An Irish Blacksmith E-Book

Preston Child

• Herausgeber: BookRix
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021

Beschreibung

Discover the bloody past under the English jackboot in this historical short story. During the 'potato famine', 1848, Duncan O'Brady meets an old friend. Over some pints in a pub they decide to step out of their poverty. Both Irishmen rob an English gentleman and this in a drunken mood planned act of stupidity turns their lives upside down and makes them face their worst nightmare.

Leseprobe

Preston Child

An Irish Blacksmith

BookRix GmbH & Co. KG80331 Munich

DESERTED STREETS

Deserted streets

Are burning under our feet

The delighted sky’s dark

Raindrops are falling down

All is gone all is left

Behind on a dying ground

One cloudy night and we are

Traveling out of paradise

One misty right and we are

Up for another sunrise

by Christian Bass

Chapter 1

DURING the great famine in 1848 an Irish blacksmith named Duncan O'Brady lived with his wife and seven children in Derry; although he worked as hard as possible they never had enough to live.

On one day, it was a glorious summer evening with clear blue sky and a hot blazing sun; he met Rob O'Doherty, an old friend who invited him to a pub at the edge of the town where the stench of the innumerable corpse burning didn't float over everything. While they enjoyed their pints, they forged plans to get out of the poverty.

Duncan told him that his boss, the owner of Old Smithy, took the money to the bank on every Friday afternoon and he always made it personal and without any guard. Drunk as they were, they decided to rob him.

Thinking of all the money they would have in a few days they went home to their families.

Then Friday noon came, Duncan asked his boss whether he may go earlier because his youngest son had the flu and his wife was afraid of losing him, especially the infant mortality was high in those days. After he made sure that there was not urgent work to carry out his boss permitted it, so that Duncan could meet O'Doherty in a lane nearby the bank. From their position they overlooked the main road.

And yes, at the end of the street, they thought to see him coming up the sidewalk as slow as an old Englishman walked. When he reached the two men who kept themselves hidden in the shade of an empty house they jumped out and dragged him in the lane. Unfortunately, all the things that could go wrong went wrong. What they hadn't expected was that he yelled for help as same as he recognized them despite their hoods drawn deeply on their face and the scarf they had drawn over their nose.

During O'Doherty fought with the old man, Duncan glanced an eye over his shoulder and saw two English soldiers running up the street what he told his friend so that they escaped immediately, just before they got the money but they didn't care about it yet.

For hours Duncan O'Brady hid himself in an empty house at the outskirt of Derry. There he tried to find a solution for this disaster. He didn't know where Rob O'Doherty had escaped, either, because at the end of the lane they ran in two different directions but he was sure to see him again, just as he knew that he had to go home to tell his wife that he made a big mistake.

But when he came home in the late evening he was welcomed by the police.

From the distance he saw the dancing candlelight which lighted up the windows of his house. He wondered about the light because his children had to sleep for a long time, except the hunger kept them awake. Deep furrows formed on his face while he walked the last yards to the house.

He walked on inside, his wife sat on the old couch, kept her only daughter on the lap and whispered comforting words. She had tears in her eyes, but tried to suppress it to the welfare of her sons who sat down to her feet, the odor of burned wax filled the small room that was only inadequately illuminated by the candles.

Duncan realized all that before he was aware of the two policemen who stood in the background. Now they were emerging, gave him no possibility for a flight and arrested him. He could be led away without any resistance. At the door he cast a last look at his wife and what he saw made him feel much more unwell.