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he asked Sir Capel for leave not to go. Sir Capel came to the forge an’ put it to me that I was no stranger to Paddy O’Donnell or the horses, so it’d be a bit of an outing for me. Ah wasn’t all that keen, I admit. But then I thought to m’eself “John take every opportunity ye get t’see yer own country.”’ He paused deliberately. ‘If I’d knowed I’d meet you, wild horses wouldn’t have stopped me, as the saying is,’ he continued, with a broad smile, his livery coat thrown casually over one shoulder, his blue eyes fixed firmly on hers.
    To Rose’s amazement, she found herself blushing. She looked away and tried to think up a suitable retort, but before she’d managed it, John had asked his next question.
    ‘Ye mentioned Donegal. I’ve heard tell it’s powerful wild in winter up on the coast. D’ye know the place?’
    ‘I do. I was brought up there, though not on the coast. We lived inland in the valley of Lough Gartan, a townland called Ardtur. Until we were evicted, that is. In ’61.’
    She paused and glanced up at him. He was watching her, his mouth open in amazement.
    ‘There were good people in Ramelton cleared out their barn for us and fed us till we made plans what we’d do. We were better off than most. Some people had nowhere to go. Some build huts of sods for shelter.’
    He nodded, encouraging her to go on with her story. She hadn’t thought about it for so long, she wondered what best to say. Then the great plan they’d had came back to her, the one they’d talked about all through that summer.
    ‘My parents thought of taking us all to Australia and making a new life there. There was a scheme got up in Sydney to help people get away in a ship called the
Abysinnia
, but then my father died and that changed everything.’
    ‘Ach dear a dear. Sure what happened him? He couldn’t ha’ been very old.’
    ‘No, not that old,’ she agreed, she shook her head sadly. ‘He took my two brothers with him to the haymaking in Scotland that same summer to help raise the passage money. He was throwing up sheaves of hay to my brother on top of a stack when he just fell to the ground. They got a doctor to him, but he said it was his heart. That he couldn’t have done anything for him.’
    ‘An’ what about yer mother an’ yourself?’
    ‘And my sister Mary and wee Sam, the baby,’ she added, not wanting them left out of the story.
    ‘Och, Rose dear, how could anyone put out a whole family of you like that?’ he asked, his voice catching with emotion.
    ‘Easy, John, easy,’ she said lightly, waving her free hand gently, careful not to startle Pegasus. ‘No trouble at all. There was over two hundred people on that ship who’d been evicted from our valley alone. Do you not have evictions in Armagh?’
    ‘Well, if we have, I’ve niver come across them. But then, we only know what we’ve met up with. Sure what would the well-off people know about the poverty of the poor souls that pays them rent? And how would those same poor people know there’s many a rich person isn’t as happy as they are?’
    He fell silent as they turned into the cart track leading to the farm and its outbuildings. The trees provided welcome shade and Pegasus moved moreeasily on the bare earth track with grass growing up the middle.
    ‘So why didn’t ye go?’
    ‘My mother’s not a Catholic and the money for the passages had come from Catholics in Sydney. They’d got up a subscription when they heard what was happening. Ma thought it wasn’t fair to take help that might not be meant for her. But she also said she could face anything with my father beside her. Without him, she hadn’t the courage for going so far away.’
    ‘Thank goodness for that,’ he said warmly.
    ‘What?’ she demanded, startled.
    ‘Thank goodness ye didn’t go. Sure we’d never be walking here, now, in a lane in Kerry.’
    Ahead of them the trackway opened out into a broad cobbled yard surrounded with whitewashed