Fire Below

by Owen McCafferty

  Rosemary sin an déil

  Tom aontaím

  Rosemary good boy

  Gerry good boy

  Rosemary the narrative that we come from …

  Tom middle class

  Rosemary for want of a better phrase – yes

  Maggie why for want of a better phrase

  Rosemary i don’t know – you’re right – middle class

  Maggie that’s the problem – it’s as if who we are has become a thing of shame – here we are sitting on a deck drinking wine together – the protestant and catholic middle classes – that’s a brilliant thing – something to be proud of – not down at that bonfire but up here being civilised

  Gerry civilised

  Tom once that wine’s finished and we drink more – civilised – don’t think that’s the word

  Maggie that’s true – rosemary and i are civilised – yous two are just – not sure what the term is

  Rosemary they already know – drunken shitheads

  Maggie drunken shitheads

  Gerry i hate the way yous do that – as if it’s a male thing

  Rosemary we’ve already explained – it is a male thing

  Gerry so you – really – don’t drink as much as me

  Rosemary no

  Gerry you sure about that

  Rosemary i handle it better than you do

  Tom you two are just as bad

  Gerry handle it better

  Rosemary yes handle it better – don’t make an eejit out of myself

  Gerry what is this – it’s us you’re talking to here – so you don’t drink two bottles of wine get up on the deck and dance – to no music – like a complete balloon

  Rosemary i didn’t earlier

  Gerry hadn’t reached the two-bottle mark then

  Rosemary i carry the music in my head by the way

  Maggie yes you do

  Rosemary the wine is because we’re repressed – depressed – compressed – isn’t that right maggie

  Maggie yes all of that – you couldn’t drink enough wine to kill the shit that we women have to carry around with us

  Tom you carry nothing around

  Maggie carry it around – oh yes – big backpack full of shit

  Tom give over

  Rosemary i refuse to admit i dance like a balloon

  Maggie you do dance like a bit of a mad woman

  Rosemary jumped ship there very quick

  Maggie say what you see – roy walker – catchphrase

  Tom close but it’s not the one

  Gerry roy walker – the man’s a star – you know that nonsense they had up in derry – city of culture guff – we’re the city of culture

  Tom city of culture – jesus – londonderry

  Gerry they had this big comedy night in derry – roy walker was the main act – i was told he stole the show – in derry – so this is the joke he opened with – very droll – i used to go out with a girl from derry – lovely girl – she worked in the shirt factory – it was my birthday and for my present she got me a new shirt – after i tried it on i said to her – is there any chance this shirt is a second – she said yes how did you know – i said because one of the arms is longer than the other two – the place erupted – the man’s a genius

  Rosemary never mind him – i don’t dance like a balloon

  Tom you dancing lámha agus cosa

  Rosemary no no no

  Gerry don’t say anything – don’t say anything – this is how you know it’s true – i bet you he said something like – arms and legs everywhere

  Rosemary he didn’t smart arse – he said you dance with grace and elegance

  Gerry if grace and elegance is all arms and legs then yes i agree – tom

  Tom all arms and legs

  Gerry maggie show her – you do her the best

  Rosemary do her the best

  Maggie we had a competition – the surrounding community was invited – i was voted the one that did you the best

  Rosemary what a bitch

  Maggie i’m doing this for your own good – the cure sometimes needs to be painful

  Maggie stands and does a dance that is all arms and legs. She sits to applause.

  Gerry encore encore

  Tom bravo bravo

  Rosemary all so damn smart – that’s nothing like it – not even close – what i do is interpret the music – i let the music take over my body and soul – i become the music – i am the music

  Gerry you are the music

  Rosemary fuck you – watch and learn

  Rosemary moves to the middle of the deck. She dances in much the same way Maggie did but just slightly ‘better’. Tom joins her. He hums and sings a few words of ‘The Sash’. Maggie joins them. They dance until the moment after it has stopped being fun and is just slightly embarrassing. They sit down.

  Rosemary can’t dance my arse

  Gerry a star is born

  Rosemary better than those eejits round that fire

  Tom that’s what i love about this – the ability just to get on with it – not ignore things but just get on with it – what were we talking about earlier on

  Maggie roy walker

  Gerry the man’s a genius – say what you see

  Tom close but it’s not the one

  Gerry say what you see – i might make that our family motto

  Tom or we could name our house that

  Maggie it’s too long

  Tom say what you see

  Maggie he’s not that funny

  Tom no idea – you’ve no idea – narrative and the middle class being forgotten in all this – and then we just slip into some other stuff – it doesn’t linger – it’s just there to be talked about – i love that – that’s who we are – that’s what the middle class is

  Maggie my mum was a doctor in a and e – not many women – not many catholics – but that could’ve been sorted out – civil rights could’ve done that – didn’t need the ira for that to happen

  Tom no

  Gerry from roy walker to the civil rights – the middle class way

  Rosemary i agree

  Tom certainly – no need for all those killings

  Maggie murders

  Tom murders

  Gerry murders – killings – all still dead

  Tom that’s true

  Maggie can you imagine what she saw – shootings – bombs – all those people in bits – day after day people being brought in in bits – you can’t just keep looking at that and it not mean something – she was driving home after her shift this day – late in the afternoon – whenever she tells this she always says how beautiful a day it was – during the summer of nineteen seventy-four – driving home tired after a hard shift – she heard an explosion and saw that it was up ahead of her – she pulled the car over and run up to see if she could help out – a bomb had gone off in a bar – she said it was carnage – everything inside outside and bits of people everywhere – she found out later that six men had been blown up in that bar while they were watching a world cup football match on the tv – she always remembered that one incident – not because it was any different from any other explosion – but because there was nothing she could do – all those six men were already dead – blown to pieces – she was just standing there looking – she said it made her feel hopeless – to be honest i don’t think it was something that ever really left her – and now because she lives in a nice house and has enough money to do her so she doesn’t want for anything she’s forgotten about

  Tom when i was at university studying law i used to always think this but never had the courage to say it – it has to do with the word hijacked – remember when we were kids the word hijacked was always being said on the news – not just the local news the world news as well – it was always a plane has been hijacked and taken to egypt – and here it was a bus has been hijacked and burnt

  Gerry still burning stuff now

  Tom i always thought my life
– or part of it anyway – had been hijacked – nothing ever happened to me directly but we were all affected – by a so-called war that was happening in some places but not others – it was never really on my doorstep – but that doesn’t mean in some way it didn’t take its toll – if it hadn’t have happened how do you know what type of people we might’ve been – held to ransom – not involved but held to ransom – the feeling i’m talking about has to do with not moving on in life or something – you know the reason i started to learn irish

  Rosemary múinteoir maith faighte agat

  Gerry english – english

  Rosemary the good friday agreement – you told me that

  Tom that’s right – it’s not a big deal – it doesn’t mean much in the whole scheme of things – but to me it felt like progression that a protestant learns to speak irish

  Gerry i brought the kids to see ulster in the rugby – same type of thinking – it doesn’t mean you have to go all the time – it’s just enough that an effort was made – people don’t make an effort here – if i’m going to make one why shouldn’t they

  Maggie precisely – i agree with tom – i think the majority here were held to ransom by the few

  Tom and it’s still happening

  Rosemary and it’s still happening – see all the money spent on parades and that – how you stop all that nonsense is just let them go ahead – but no police protection – let them all beat the crap out of each other – who cares – they’ll soon stop when they get tired

  Tom i agree – it’s ridiculous – northern ireland could’ve worked in some way – and i’m not saying it’s not working now – worked better – if the whole place hadn’t been – and it still is – held to ransom by the working classes – and that’s right across the board – both catholics and protestants

  Maggie it’s to do with education

  Gerry education education education – without it nothing can be discussed properly

  Tom we discuss things properly – you think it was a crime to say you were educated – and that others should be

  Gerry nothing’s ever solved

  Rosemary that suits people here – if you truly wanted to solve something here it would require genuine change – and people here don’t want change

  Gerry this is the truth of the matter – those people standing round that – as yet to be lit – bonfire are standing there because they are stupid – they know no better – they were told something when they were kids and they have believed it ever since – and they tell their kids the same shit and so on and so on – that’s it – that’s all that happens here – the stupid run the place – not regarding money – because nobody’s that stupid that they’d let the stupid look after the money – but they’ve been allowed to halt progress because they’re listened to too much – and i don’t mean any of that in a bad way

  Tom of course not – that’s what’s wrong isn’t it – common sense – no one wants to deal with common sense any more

  Maggie correct – it’s about being able to discuss things – discuss them in a rational way – whenever there’s a problem at work – one of the junior accountants has dropped the ball – which happens a lot – most of them are useless – all just in it for the money – no respect for the job – for the profession – not brought up to respect anything – when the ball is dropped i think about how to solve the problem in a rational way – no histrionics – just an attempt to solve the situation – i think – personally – that has to do with being properly educated – and having respect – we were brought up to have respect – for others – for institutions – all of that

  Gerry it’s about being detached – looking at something from a distance – only then do you have a good idea what it’s about – then you can make an attempt to solve it – the reason those people down there – and i’m not making any comment or judgement about them – the reason they can’t see the bonfire for what it is is because they’re too close to it – not detached – no distance – we’re detached – we can see from a distance

  Tom yet we’ve to listen to them – the only picture the rest of the world sees is their picture

  Gerry correct – we’re the ones that are trapped – not them – us – trapped and not listened to

  Maggie trapped and not listened to

  Rosemary we need freedom people – we need liberation

  She takes some coins and throws them over the hedge.

  do it

  Tom why

  Rosemary did i just not say – freedom and liberation

  Gerry there is no reason why – it’s stupid

  Maggie throws her coins.

  Maggie very good i like that

  Rosemary see – simple but brilliant

  Tom throws his coins.

  Tom i think i get it but it feels like a bit of a waste as well

  Gerry correct – someone could be doing with that

  Rosemary think bigger

  Gerry i think big alright – i just don’t throw money away

  Rosemary the point is – that’s not money – that’s not even the point – it’s a bit of fun – it doesn’t matter

  Maggie do you think if it were pound coins it would be more exciting

  Tom no

  Rosemary don’t think about it too much – it’s just something stupid to do

  Gerry talking of things stupid i see movement down there – starting to put flags on the bonfire – that means they’re getting ready to light it

  Tom is that a designated bonfire then

  Gerry must be – look at that

  Tom what

  Gerry they’re getting a child – a wee lad – to climb up the bonfire and put the flags on it – jesus christ – is that not we’ve been talking about all night – what chance has that wee lad got if his parents think it’s a great thing that he’s the one picked to climb up the bonfire and put flags on it – and this all takes place in a playground – that says it all like

  Tom didn’t one of the bonfires somewhere get it wrong and burn the flag of nigeria – thought it was a tricolour – eejits

  Gerry oh aye – all of that – i love the idea that they adopt flags from other parts of the world that they think connected to their cause – don’t even know where the friggin places – like protestants and israel

  Tom and catholics and gaza and the west bank and that

  Gerry they burn the palestinian flag down there

  Tom ah well

  Silence.

  Rosemary will i go in and get some cava or will the wine do us

  Gerry the wine’ll do

  Silence.

  Maggie they should ban burning tyres – not good for the environment – and if there’s a wind we get all that over our houses

  Gerry you’re right you don’t want that

  Rosemary it should be more eco-friendly

  Tom what way

  Rosemary burn stuff from your garden

  Tom what happens if you’re not near gardens

  Rosemary we can all drop off our garden waste in our range rovers to the wee working-class places

  Tom don’t think they’d be happy about that

  Rosemary bhí mé ag magadh

  Tom were you

  Rosemary irish

  Tom too much wine – can’t get my head round it – can understand it but can’t work out how to say it now

  Rosemary right – and yes i was – joking

  Gerry what does – ah well – mean

  Tom it means – ah well – there you go

  Gerry there you go what

  Tom the stupid people are burning some foreign flag – there you go – they’re entitled to do it aren’t they – free expression and that

  Gerry what flag are we talking about here tom

  Tom the palestinian one

  Gerry you think they should burn the palestinian flag

  Tom i don’t think they should burn any flags

  Gerry but

 
Tom but i don’t really have a problem with them burning that one – in terms of it being a genuine protest

  Silence.

  Rosemary protest about what

  Maggie let’s just watch the fire

  Rosemary protest about what

  Tom about actions taken in other parts of the world – even the stupid are allowed opinions about world events

  Gerry they wouldn’t know the fuck where palestine is

  Tom maybe not – but i do

  Gerry do you agree with israel

  Tom yes

  Maggie so do i – i assume we’re allowed to

  Rosemary of course you’re allowed to

  Gerry what say we just sit and wait for the bonfire to go up

  Tom prepare ourselves for the mighty blaze

  Silence.

  Maggie i read that hamas are attempting to negotiate a new arms deal with north korea – now no matter what you think that can’t be good

  Rosemary but it’s alright for israel to be armed to the teeth

  Maggie israel has to defend itself – what other way is there to do it but to be armed

  Gerry armed – fuckin armed – they’ve enough weapons to blow everyone to kingdom come

  Maggie good

  Rosemary so you see nothing wrong with that

  Maggie no – in fact they should be sold more

  Rosemary sold more – sold fuckin more

  Maggie yes sold fuckin more – the arab world would destroy that country if they could

  Gerry nonsense

  Tom that’s not nonsense – they would and we all know it

  Gerry even if that were true – and it isn’t

  Maggie it is

  Gerry even if it were true that doesn’t give them the right to oppress another people – since nineteen forty-five the palestinians have been refugees in their own land

  Maggie if it were here what would you do

  Rosemary it was here

  Maggie not on the same scale

  Rosemary it’s the same thing

  Maggie if rockets were being fired into this country day and daily – what would you do – how would you react

  Tom the last time – the last dispute

  Gerry dispute – fuckin dispute – they deliberately target civilian areas you know that

  Maggie hamas – yes i know