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#Post#: 3548--------------------------------------------------
Moving ( Colleen & Ronan Devine )
DIR By: Maggie Flannery
Date: February 28, 2019, 8:34 pm
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This originally started out as a Snippet & Bobs post and it sort
of took off.
“Moving to Derry?! What on this green earth would possess you to
move to Derry?!”
The news of their impending move of house was not taken well by
Colleen’s mother Eileen. At all. They had a hosted a lovely
little dinner and broken the news as gently as they could just
as dessert and coffee was being served.
“Actually it’s in Ballykelly...”
Eileen seethed for a moment, her cheeks molting into a purplish
red as her dark eyes flicked back and forth between her daughter
and son-in-law. With shaky hands she grabbed her packet of
cigarettes and tried in vain to light one. Ronan leaned over and
gently took her lighter from her trembling hands and helped her.
A plume of Woodbine smoke filled the kitchen and Colleen looked
deep into her mother’s eyes.
“I don’t care if you were offered a place that’s made of gold
and paved with diamonds, Colly there’s absolutely no way in
fecking hell you’re going to Derry.”
Ronan visibly flinched as he watched Colleen bristle like a cat
with it’s tail caught in the door. Eileen coolly challenged her
daughter with a put on look of parental superiority.
‘Oh sweet Christ it’s gonna be a damn bloodbath.’
Ronan thought to himself as he waited for the wind up.
“Who in the hell do ya think you’re talking to, Mother?”
“My daughter who has no place going back to Derry.”
“Back? I've never been there!”
“Yes, you have and trust me it wasn't that great, Colly.”
Sitting back in her chair Colleen glowered for a moment.
“Explain, please, Mam.”
“You were conceived in Belfast and born in Derry. Now, you
explain me to why you want to go back there?”
The two women regarded one another with the same hard look and
Ronan felt himself gulp. It was just getting too tense. He
watched as Colly’s jaw ticked for a moment before she let out a
sigh through clenched teeth.
“We were offered a spot on the pub circuit and they like our
songs...”
Colleen was cut off mid sentence.
“Songs? Ro, what’s she talking about?”
“She writes them, Eileen. Even sings a bit too. Colly...”
Colleen watched her mother’s face contort for a moment at the
fact that Col had somehow hidden a talent from her. She hadn't
of course but she never made it known to many people.
“She sings? Since when?”
This was Eileen’s way of trying to turn the subject. It wasn't
going to work tonight.
“I also happened to get a phone call from a man, a lawyer. Colm
Reilly acting on the behalf of a Mr. O’Donnell.”
“Oh Christ.”
“Oh Christ is right, Ma. Why didn't you tell me about him?
Eileen’s gaze softened as she flicked her cigarette into the
nearby ashtray. There was a short tale to tell that she had been
dreading for the last twenty-five years. Perhaps if she had told
her daughter about Finian sooner rather than later she could
have avoided this entire mess she had made for herself. Steeling
herself she let go of the millstone around her neck.
“I tried. I really tried but.. Back then times were different,
people were different. I’d gone to see your great auntie Vera
for a bit. She needed help with your great gran who’d been sick.
I met him one night down at the local pub and we...”
Ronan suddenly felt very out of place hearing as his wife came
into being. Eileen must have seen him shift uncomfortably in the
rickety wooden chair and she gave him a sharp glare.
“Don’t you dare go givin’ me that look, Ronan Devine. We hit it
off. Your Da...was in a trad band. He was a free thinker...to
put it lightly. I couldn't marry him, Colly, my parents just
wouldn't allow it. He was twenty and I was sixteen and your
grandda thought that was a downright scandal. If I had only
waited another month I would have been a legal adult.”
Her mother’s words dawned on her and Colleen’s stomach turned.
Had her Granny and Grandda not overstepped her parents might
have had a happy life. But if her mother had been sixteen she
could have consented to her own marriage her parents be damned.
Maybe just maybe her parents were young scared kids after all.
“So, I married Jimmy Murphy but ended up back in Derry while he
was out trying to find a job. You were born there as a result
and when you were old enough to safely travel back to Galway we
did."
“He never even...never even looked for me. Until he was ready to
die. In that..that...that place.”
‘She can’t even say it’s name. Long Kesh. He spent nearly
Colly’s entire life in prison.’
Ronan felt his heart clench as he watched tears well up in his
wife’s eyes. She dipped her head, like hair hanging down to try
and hide the tears that fell. He reached for her hand and gave
it a gentle squeeze before reaching up to lift her chin up and
wipe away her tears. She had broken down like this after Mr.
Reilly had left last week and he had been unsure of what to do
except to hold her. He sent a glance over to Eileen who looked
like she had had her heart ripped from her own chest.
“No, he visited you when you were a baby. He held you and then
he was taken in. Every few years I’d get a letter. He did love
you, Colly.”
“You don't know that, Ma. Maybe to him I was just a burden? A
repercussion he wasn't ready to take responsibility for. He
could have stood up for you, for himself. For me. But he ran.”
“He was incredibly brave, Colleen. He tried his damnedest not to
get involved but his brother, your uncle...and his best friend.
He couldn't just let them go.”
Both Colleen and Ronan knew what Eileen had left off that
sentence. Both had grown up with the news coverage. The bombs
and rubble and the caskets draped with flags. This was why
neither of them cared much for religion. It put up walls against
friends and started wars that solved nothing.
“Maybe he was brave,Ma but I didn't know him. I barely knew...I
dunno what else to call Jimmy Murphy but Da, but I never really
knew him either. The only man I know that had a stable influence
on me was Harvey.”
Eileen smiled at the mention of eldest Starling that had
literally taken her daughter under his wing and his protection.
She hopes that man knows just how much it meant to both herself
and Colleen. Ronan, on the other hand, gulped at the memory of
his first meeting with Mr. Starling. It was forever etched into
his memory. He thought his own father had been intimidating but
Conor Devine had nothing on Harvey Starling. He thought back
about a month ago when Ian had somehow dragged him into a bar
room scuffle right before Col’s shift was over. She had mopped
the floor with the aggressor and then lit into Ian for shooting
his mouth off. He never knew his Colly could throw a punch like
she had.
“Did Harvey by any chance teach you how to fight?”
“No, that was my Ma. Why? Jimmy taught me how to defend myself
using my voice but the physical part? That’s all Ma.”
Harvey and Eileen and Jimmy Murphy, the man who gave his wife
his name, had done a bang up job. He supposed by default without
Finian O’Donnell’s genetic influence his Colly would look vastly
and act vastly different.
“Ro? Ronan?”
But then again maybe not. Maybe it didn't matter who raised her,
she’d still be her sweet caring self. There was a fire in her, a
fierce streak that tempered all the sweetness in her.
“Just gatherin’ wool.”
“We could tell, Ronan.”
Eileen relented for a moment before she broke. She had
apparently mulled over every aspect of their move in her trap
like mind.
“I suppose...how long would the two of you be gone? On this
circuit thing?”
“Maybe a year. Not long.”
“A year? Not long she says. The cheek of you, Colleen Mary
Murphy the sheer cheek.”
“Actually it’s Devine now.”
“I don’t care, if you do go please promise you’ll call your old
Ma every week?”
“Well, the place we've signed on to rent has an extra room.”
“I’ll pack a bag and get Mrs. Timmons to keep an eye on my place
then it’s settled.”
Ronan’s eyes bugged over the rim of his tea mug. Barry’s went up
his nose and he was almost certain the other half went into a
lung. He was almost certain that they hadn't invited Eileen but
she had bulldozed her way into coming. What happened to never
setting foot in Derry every again? Had she been body snatched
while he’d been woolgathering and reflecting on his wife’s
genetics?
“We’d be delighted to have you.”
“We would?”
A sharp kick to his shin told Ronan that, yes, they would indeed
be utterly delighted to spend the better part of a year with his
mother-in-law living in close quarters in a place that was
nearly three full hours by car away from their current home.
“Yes, Ronan, we would.”
“Er...the more the merrier it is then.”
#Post#: 3549--------------------------------------------------
Re: Moving ( Colleen & Ronan Devine )
DIR By: Wolfy
Date: March 4, 2019, 7:28 am
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I was not expecting to find out about Col's biological father in
this piece! :o I'm so attached to Jimmy that it's always going
to be him that I see as her old man, I think, but this is very
interesting. I love how Eileen is very, very abrasive when told
that her daughter will be moving back there and I love Col's
response; how she pushes back against her mother to dig deep
enough for all the answers as to why it's such an issue. I think
Ronan's reactions following the tension between mother and
daughter are comical.. feel like Joey would have found himself
just as uncomfortable confronting Harvey. It makes me think
about the kind of parent Hel's mother would be, too. I've never
gotten the chance to write that but I think I may now - thank
you for the nudge toward Harvey, too! Hel smiles from ear to ear
everytime her father is mentioned where it concerns Col because
she literally considers her a sister as a result, they girls are
so close ❤
#Post#: 3550--------------------------------------------------
Re: Moving ( Colleen & Ronan Devine )
DIR By: Maggie Flannery
Date: March 4, 2019, 12:34 pm
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I'm so very happy that you enjoyed this one! I've been sitting
on that little nugget of information for a good long time now
and just never had the chance to tie in. I was actually a bit
hesitant to reveal Finian O'Donnell given what he was involved
in, despite his attempts not to join in he ultimately did in the
end. I once played with the idea of having Colleen meet him when
he was still an active part of it but decided against it because
to me it just didn't feel right. I felt like I couldn't do that
to her or to him and I was deathly afraid of upsetting you and
Helene. If you're ever wondering what Col's biological father
looks like he's Cirian Hines. Colleen and Eileen are mirror
images of each other it seems and my god did they lock horns
every now and then when Colly was a teen.
Col still adores Jimmy Murphy because to her he'll always be her
Da but Harvey's the one along with Eileen that raised her
through her growing up years. She'd forever be lost with her Ma
and Harvey and her sister Helene. She also loves her Ma to
pieces and honestly doesn't hold any of that against her, how
could she? Aha! Poor Ronan, things got tense and given his
nature he was a bit worried about things coming to a head in the
kitchen. Too many sharp objects and too many like minded Irish
women that know how to throw a punch. ;) I would give my
eyeteeth to see kind of mother Hel's Mother would be. I mean I
know you've mentioned her but I'd love to pick that lady's brain
and get an inside view through your writing into what makes her
tick. Oh anytime! Col adores Harvey like there's no tomorrow
and would gladly move the stars themselves for him if he asked
her to. She would do the same and more for Helene. God help
anyone who messes with her sister. ;)
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