She says all the English poets and great men
was Irish. She says the English never knew how to read their own
books until we taught them. She says we're the lost tribes of the
house of Israel and the chosen people of God. She says that the
goddess Venus, that was born out of the foam of the sea, came up
out of the water in Killiney Bay off Bray Head. She says that
Moses built the seven churches, and that Lazarus was buried in
Glasnevin.
SIR PEARCE. Bosh! How does she know he was? Did you ever ask her?
O'FLAHERTY. I did, sir, often.
SIR PEARCE. And what did she say?
O'FLAHERTY. She asked me how did I know he wasn't, and fetched me
a clout on the side of my head.
SIR PEARCE. But have you never mentioned any famous Englishman to
her, and asked her what she had to say about him?
O'FLAHERTY. The only one I could think of was Shakespeare, sir;
and she says he was born in Cork.
SIR PEARCE [exhausted]. Well, I give it up [he throws himself
into the nearest chair]. The woman is--Oh, well! No matter.
O'FLAHERTY [sympathetically]. Yes, sir: she's pigheaded and
obstinate: there's no doubt about it.
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