knew what it was to starve because you did not own your own land – and that has increased; this unappeasable hunger for land. But how far are you prepared to go to satisfy this hunger. Are you prepared to go to the point of robbery? Are you prepared to go to the point of murder? Are you prepared to kill for land? Was this man killed for land? Did he give his life's blood for a field? If so, that field will be a field of blood and it will be paid for in thirty pieces of silver – the price of Christ's betrayal – and you, by your silence will share in that betrayal.

Among you there is a murderer! You may even know his name, you may even have seen him commit this terrible crime – through your silence, you share his guilt, your innocent children will grow up under the shadow of this terrible crime, and you will carry this guilt with you until you face your Maker at the moment of judgement …

If you are afraid to go to the police, then come to your priests, or come to me. And if there is one man among you – one man made after Christ's likeness – he will stand up and say: ‘There! There he is! There is the murderer!' And that man will have acknowledged Christ before men and Christ will acknowledge him before His Father in Heaven. But if you, by your silence, deny Christ before men, He will disown you in Heaven, and I, as His representative, will have a solemn duty to perform. I will place this parish under interdict and then there will be a silence more terrible than the first. The church bell will be silent: the Mass bell will not be heard; the voice of the confessional will be stilled and in your last moment will be the most dreadful silence of all for you will go to face your Maker without the last sacrament on your lips … and all because of your silence now. In God's name, I beg of you to speak before it is too late. ‘I am the way, says Christ, and the truth. Do not be afraid of those who can kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather, be afraid of him who can destroy both body and soul in hell.'

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, Amen.

[Action takes place in the bar of Mick Flanagan's public house.

The time is evening, five days later.

Present are Mick Flanagan, the Bull McCabe, his son, Tadhg, the Bird O'Donnell, Maggie Butler and Dandy McCabe.

Mick Flanagan stands behind the counter.

The Bull McCabe is in process of counting money which is being accepted by Mick]

Bull:
[Counting at table]
£310 … £320 … £330 … £340 … £350
[To Maggie]
Now, no one can say you didn't get a fair price.
[To Mick]
I'll have a receipt for that.

Mick:
I have it here for you.

[Mick locates a receipt book and commences to write. The Bull accepts. Mick takes the money and goes to Maggie. He puts money in Maggie's lap, while all stand around]

Mick:
Here's your money. 'Tis all there, every penny of £350. It's a fine bundle of notes.

Bull:
Honest got and honest given … and now, Mick Flanagan, fill a drink for the house.

[Mick goes behind bar]

Bird:
A drop of whiskey for me.

Dandy:
A jigger o' rum.

Bull:
Give 'em whatever they want. 'Tisn't everyday that this class o' money makes an appearance.

Bird:
'Tis a high pile o' money. You're blessed with luck in the decent man you met, Mrs Butler.

Maggie:
I have the money taken now and there's no more to be said.

Tadhg:
'Tis a fair exchange, considering.

Maggie:
So you say, but there's many that think that £800 would have been fairer.

Bull:
All gossip … nothing but jealous gossip by nosey neighbours who couldn't pay for the site of a sit-down lavatory, not to mind a field. They're great warrants to talk but when it comes to forkin' out the cash, where are they? I am the man with the money – hard-earned and got fair – and I'm not ashamed to say, 'twas the last penny I possessed.

Tadhg:
'Twas every half-penny we owned and we had to flog five heifers to put it together.

Bull:
God, I was lonesome after that little yellow heifer.

Tadhg:
She was a beauty.

Bull:
She was a little queen, boy! The step of this one was like a dropping leaf, Dandy.

Tadhg:
The other four were real ladies too. They were shapely cattle, by God they were. They sold well, Da. You'll have to admit that.

Bull:
And we had to borrow from the bank. We're paupers but isn't it better to be a pauper and have a clean conscience about your debts?

Bird:
Oh, by God, that's well spoken.

Dandy:
Nicely thrown together. Nicely.

Bull:
Isn't it better to have our principles than be millionaires. Isn't it, Tadhg?

Tadhg:
You're a straight man, Da.

Dandy:
None straighter.

Bull:
If a man isn't straight, he might as well be dead.

Bird:
I admire a straight man.

[Mick serves them with drinks]

Bull:
I grudge no man his property, but a lot of the hangin' thieves begrudge me.

Tadhg:
'Tis all jealousy.

Bull:
[Paying for drinks]
Jealousy and spite … here's the good health to all of us …

All:
Good luck.

Bull:
We have as fine a farm now as the best and maybe more to come and a woman with it, eh Tadhg?

Tadhg:
'Twon't be my fault!

Bull:
In the course of time, as the man said: in the course of time.

Bird:
And a fine heifer she is, too!

Bull:
Good legs and a great bussom, God bless the girl!

Bird:
Oh, God bless her again.

Dandy:
[Finishing his drink]
Long life to her!

Bull:
She's a good milker.

Dandy: For a fact!

Tadhg:
A mighty milker!

Bull:
With nine acres!

Dandy:
Nine!

Bird:
Knows her banbh and her pig. Strong, too, and not bad-lookin' when you get used to her.

Bull:
She's all that, God bless her.

Mick:
Father Murphy …!

[Enter Sergeant Leahy followed by the priest, Father Murphy]

Bull:
[Seemingly unaware of the new arrivals … to Maggie]
Mrs Butler, from this out, we'll give you a lift to Mass every Sunday. 'Tis too long a walk for an old woman.

Bird:
[Tips Bull's chest]
There's a big heart in there: an outsize heart that's too big for this world but God don't miss nothin' an' 'tis wrote down in Heaven in red letters like blood.

Dandy:
Well spoke, Bird! Well spoke! Is the names of his friends there?

Bird:
[Sanctimonious, mocking]
Wrote down there, my child, is the names of all the faithful.

Bull:
That's a kindly thing to say, Bird. Ah, Father Murphy, if 'tisn't against rules of the Church, could I get a little drop of something for you, Father? Or are the clergy not allowed to take sup in the pubs?

Fr Murphy:
No, thank you, Mr McCabe, but I will take a bottle of orange if the Sergeant here joins me.

[Bird nudges Tadhg]

Sergeant:
I'll have an orange.

Bull:
And welcome you are to whatever you like.

[Maimie enters]

Maimie:
Good morning, Father.

Fr Murphy:
Good morning, Mrs Flanagan.