My Darling May

 When we came back from the country, after our five weeks sojourn there in July, our home fire became the social centre of the world as the dark evenings set in. Cousins and former neighbours from Limerick and Offaly, and former workmates of my parents, flocked to our fireside to chat and tell stories and express their high spirits. A few came for tea, which we had at 6 p.m., but most flocked in after tea-time. Cups of tea were served, of course, to the guests as they sat around the fire, and the children sat back behind the table by the window and played cards or did their colouring.

I think that, in those days before television, house visiting was the normal social scene and pub life was quieter.

One evening, when there were a lot of visitors, a thunderstorm set in. Lightning shot in sheets across the sky. The visitors were terrified and all knelt down by their chairs and said the Rosary, but we kids went behind the curtains and watched the great light show in the sky.

The young men from Offaly as well as those from Limerick were associated with the Faughs GAA club, which was mainly supported by country people. One of their hilarious stories told of how, when they went with the Faughs down to play a game of hurling in County Laois, the Laois fellows came out very aggressively and fouled them viciously during the first half of the match. However, when both teams became acquainted at half-time, the Laois guys realised that the Faughs, though a team from Dublin, was  comprised of country boys, and the second half was very amicable.

The visitors conversation often concerned itself with tracing relations, who was related to whom, how many children people had and where they all were now. If I had taken half of it in, I would have an extensive knowledge of my relations. Unfortunately, all that knowledge is lost.

Of all the visitors, the most beautiful and elegant was May Shiels. Her brothers, Denis and Michael, were also sophisticated and well dressed. My father had great regard for all the Shiels family, and, indeed, the attachment was significant enough to warrant Mrs Shiels sending up a goose from the country at Christmas. May Shiels had the amazing co-incidentals of working in the Sh(i)elbourne Hotel and coming from the townland of Sh(i)elbourne, (beside the parish church of Lusmagh), both her workplace and her home town carrying her name. 

For a while, May visited us very often, and said that I was her darling and that she would wait for me.

By all accounts she held an important managerial job in the hotel. When May was not there, the other visiting ladies talked about her. They said she was too committed to her work, that she did not go dancing enough (like everybody else), and was likely to miss the boat because she was too perfect.

However, word suddenly came that May had married, and I never saw her again.

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