OWEN Maire? Oh, Maire Chatach.
YOLLAND What does that mean?
OWEN Curly-haired; the whole family are called the Catachs. What about it?
YOLLAND I hear music coming from that house almost every night.
OWEN Why don't you drop in?
YOLLAND Could I?
OWEN Why not? We used D-r-o-m then. So we've got to call it D-r-o-m-d-u-f
f?alright? YOLLAND Go back up to where the new school is being built and just say the
names again for me, would you?
OWEN That's a good idea. Poolkerry, Ballybeg?
YOLLAND No, no; as they still are?in your own language.
OWEN Poll na gCaorach,
[YOLLAND repeats the names silently after him.]
Baile Beag, Ceann Balor, Lis Maol, Machaire Buidhe, Baile na gGall, Car
raig na Ri, Mullach Dearg?
YOLLAND D O you think I could live here?
OWEN What are you talking about?
YOLLAND Settle down here?live here.
OWEN Come on, George.
YOLLAND I mean it.
OWEN Live on what? Potatoes? Buttermilk?
YOLLAND It's really heavenly.
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25 10 / NATION AND LANGUAGE
OWEN For God's sake! The first hot summer in fifty years and you think it's Eden. Don't be such a bloody romantic. You wouldn't survive a mild winter here.
YOLLAND DO you think not? Maybe you're right.
[DOALTY enters in a rush.] DOALTY Hi, boys, is Manus about? OWEN He's upstairs. Give him a shout. DOALTY Manus!
The cattle's going mad in that heat?Cripes, running wild all over the place. [To YOLLAND.] Ho w are you doing, skipper?
[MANUS appears.] YOLLAND Thank you for?I?I'm very grateful to you for? DOALTY Wasting your time. I don't know a word you're saying. Hi, Manus,
there's two bucks down the road there asking for you. MANUS [Descending.] Wh o are they? DOALTY Never clapped eyes on them. They want to talk to you. MANUS Wha t about? DOALTY They wouldn't say. Come on. The bloody beasts'11 end up in Loch an
Iubhair if they're not capped.9 Good luck, boys!
[DOALTY rushes off. MANUS follows him.] OWEN Good luck! What were you thanking Doalty for? YOLLAND 1 was washing outside my tent this morning and he was passing
with a scythe across his shoulder and he came up to me and pointed to the long grass and then cut a pathway round my tent and from the tent down to the road?so that my feet won't get wet with the dew. Wasn't that kind of him? And I have no words to thank him . . .
I suppose you're right: I suppose I couldn't live here . . .
Just before Doalty came up to me this morning, I was thinking that at that moment I might have been in Bombay instead of Ballybeg. You see, my father was at his wits end with me and finally he got me a job with the East India Company1?-some kind of a clerkship. This was ten, eleven months ago. So I set off for London. Unfortunately I?I? I missed the boat. Literally. An d since I couldn't face Father and hadn't enough money to hang about until the next sailing, I joined the Army. An d they stuck me into the Engineers and posted me to Dublin. And Dublin sent me here. And while I was washing this morning and looking across the Tra Bhan, I was thinking how very, very lucky I am to be here and not in Bombay.
OWEN DO you believe in fate?
YOLLAND Lancey's so like my father. I was watching him last night. He met every group of sappers as they reported in. He checked the field kitchens. He examined the horses. He inspected every single report?even examining the texture of the paper and commenting on the neatness of the handwriting. Th e perfect colonial servant: not only must the job be done?it must be done with excellence. Father has that drive, too; that dedication; that indefatigable energy. He builds roads?hopping from one end of the Empire to the other. Can't sit still for five minutes. He says himself the longest time
9. Surpassed. to I8th- and 19th-century British imperialism in 1. English trade company in India, South Asia, the region. and Southeast Asia, chartered in 1600 and central
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