Delaney. Part XXVII

Mr. Byrne has helped Delaney to create a moon garden. “’Tis best to enjoy Foxglove and White Nancy and the like in moonlight. They ‘ave a tender white flower what’s blooming only at night.” And so, Delaney has grown fond of gardening in the moonlight. No one to interrupt her thinking, and a moon garden…

Pledging Allegiance to Babylon

A Christian’s allegiance to country, to the point of killing fellow Christians who are allied to their own countries, is nowhere more clear than in World War I. With the English cry of “God save the King,” raised up against Germans bearing, “Gott mit uns” (God with us) stamped upon their belt buckle, you wonder…

Delaney. Part XIII

“I’ll fetch Father Fitzpatrick,” Doyle tells Brother O’Brien as he pulls Magdalene and Adrienne clandestinely through the back door and into the kitchen. Brother O’Brien is setting some bread and cheese on a plate when Father Fitzpatrick walks in. “Brother, O’Brien. We weren’t expecting you back for another month.” “I’m afraid that plague has visited…

Delaney. Part IV

“On the ship yesterday,” Ash says. “From Liverpool. There were a group of people kept in steerage. I saw them as I poked about the ship before I was chased off. Then again as they were offloading.” “Yes, I processed the whole lot of new arrivals when they came in yesterday. Eight of them.” “Processed?”…

Delaney. Part III

Less than two hours walk to the south of Dunleer sits the town of Drogheda. From there the River Boyne flows out into the Irish Sea. It is a convenient location for those in England to ship their old, their infirm, and their mentally ill to a place the polite refer to as a, “Care…