Spies

by Brian Gallagher

  His mother said goodbye to the girls, then lifted her suitcase and turned back to him.

  ‘OK, Wilf, time to go.’

  Johnny lifted his suitcase also, but saw the sergeant looking at him quizzically.

  ‘Are you making for the train station?’ asked the Tan.

  Johnny felt his throat going dry. For things to go wrong now would be unbearable. ‘Yes,’ he said trying to sound unworried. ‘Catching the Dublin train’.

  ‘You’re walking to the station? Carrying all that luggage?’

  Johnny hesitated, unsure how to respond.

  ‘Gosh no!’ said his mother with a light laugh. ‘I’m not a pack horse, sergeant! The hotel porter will take it from reception.’

  Johnny prayed that this would satisfy the Tan, though it was hard to tell from his face what he was thinking.

  ‘Right,’ said the Tan. ‘Well in that case, I’ll wish you a safe journey.’

  ‘Thank you, sergeant.’

  Johnny breathed out in silent relief, then there was a flurry of final farewells and he followed his mother out the door. He felt sad to leave his friends, but thrilled to have fooled the Tans, and he walked briskly along the corridor, eager to make his getaway.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  ‘It’ll never be the same again, Alice,’ said Stella.

  They were in their pyjamas and seated before a glowing coal fire in Stella’s bedroom.

  ‘Without Johnny?’

  ‘Yes. I know he’s been living in Dublin. But going to Glasgow – it feels more permanent.’

  ‘If he gets to Glasgow.’

  ‘I think he will. The Tans are looking for him down in Queenstown. A Canadian mother and son crossing from Belfast to Stranraer shouldn’t draw attention.’

  ‘You’re right, we should be positive,’ said Alice firmly, then she sipped her mug of cocoa. ‘It’s been a crazy few days, hasn’t it?’

  ‘Terrifying,’ answered Stella, thinking back to her father’s near miss in The Eastwood Hotel, and the subsequent slaughter that they were calling Bloody Sunday. The fallout was still going on, and after the Tans had finished their search of the hotel, Dad had agreed that Mom would stay overnight in an adjacent room in the Mill, to be with Stella until things settled down. He had had to return to Baldonnel, and so there had been no time to discuss the compromises with their beliefs that both Dad and Johnny had made.

  ‘I’m really glad Mam was in Rush when the Tans came today,’ said Alice, breaking Stella’s reverie.

  ‘What, you think she’d have turned Johnny in?’

  Alice grimaced. ‘I honestly don’t know. She’s never been keen on him. And she’s furious that he brought the Tans down on us. But I’d still like to think that she wouldn’t have sold him out.’

  ‘I don’t think she would. But it’s best she doesn’t know the truth.’

  ‘No, she’d have a fit,’ said Alice. ‘I don’t like keeping secrets, but this time what she doesn’t know, won’t worry her.’

  ‘I wonder how it will all end,’ said Stella.

  Alice sipped her mug and shrugged. ‘Who knows?’

  ‘Looking back, I can’t believe the last two years.’

  ‘Yeah?’

  ‘Meeting you, meeting Johnny, playing in the band, seeing Balbriggan being burnt down. If I live to be ninety I won’t forget this time.’

  ‘You say that like it’s coming to a close.’

  ‘I don’t know what Dad’s plans are. But I don’t think Mom is eager to stay here after what nearly happened to Dad.’

  ‘So you might be going away too?

  ‘I hope not, Alice, I love it here. But who can say?’

  ‘It’s bad enough losing Johnny. If you go as well it’ll be awful.’

  ‘Then let’s not think about it. We’ll cross our bridges if we come to them.’

  ‘OK.’

  ‘And when all this is over maybe Johnny can come back, and we can all be friends again.’

  ‘I’d love that,’ said Alice.

  ‘To you, me and Johnny then,’ said Stella, smiling and raising her mug in a toast.

  Alice raised her mug and smiled back. ‘To you, me and Johnny!’

  * * *

  The ship came gradually to a halt, and within minutes thick ropes were cast ashore and tied, and a gangplank lowered. The sea air had a sting to it, but Johnny had come out on deck earlier, wanting to see the moonlit Scottish coastline as the ship approached the port of Stranraer. Now the brightly lit dockside was alive with activity as the first passengers made their way down the gangplank and onto the quayside.

  Johnny watched carefully, on the lookout for police officers – either uniformed or in plain clothes – but none of the foot passengers who streamed off the boat was stopped, and there seemed to be no police presence.

  ‘I think it’s going to be OK,’ he said to his mother, who stood beside him.

  ‘I think so too,’ she answered with a smile.

  In fact, everything had gone smoothly once they left behind the Tans in the Mill. With their train tickets already bought, they had boarded the train for Belfast unchallenged. Johnny reckoned that Stella’s invented story had focussed attention on the County Cork port of Cobh, and no one in Belfast had paid them attention, either at the train station or the ferry terminal.

  Even so, his mother had suggested that they exit the ship in Stranraer when the quayside was at its busiest. His mother. He still loved being able to use the term, and he looked at her now, her profile lit by the dockside illumination. Once again he was struck by how much he looked like her. He thought that it was magical that there was someone else in the world with similar features to his, and that it was a small miracle that they had found each other after all this time.

  She turned to him now and caught him staring at her. ‘What?’ she said with a quizzical smile?

  ‘Nothing,’ said Johnny, ‘I’m…I’m just glad we’re going to be together.’

  ‘Me too, Johnny,’ she said simply. ‘Me too.’

  Johnny was touched by the affection in her tone. ‘Thanks, Mam,’ he said. ‘But, eh…time to go, I think,’ he said, indicating the quayside and picking up his suitcase.

  ‘Yes, it looks all clear.’

  His mother took up her case also and they made their way to the gang plank. Now that they were almost on Scottish soil he found himself thinking of those he had left behind in Ireland. He hoped that Mrs Hanlon wouldn’t be mistreated in custody, and that Mr O’Shea would evade the Tans. He hoped too that Alice and Stella wouldn’t get in trouble with their parents or be linked to his rebel activities. But he had been really careful all along not to leave any evidence that would implicate his friends, and he told himself that they would be safe. And finally he hoped that they could all be together again as soon as possible. Alice and Stella had been the best finds he had ever had, and he would miss them.

  But now he was about to begin a fresh chapter in his life. He would be part of a family and he would get to know better his mother, and his uncle and aunt, and his cousins. He had been given an opportunity that he had never expected, and he was determined to make the most of it.

  He reached the end of the gangplank and stepped down onto the quayside. His mother looked at him and smiled, then held out her free hand. Johnny smiled back and took her hand, then he walked off into the night, and the start of his new life.

  Epilogue

  Wing Commander Radcliffe remained in the RAF until the War of Independence ended. He then returned to Canada, where he worked in the timber industry. Stella went to university in Montreal, and qualified as a child psychologist.

  Mrs Goodman ran the Mill Hotel for many years. Alice married and had children, and she and her husband modernised and ran the renamed North Coast Hotel and Restaurant, after Mrs Goodman retired.

  Mr O’Shea evaded capture after Bloody Sunday and fought with the rebels for the rest of the war. He went on to become a senior civil servant in the new Irish government.

/>   Mrs Hanlon was imprisoned in Kilmainham Jail, but was released after the signing of the Treaty that created the Irish Free State. She returned to work and had a long and profitable career in the hotel business.

  Mr Tardelli continued to teach music in Alice’s old school, while his town band grew ever more successful and went on to win many prizes over the years.

  Johnny got to know and like his newly-discovered relations in Glasgow, but eventually returned to Ireland with his mother. He joined the Army School of Music in the recently-formed Irish Free State, and fulfilled his dream of being a professional musician, becoming a leading player in the Army Number One Band. He stayed in touch with Stella and Alice and whenever Stella visited Ireland the three friends got together. Their lives had gone in very different directions, but their old rapport remained, as they shared their memories of 1920, a year that none of them would ever forget.

  Historical Note

  The War of Independence began in January 1919 and ended with the truce of July 1921. This was followed by negotiations in London, and in December 1921 a treaty with Britain was signed. The treaty was ratified by Dail Eireann in January 1922, which resulted in the founding of the Irish Free State.

  British troops began to leave Ireland in January 1922, and Michael Collins, the Irish Commander-in-Chief, took possession of Dublin Castle from Lord Lietenant FitzAlan.

  The Royal Irish Constabulary was disbanded, to be replaced by a new, unarmed police force, An Garda Síochána.

  The Black and Tans and Auxies left Ireland as part of the British withdrawal, and their camp at Gormanston, near Balbriggan, was the base from which the last group departed.

  Michael Collins became Commander-in-Chief of the Free State Army, and was killed in 1922, during the Civil War.

  Gormanston Camp remained a military installation with the founding of the Irish Free State. It served as a centre for refugees from Northern Ireland during the early days of the Troubles, and today is still the property of the Department of Defence, serving as a reserve airstrip.

  Johnny, Stella, Alice and their families are fictitious, as are the Mill Hotel and Hanlon’s Guesthouse. The historical events described are real, however, and the burning of Balbriggan caused an outrage that was reported upon internationally, and that led to questions being asked in the House of Parliament. Two civilians, James Lawless and John Gibbons, were killed, forty-five homes were damaged or destroyed, shops and pubs were burnt down and the Deeds Templar hosiery factory, a major employer, was also destroyed.

  Also factual was the execution of Kevin Barry, and the battle of wits between Michael Collins and British Intelligence that led to the killings of Bloody Sunday.

  Dublin and Balbriggan have changed a lot since 1920. In Balbriggan both the library and the train station still operate from the same sites, while real locations in Dublin such as Gardiner Place, Grafton Street, St Stephen’s Green and Leeson Street would still be readily recognisable to a citizen from 1920.

  Brian Gallagher, Dublin, 2018.

  About the Author

  BRIAN GALLAGHER was born in Dublin. He is a full-time writer whose plays and short stories have been produced in Ireland, Britain and Canada. He has worked extensively in radio and television, writing many dramas and documentaries. Brian is the author of four adult novels, and his other books of historical fiction for young readers are Friend or Foe, set in Dublin in 1916; Stormclouds, which takes place in Northern Ireland during the turbulent summer of 1969; Secrets and Shadows, a spy novel that begins with the North Strand bombings during the Second World War; Taking Sides, about the Irish Civil War; Across the Divide, set during the 1913 Lockout, Arrivals, a time-slip novel set between modern and early-twentieth-century Ontario, and Pawns, set during Ireland’s War of Independence. Brian lives with his family in Dublin.

  Copyright

  This eBook edition first published 2018 by The O’Brien Press Ltd,

  12 Terenure Road East, Rathgar, Dublin 6, D06 HD27, Ireland.

  Tel: +353 1 4923333; Fax: +353 1 4922777

  E-mail: books@obrien.ie

  Website: www.obrien.ie

  First published 2018.

  The O’Brien Press is a member of Publishing Ireland.

  eBook ISBN: 978–1–78849–073–3

  Copyright for text © Brian Gallagher 2018

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  © The O’Brien Press Ltd

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