Trapped

It might have been a doll's house, set apart as it was on a drab street
Double-fronted and with roses peeping through the railings.
Its prosperous aspect perplexing my eye as I passed.

Delighted she was that I was coming to stay. A room to the front
With two singles and a double all to myself.
And with the Virgin Mary having pride of place on the mantelpiece.

I had just set foot through the door when I was cornered in the hall.
She must have seen me coming down the drab street.
She was up to "high doh" and wanted me to know that Josie was only "a halfer".

I hadn't heard the expression before, but the Holy Spirit was hovering
For I knew what she meant. But again,
When she cornered me in the hall to talk about Arthur

The Holy Spirit was not so helpful, because she had it on the highest authority:
From England! that should he convert, and marry Josie - who was only "a halfer"
He would loose his inheritance!

Brian, a protestant, who could keep his own council was courting and
Taking instruction. While home for the weekend, she would ponder the question
Will he? Won't he? And with me cornered in the hall.

She never ever cornered me in the hall to talk about the other Brian
Who lived at the head of the stairs: educated, sarcastic, and a bigot,
Not from Protestant Ulster, but from Dundalk.

And she corned me in the hall to talk of her relief at finding
Not one, but two Catholics to share my room.
And I knew that the Virgin Mary had something to do with it.

I had just set foot through the door when she cornered me in the hall.
We were back in the 30s, in Dublin for the Eucharistic Congress.
She had followed it on "Radio Eireann," and had fallen in love with the hymn:
Faith of Our Fathers. And it could have been yesterday.
__________

© Cormac McCloskey

I was a lodger at Mrs. B's for six months in 1959: "A halfer" In this instance, a practicing Catholic, one of whose parents was a Protestant. Arthur's parents had come from England on a visit to Larne, and had stayed with Mrs B. And it was they who had told her that he would lose his inheritance if he converted to Catholicism and married Josie. Radio Eireann: Irish state radio, equivalent of the BBC. Eucharistic Congress: An international Roman Catholic celebration of religious faith. The 31 international congress was held in Dublin in 1932