The Field by John B. Keane Page B

they were great men and then the small man, Mr Broderick, said to the older brother, ‘Out of my way, I wouldn’t drink in the same house with the likes of you’, and then the Blezzop brothers attacked him and were beating him up. I wanted to run out from behind the counter and help Mr Broderick, but what could I do? So I ran up to the barracks and told the guard on duty. It was two hours later the Sergeant came down.
    Maimie: Leamy!
    Leamy: He asked my father if everything was all right and my father said it was. I was so ashamed. Later on, the guard who was on duty came in and himself and my father were saying that Mr Broderick was an awkward man and that he’d look out for him in the future …
    Maimie: It’s time to go to Mass, love!
    Leamy: I was thinking of goin’ to the barracks again and telling the Sergeant about the Bull.
    Maimie: No … not this time! There are hundred of guards, and detectives and the pressure is on for the first time and it’s on from the outside. The Bull McCabe won’t suffer, Leamy. A few years in jail or a dismissal, but it’s you, Leamy … it’s you who will suffer because, don’t you see, it’s you who will have done all the work and you’ll be a freak for ever more, different from the rest of us.
    Leamy: But I want to be different from them, Muddy!
    Maimie: Do you love me, Leamy?
    Leamy: Yes.
    Maimie: Then say no more about this. If you love me and trust me, you will say no more … never again until my family is reared and able to look out for themselves.
    Leamy: Are you afraid, Mud?
    Maimie: I was never afraid once. I feared nothing that walked the face of the earth until my first child was born. A child makes a prisoner of a woman, but Leamy, you’re a lovely gaoler … come on to Mass …
    [They start to cross to exit]
    Maimie: God, we’re a pity, Leamy … the whole bunch of us.
    Leamy: Except for the small man, that Mr Broderick, and he’s gone to England. He was no pity. He was a brave man.
    Maimie: Promise me, on your word of honour, no more talk about the killing. No matter who asks you.
    Leamy: Yes, Muddy. I promise. I’ll always do whatever you tell me.
    Maimie: [Heartbroken] And what can I tell you, love?
    [Leamy exits. Maimie follows into church. They take their place among the parishioners and we cut to the bishop’s sermon]
    Bishop: ‘Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather be afraid of him who is able to destroy both body and soul in Hell.’
    In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, Amen.
    Dearly beloved brethren, these are the words of Christ Himself. He was speaking about truth. How many of you would deny Christ? How many of you, like Peter, would stand up and say: ‘I know not the Man!’ but you can lie without saying a word; you can lie without opening your lips; you can lie by silence.
    Five weeks ago in this parish, a man was murdered – he was brutally beaten to death. For five weeks the police have investigated and not one single person has come forward to assist them. Everywhere they turned, they were met by silence, a silence of the most frightful and diabolical kind – the silence of the lie. In God’s name, I beg you, I implore you, if any of you knows anything, to come forward and to speak without fear.
    This is a parish in which you understand hunger. But there are many hungers. There is a hunger for good – a natural hunger. There is the hunger of the flesh – a natural understandable hunger. There is a hunger for home, for love, for children. These things are good – they are good because they are necessary. But there is also the hunger for land. And in this parish, you, and your fathers before you knew what it was to starve because you did not own your own land – and that has increased; this unappeasable hunger for land. But how far are you prepared to go to