“Where are you going?” He sees her reach for her coat on the back of the couch. “You have to stay,” he blurts. “We have . . . There is so much to discuss.” He can hear the desperation creeping in, but by now he cannot help it. “Please—another drink? Tell me about yourself. You never said what it is you do for a living?” It is a stupid question—as if they are back to small talk instead of the biggest talk of his life. Or at least, it would be the biggest if she would only engage; would only acknowledge the burden he has just unloaded.
“For a living?” And yet, strangely, this is the thing that stops her. “The same as you,” she says.
He doesn’t know if the fact makes any more or less sense. “You’re a photographer?”
She laughs. “No, I mean I also do the thing I always wanted to do. I also managed to prove my parents wrong.”
As he swallows the information he wonders how on earth he could have been so stupid not to suspect it from the start. “I thought the Butchers disbanded back in ’96?”
“They did.” She starts to approach. Her steps are heavy from the weight of her boots. “But I didn’t. You see . . .” Her eyes meet his. They are greener than ever. “It was personal.”
Only when she is close, very close, does he notice she still isn’t wearing her coat. Instead she is holding something she must have just fished from its pocket. He watches as she turns it, very slowly; then she does it again, a little quicker; and then a third time in the direction of her heart.
By dawn the worst of the snow has melted and the world is dripping again. The sun over the Hudson glows a clear and pallid green. A heron stands poised, patiently, then spears through the surface in a single flash, the scales of her prey catching the light like a newly minted coin.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thanks first and foremost to Tipperary’s finest storyteller, Donal Comerford, who sparked the beginnings of The Butchers’ Blessing during a bank holiday road trip many years ago; to Anthony Good and Daniel Bennett for early feedback, and the wonderful Margaret Stead for delicious lunches and so much more. Thanks to Grace O’Connell for medical chats, John Connell for cow chats, Garett Carr for border chats, Gerry Blake for photography chats, Sinéad Brady and family for farm chats and visits; to the many researchers whose works I consulted, especially Maxime Schwartz, Christopher Booker and Fintan O’Toole.
Thanks to my agent, Sophie Lambert, for being so incredibly warm and determined; to James Roxburgh and Masie Cochran for the insanely intelligent edits; to Karen and the gang at Atlantic, and Molly and the gang at Tin House. Thanks to Luke Kennard and my wonderful colleagues at the University of Birmingham; to everyone at MacDowell and the Tyrone Guthrie Centre at Annaghmakerrig for weeks of inspirational solitude and glutinous cookery.
Thanks to my brother, David, for always providing the soundtrack; to my parents for getting even better with age; thanks to the Lovets for keeping me sane and, of course, to Debbie for keeping me close even though we are far apart.
Final thanks to Alex for key Euro ’96 advice—I cannot imagine what this book, or my life, would be without your spectacular football knowledge or your spectacular soul.
RUTH GILLIGAN is a graduate of Cambridge and Yale, and now works as a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Birmingham. She contributes regular literary reviews to The Guardian, Los Angeles Review of Books, Irish Independent, and the Times Literary Supplement.
Author photo: © Sophie Davidson
Copyright © 2020 Ruth Gilligan
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information, contact Tin House, 2617 NW Thurman St., Portland, OR 97210.
Published by Tin House, Portland, Oregon
Distributed by W. W. Norton & Company
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Gilligan, Ruth, author.
Title: The butchers’ blessing / Ruth Gilligan.
Description: Portland, Oregon : Tin House, [2020]
Identifiers: LCCN 2020013302 | ISBN 9781947793781 (hardcover) | ISBN
9781947793880 (ebook)
Classification: LCC PR6107.I467 B88 2020 | DDC 823/.92--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020013302
First US Edition 2020
Printed in the USA
Interior design by Jakob Vala
www.tinhouse.com
The Butchers' Blessing Page 24