The Rebels of Ireland (125 page)

 

She had been waiting for this visit today with great eagerness. He was delighted to see her so happy.

The brief December afternoon was already drawing in as Sheridan Smith and Caitlin walked across the Liffey. She was still only eleven, but today she had put up her long dark hair, like an adult, and linked her arm in his. He felt so proud. And he smiled to him
self with amusement. Instead of foster-father and daughter, they were walking like a pair of lovers.

Her long legs had a wonderful, swinging motion. Part countess, three parts a mountain child: her mind also, he knew, moved with the same, grand freedom.

It was two years since her father had died. Both she and her mother had wished to remain in Ireland; so, while they kept the estate in the country, they had bought a house in Fitzwilliam Square. And as Sheridan was only ten years older than Caitlin's mother, it had happened quite naturally that he had taken on the role of unofficial foster-father. Although technically he was the child's great uncle, she simply called him Uncle Sherry.

The loss of her father had also had another effect upon the child. It had brought her into more contact with old Maureen.

Sheridan had to admire his old mother. She was fortunate, of course, that she had kept her strength and health to such a great age. Perhaps the hardships of her youth during the Famine had toughened her, or perhaps she had been unusually hardy before. Her sight was still good, her hearing almost as acute, and she insisted on walking upstairs. When the Count had died, it had been natural, he supposed, that the girl should have taken special pleasure in the company of the old woman who represented such long life and family continuity. A chance remark had brought the two of them even closer together.

“It's a pity,” the old lady had said one day, “that you don't speak the language of your ancestors—on your father's side as well as mine, of course. They tell me the speaking of Irish has become quite the fashion nowadays.”

Indeed the combined efforts of Yeats and his friends, the GAA, and the Gaelic League had been so successful that the University of Ireland was even making Irish a compulsory subject for matriculation.

“I think I should like to learn,” Caitlin had answered. “Will you
teach me?” Ever since, on three afternoons a week, the old lady and the child had sat together for an hour at tea time; and old Maureen had taught Caitlin to speak Gaelic. She was becoming quite proficient.

Their conversations had also made the girl more curious about history. Her great-grandmother would tell Caitlin all about her early life, the Famine, and her escape to Dublin. She spoke of her relations in America and of her bitter feelings towards England. “Your own O'Byrne ancestors were driven out of Ireland, Caitlin, remember,” she would point out. “The Wild Geese, they were. And look what they made of their lives. Titles and estates they fought for and earned, and good luck to them. The Maddens in America have prospered, too, thank God. It's only the English who have chosen to despise the Irish. Wherever else they have gone in the world, they have risen to the top.”

Recently, Sheridan had been rather pleased when Caitlin had asked him some intelligent questions about the political situation. Was there really hope, she wanted to know, that Ireland would gain its freedom, at last, from England?

“As a matter of fact,” he told her, “things have just taken an interesting turn.” And he explained why.

The turn of events had originated in a dispute that had nothing to do, directly, with Ireland. This year of 1909, a change of great significance had taken place in the London Parliament. Up to now, the House of Lords, traditionally filled with conservative-minded hereditary peers, had always been able to block legislation. Finding its budget blocked in this way, the present Liberal government, with the aid of Redmond's Irish MPs, had just forced through a constitutional change. From now on, the Lords would no longer be able to block legislation, but only delay it. As the price of their help, the Irish party had extracted a promise that a new Home Rule Bill would be prepared and introduced. “In the past,” Sheridan explained to Caitlin, “Home Rule Bills, giving Ireland her freedom, have been passed by the British House of Commons. The reason why Ireland isn't free already is that those Bills have always been
blocked in the Lords. But when the next Home Rule Bill passes the Commons, the Lords won't be able to stop it any more. Those who want Ireland to be separate will get what they want, without any bloodshed. It's only a question of time, now. Within the next few years, I'd say.”

“That is good, isn't it, Uncle Sherry?”

“What do you think?”

“I think it is good,” she said.

Today's visit was the result of a promise he'd made two weeks ago. He was taking her to a rehearsal at the Abbey Theatre.

It was new, this fascination of Caitlin's with the theatre. She and her mother had liked to go to the usual Dublin round of pantomime and music hall. This somewhat precocious interest in drama, however, could also be attributed to the influence of old Maureen.

The old lady's interest in the Abbey Theatre had come about quite unexpectedly.

It had been back in January 1907 that Yeats and Lady Gregory had staged the production of a play by J. M. Synge that had caused a great stir.
The Playboy of the Western World
, with its haunting language and anarchic themes was unlike anything the Dublin audience had ever witnessed before. And they didn't like it. “This is not Ireland,” they protested. “People do not speak like that,” they said of the language. As for the play's strange action: “It's the raving of a diseased imagination.” By the end of the performance there had almost been a riot. “I have heard such speech on the west coast,” the playwright answered, “and even amongst Dublin folk too.” So great was the public stir that Maureen had insisted Sheridan take her to see the play. “I come from the west,” she declared, “so I shall judge for myself.” There was so much noise from the audience, who by now had come to howl the play down, that it had not been easy to hear all of the play, but Maureen had announced that she liked it. More important, it seemed that she approved of the theatre's efforts to promote Irish drama, and to his surprise, in her ninetieth year,
she had suddenly started going to the theatre. She went almost every month. Earlier this year, she had decided that Caitlin should accompany her. Caitlin's mother had been afraid that the girl might be bored. But not a bit of it. Quite the reverse, in fact. She'd recently announced that she wanted to go on the stage herself. “My dear Sherry,” her mother had complained, “my daughter's completely stage-struck. What am I to do?”

“Nothing,” he told her with a smile. It was hardly so unusual for an eleven-year-old girl to be stage-struck. So when he had used his contacts at the Abbey to arrange for a private visit backstage during a rehearsal, Caitlin's excitement had been great indeed.

They had crossed the Liffey. Ahead stretched the broad expanse of Sackville Street. On the left, the square mass of the General Post Office with its big six-column portico, looked like a barracks; in front of it, in the centre of the thoroughfare, Nelson's high pillar gave the place an imperial air. Older than its tall sister in London's Trafalgar Square, the pillar to England's great naval commander had always rather pleased Sheridan. If you were going to have such an object in the middle of the street, it seemed to him, it should serve some useful purpose. You could mount the interior staircase in the pillar and emerge onto the platform near the top, from which there were splendid views of the city. They were just approaching the pillar when they saw Father Brendan MacGowan.

He greeted them warmly. Yes, they were well. Had they noticed the sharp wind from the east? They would feel it in their faces as they went into Abbey Street. He was going upon his rounds. He parted from them cheerfully and, with the wind behind him, went westwards, under full sail. They, meanwhile, turned into Abbey Street and approached the theatre.

“You've just missed Mr. Yeats,” the doorman told them. But Yeats could be seen almost any day in Dublin. You had only to go to St. Stephen's Green to catch sight of his tall figure, his lock of dark hair falling down his brow, as he drifted round the railings, in a state of abstraction, like an angel on a cloud.

Once inside, Sheridan's task was easy. Having delivered Caitlin into the hands of one of the company, he could walk about or sit in one of the empty seats while they showed her round backstage. The dressing rooms, the grease paint, the scenery with pulleys, the store where the props were kept—the everyday business of the theatre would seem like magic to her, no doubt. The stage manager appeared. There was a scene to rehearse. He could not see Caitlin, but knew that she would be standing there in the wings, watching every move, listening to every word. And for him, too, so long accustomed to such things, there was still the special feeling of a theatrical space, which, for those who love the theatre, partakes, even more than a religious space, of the eternal. He sat in the empty stalls and closed his eyes.

It was an hour and a half before she appeared. Her eyes were glowing. Sheridan smiled. Obviously the visit had been a success. A stage hand was accompanying her. He was smiling. “She enjoyed herself,” he told Sheridan. “We liked having her,” he added, in a way that suggested he felt Caitlin belonged there. Just then, from somewhere above, a door opened with a slight creak and then banged shut. The stage hand glanced up, then, with a parting smile to them both, went back behind the scenes. Sheridan and Caitlin started to move towards the exit. But they had just reached the hallway that led towards the stage door, when a commanding woman in a fur coat and a large, wide-brimmed felt hat swept down upon them.

“Stop,” she cried. “I wish to look at you.” She gave a nod. “Sheridan.”

“I thought,” he said, “that you were in Paris.”

“I am in Dublin for two days. Nobody knows I am here.” She gazed at Caitlin. “And who,” she demanded, “is this simply wonderful child?”

“Countess Caitlin Birne,” he said quietly. “This,” he said to the girl, “is Miss Gonne.” Then he drew back slightly, since he knew very well there was nothing to be done now, until the lady had finished.

“My dear child,” said the lady. “You have the most remarkable eyes. I take it you are going on the stage.”

How was it, Sheridan wondered, not for the first time, that Maud Gonne had achieved her curious position? Born in England, the daughter of an officer in the British army, she had reinvented herself entirely. Her father having left her with independent means, she lived in Paris, mostly. For years she'd been the mistress of a French journalist who'd given her two children. But none of that had stopped Yeats wanting to marry her or casting her in a play as an Irish heroine. Instead of Yeats, she'd since married an Irish patriot; but the marriage hadn't lasted long. She ran a French Irish newspaper, these days, and made occasional visits to Dublin. But whenever she arrived, it seemed to Sheridan, she came in like a cavalry charge.

The fact that Caitlin was a countess, he knew very well, would intrigue her at once. With her large, staring eyes and her powerful chin, Maud Gonne was the very picture of a wilful society lady. This seemed to be a type that attracted Yeats, he mused. Questioning Caitlin now, it did not take her long to find out all she wanted. And she was enchanted.

“This is wonderful,” she declared. “Quite wonderful. A true Irish noblewoman, returned to her country. And she speaks the language of her ancestors as well. My dear child, you must join us.
Inghinidhe na hEireann
was made for you. It is your home.”

Inghinidhe na hEireann:
the Daughters of Erin. It was Maud Gonne herself who had founded the movement when the nationalist groups wouldn't have her because she was a woman. It was dedicated to combatting the malign influence of England upon Irish culture, and it went a good deal further than that. Not only did the Daughters of Erin give Irish language classes to the children of the poor, but they told Irish girls not to go out with English soldiers, and distributed leaflets warning them of the dangers of having illegitimate babies. To join, you had to be of Irish birth. “It is curious,” Sheridan had once observed, “that Maud Gonne dedicates her life to combating so many things she represents herself.” Some of the
leading members had even taken new, Irish names by which they were known within the organisation. Maud Gonne herself was known as Maeve.

“Here.” She reached into the pocket of her fur coat and drew something out. It was a little circular brooch in the shape of an ancient Irish torc. “This is the badge the Daughters of Erin wear. It's yours. A present. You shall wear it when you are older.” She smiled, but her eyes were looking deep into Caitlin's. “You have not only a great role to play on the stage, my child. And with your hair and your eyes, you will create a sensation. But you have a great role ahead of you in the life of your country.” She paused, then gave her another tremendous stare. “Never forget that, Caitlin. It is what you were born to. It is your destiny.”

With that, she swept out, with Caitlin gazing, fascinated, after her. And Sheridan was left wondering whether, perhaps, this visit to the Abbey Theatre might have done more than he had intended.