Three Plays | Page 8

dance with seven or eight and forget
what's on my mind.... Everyone is going to Moynihan's except the men
here. Are you going out, father?
CONN I'm making a ceilidh with Brian.
MAIRE Well, God be with you both. Come on, Anne.
_Maire takes down her shawl, and puts it over her head. She stands at
the door, watching Anne, who goes to Brian._
ANNE Brian, what have you against Moynihan's?
BRIAN Nothing at all. I may go in. MAIRE Come on, Anne. God be
with you both.
_Maire and Anne go out. They are heard talking for a while. Conn goes
to the door_.
CONN Maire and Anne are turning the bohereen. [5] Come on now.

He takes his fiddle and begins to wrap it up eagerly.
BRIAN Ay, let's go.
CONN (at door) I never forget, I never forget. The Granard Feis is as
fresh in my mind as the day I played at it. Shawn Heffernan, indeed! I
never forget. I never forget.
Conn Hourican and Brian MacConnell go out.
[Footnote 5: Bohereen--the little path going from the cottage to the
main road.]
CURTAIN

ACT II
_The next day: The scene is as in previous Act. It is now in the
forenoon. Maire Hourican is seated at the fire in a listless attitude.
Anne is busy at the dresser. Maire rises_.
MAIRE We shouldn't have stayed at Moynihan's so late.
ANNE Indeed it would have been better to go home, but I was sure that
Brian MacConnell would come in.
MAIRE Well, it was his own loss if he didn't come. Maybe there was
one there that I liked better.
ANNE You couldn't have liked Connor Gilpatrick better than Brian
MacConnell.
MAIRE Connor's the best-looking boy in the country. Was it noticed
that we were together often?
ANNE (significantly) Peggy Carroll noticed it.
MAIRE Well, the boy was glad to talk to me. Connor's a good dancer,

and he has fine talk besides. If Brian MacConnell had come to the door,
I wouldn't have turned my head towards him.
ANNE Sure, you wouldn't compare a young boy like Connor Gilpatrick
with Brian MacConnell?
MAIRE I wouldn't have turned my head towards Brian. O! never
expect kindness from men. Why did you let me stay on? I'm afraid to
look at myself in the glass to-day. (She goes over to the mirror) You
were hard on me, Anne, yesterday.
ANNE I didn't like the way you talked to father.
MAIRE I think I'm getting different to what I used to be. Well, I've
reason to be sorry for what I did yesterday. (She is at window) Was
Peggy Carroll vexed at the way I went on?
ANNE She never took her eyes off the pair of you. You know she's
very fond of Connor.
MAIRE Anne, never remind me of my foolishness, I'm heartsick of
myself to-day.
ANNE I'll comb out your hair for you, and you'll look well enough.
MAIRE Then you're expecting Brian MacConnell?
ANNE It's likely he'll come in to see if there's anything to be done.
MAIRE I suppose he'll come in. Gracious, how did father get out? He's
coming up the path.
ANNE (coming to Maire) Father's not up, surely? Maire, be easy with
Brian MacConnell when he comes in.
MAIRE Father's coming up the path. Anne!
ANNE What is it, Maire?

MAIRE Father wasn't in at all, last night.
ANNE Then he went to Flynn's, after all.
MAIRE Ay, he went to Flynn's.
She goes to Anne.
ANNE O Maire, what will become of us all?
MAIRE I don't know.
Maire goes to the settle, and sits down.
ANNE What will we do with him at all?
Conn Hourican comes in.
CONN God save you! (He looks around) Well, I came back to ye.
ANNE You did, God help us! And we depending on you. It's the bad
way you always treated us.
CONN Did you hear what happened to me, before you attack me?
ANNE What happened to you? What always happens to you?
CONN I wonder that a man comes in at all! The complaints against
him are like the Queen's Speech, prepared beforehand.
ANNE Ever since I can remember, you treated us like that. Bringing us
into drinking-places and we little. It's well we got to know anything, or
got into the way of being mannerly at all.
CONN You know too much. I always said that. Is James Moynihan
coming here to-day?
ANNE No, he isn't coming here to-day.

CONN Well, we can do without him. There's something to be done
to-day. I said I'd do the bit of mowing, and I was thinking of that all
along. (He looks at Maire) Did you hear what happened to me, Maire?
MAIRE It's no matter at all.
CONN I went over to