You’re grand.
SANDRA. Jesus… Jesus Christ… you have no idea what this has done to me!
LINDA. If you go public with this, you will destroy us!
SANDRA. No, he destroys you, Linda! He does. Not me.
It is his deceit. Your husband’s deceit.
And his violence.
DAIRNE. And his arrogance.
SANDRA. Yes and his fucking arrogance…
LINDA. No, no, you don’t know him.
SANDRA. His surety that it, that I would never have the courage to challenge him.
DAIRNE. But now you’ve found the courage.
SANDRA. Yes I have.
I have, Dairne. I mean I never imagined…
I had no notion that you married that bastard, or that you would bring him here.
To my house… to my parents’ house!
So what do you expect me to do?
LINDA. I expect, I expect you to do what’s right for your family… and for my family…
SANDRA. But what about me?
LINDA. You! You just need to listen to resaon… to Eddie… because he says… he swears… he wasn’t on Rathmines Road!
DAIRNE. We all went to parties on Rathmines Road…
LINDA. Exactly!
So it could have been anyone!
On any night!
SANDRA. I wasn’t raped on any night, Linda.
It was April 16th 1993.
April 16th at Áine Doyle’s flat.
498 Rathmines Road.
By Eddie Dunne and Jay Blake.
LINDA. So did you report it?
Did you get witnesses?
Did you go to a centre… a hospital?
SANDRA. No.
LINDA. No!
SANDRA. No.
LINDA. Then it’s just your word.
SANDRA. Yes, it’s just my word.
LINDA. On a drunken night.
At a student party.
Over twenty years ago. Ridiculous.
RAY enters. He sees LINDA.
RAY. What’s SHE doing here?
DAIRNE. She came in the back door.
RAY. This is bloody harassment!
EDDIE enters.
LINDA. You started all this!
EDDIE. I think we all need to calm down.
RAY. I told you to leave!
He starts trying to push EDDIE out the door. EDDIE pushes back.
EDDIE. Not until we sort this out.
LINDA. Don’t leave, Eddie.
SANDRA. Get him out, Ray.
DAIRNE. You’re not wanted here.
LINDA. We stay until it’s sorted…!
EDDIE. You have to realise… it wasn’t me!
SANDRA. So look me in the face and say that.
Look me straight in the face.
And say that you didn’t rape me.
EDDIE and RAY stop pushing.
EDDIE straightens himself.
EDDIE. Thank you. Thank you, Sandra.
For the opportunity.
We have an opportunity to clear this up.
SANDRA. Just say it.
EDDIE. I’m so sorry. I am incredibly sorry that this happened to you.
It’s… it’s a terrible thing.
A total betrayal by…
SANDRA. Donal.
Donal Mooney.
A friend of yours.
EDDIE. No…
SANDRA. He’s not a friend of yours?
LINDA. We used to know him.
EDDIE. We used to know him.
SANDRA. And Jay Blake?
EDDIE. I knew Jay. I knew a lot of people but that doesn’t mean that I was at that party and that doesn’t mean that I would do… do what you described… to anyone…
SANDRA. When I went to London first.
I used to drink myself stupid.
I used to sleep with my passport and a kitchen knife under my pillow.
I was always ready to run, Eddie Dunne.
Run far.
Run further.
And I used to jump if anyone moved within yards of me.
I was terrified most of the time… all of the time.
And I hated myself.
Hated what I had allowed happen to me.
And I thought I would never pull myself out of that place… but I did.
With writing.
With counselling.
With work.
And with Ray.
RAY. Please, love…
SANDRA. It took years. Years… to find a part of myself that was still strong… still young and still intact, mostly thanks to Ray.
So I could build… I built from there.
And I built someone else.
Not the girl you left at that party.
Not the girl you left on the floor.
EDDIE. Right.
Okay…
SANDRA. Did you ever think about me?
After?
EDDIE. Look. Sandra.
She winces.
I remember Donal. I remember him well.
And I remember he was a bit of a ‘player’…
SANDRA. Is that what you’d call it…
EDDIE. You know what I mean… come on.
You know.
He was a ladies’ man.
SANDRA. And you weren’t were you, Eddie?
EDDIE. I wasn’t…
SANDRA. You were just a sidekick if I remember.
A runt.
Runt of the pack.
Not so rich.
Not so clever.
Not the playboy.
So did that make you feel big then, did it?
What you did to me?
EDDIE. Look, this is crazy.
This is… you’ve got to be reasonable.
You’ve got the wrong guy.
SANDRA. So say it.
Say it to me.
‘I didn’t touch you.’
‘I didn’t hurt you.’
‘I didn’t rape you.’
He looks her in the eye.
EDDIE. I didn’t… rape… you.
SANDRA. You’re worse that I thought.
Beat.
LINDA. Okay
Okay… you’ve had your fun now.
You’ve had your twisted fucking… whatever now.
Eddie’s made it clear…
So I want to know.
We need to know.
That THIS… this –
EDDIE. Mix-up.
LINDA. This mix-up… won’t leave this room.
RAY. ‘Mix-up’?
EDDIE. I have a career, Ray.
I have a family.
DAIRNE. Ah! The career.
That’s all he really cares about, Sandra.
LINDA. Why don’t you stay out of it!
DAIRNE. Why don’t you stay out of it!
LINDA. Because this is my life!
DAIRNE. And Sandra is my friend!
LINDA. Hah! (Laughs.)
Would you listen to that!
‘Sandra is my friend!’
DAIRNE. She is. She was. So I should have been there.
I wish I’d been there.
I wish I’d helped.
Why didn’t you tell me, Sandra?
SANDRA. For Christ’s sake.
DAIRNE. You were the world to me.
SANDRA. No I wasn’t.
Not then.
You’d found your own crowd.
And I was glad for you…
You were living your own life.
LINDA. You bet he was.
Living his own life.
So why would he give a shit about you?
That’s a lifetime of preconditioning right there.
Years of being a man so tits or no tits the world still revolves around you!
DAIRNE. You have no right to say that!
LINDA. Haven’t I?
DAIRNE. You have no right to undermine me.
You don’t even know me!
LINDA. I know MEN.
EDDIE. This isn’
t helpful, Linda.
LINDA. Oh shut the fuck up, Eddie. I’m sick of it.
Sick of the lot of you… and now this!
This… ‘I used to be David, now I’m Dairne.’
The dick is gone so give me your heels!
Well, fuck you!
EDDIE. Please, Linda…!
LINDA. No. No way! You’ve got to earn these stripes, Dairne.
DAIRNE. I’ve earned them.
LINDA. I don’t think so. You haven’t sucked it up, have you?… Over years, have you? The leers, the jeers, the quiet condescension or the simply blatant shit. You haven’t been groped, Dairne… poked, and pushed and letched. Has he, Sandra? Tell him, Sandra, tell him what it’s like to live with these beauties since you were ten years old? Melon tits. Milk jugs. I’ve been scarlet, haven’t you, Sandra?… I’ve been scarlet since life on the skipping rope! Because men whisper in your ear… when you’re a kid… old men… young men… strange men… at bus stops, at the shops, at fucking mass! ‘Open those legs… legs wide open!’ ‘Give us a feel!’ You’re a target, just by virtue of this – (Indicates her body.) Just like Sandra was a target… if she was a target that night… at that party… and I’m sure she was… because it happened… happens… and it has happened to me plenty… because I look good and I like sex… liked sex… disaster… that doesn’t work for girls, Dairne… real girls… not in Glenealy anyway… because you get a name… you get labelled and then… guess what… you’re ripe for the picking because you’re dirt… you’re easy… you’re just a whore anyway. And you think you’ll never survive it… like Sandra thought she’d never survive it but you do… coz you’re bred to survive it. That’s years of genetic genius right there… right here… (Pointing to herself.) It’s like evolution only seems to work one way… BUT I’m not sucking this up, I’m not having my life fucked up again by YOU or YOU or YOU or anyone else.
Got it?!
DAIRNE. I understand what you are saying.
LINDA. No you don’t.
DAIRNE. I’ve been spat at, ridiculed, punched and buggered, Linda. All because I refuse… All because I feel… I know… that I am a woman like you.
EDDIE. I think we’re getting a little off-point here.
RAY. Off-point?
LINDA. We need to be clear.
EDDIE. Yes we do.
Clear.
But not emotional, Linda.
LINDA. Jesus! Do you hear that?
I’m emotional.
But I’m not to be emotional.
Forget the fact that she’s just said my husband is a rapist!
EDDIE. You’re not helping! This is not helping!
LINDA. I am, Eddie. Once again I am helping… so what I am going to do to ‘help’ this time is I’m going to sell Sandra’s house. I’m going to sell it quicker and for more money than she could have ever dreamed of. And then Sandra… You!… We!… We will never set eyes on each other or our families again.
Okay?
Okay, Ray?
RAY. There is…
There is nothing ‘okay’ about this.
SANDRA. No.
Nothing.
DAIRNE. Nothing.
EDDIE. Then let me appeal to reason, Ray.
LINDA. I…
EDDIE. Linda… stop. Just stop. You’re making everything worse. I need to talk to Ray. Man to man.
LINDA. Oh for fuck’s sake…
EDDIE. I need to appeal…!
I need to appeal to you, Ray.
To your reason.
Because…
I know…
I know you must be… you are… a reasonable man… and I know that you know that there’s nothing to be gained by pursuing this.
Because…
There is no way to prove it ever happened.
The police will ask a series of embarrassing…
LINDA. Invasive…!
EDDIE. Invasive questions. And…
Our families will get dragged into it.
Our reputations… private and professional. And we will all be deeply compromised. All of us.
DAIRNE. That is such bollox.
RAY. You two are unbelievable.
EDDIE. No. No, Ray.
We are just pointing out what is fact here…
RAY. But what is ‘fact’ here?
That’s what I want to know.
What is fact?
Did you do it?
Did you do that to Sandra?
My wife?
EDDIE. Noooo… No.
SANDRA. And that’s why I ran away.
But you know that don’t you, Eddie.
Of course you know that.
Because no one would listen.
No one would believe…
They never believe… do they?
And just look at you!
Look at him, Ray.
The voice of reason.
The voice of respectability.
In his V-neck.
And his Chinos.
The decent man.
He’s even a teacher, for fuck’s sake!
EDDIE. I am a decent man!
I am not that guy at the party.
SANDRA. Aren’t you?
She goes over to him.
You put your hands on me.
When I asked you not to.
Told you not to.
You grabbed my shoulders here.
You tore my skin right here.
You bit me.
And you remember.
I know you remember.
You stole a part of me… when you raped me.
He is affected by this.
EDDIE. Lots of people have sex at parties.
DAIRNE. Did you do it more than once, Eddie?
EDDIE. Lots of people have sex at parties.
SANDRA. Did you do it to a lot of girls?
Keep score?
Notch it up?
EDDIE. No!
No.
SANDRA. I never said ‘yes’.
I never wanted you.
LINDA. There is nothing.
Nothing to be gained by going public with this.
You will destroy yourself.
SANDRA. I will destroy myself?
DAIRNE. Don’t listen to her, Sandra.
LINDA. It’s too late.
DAIRNE. It’s never too late for the truth.
EDDIE. Look, if you persist… if you pursue… well… it could have serious consequences.
DAIRNE. For who, Eddie?
EDDIE. You need to protect your family. Your name.
LINDA. Because this is a small town.
SANDRA. But I don’t care that it’s a small town, Linda.
I don’t care any more.
I’m an adult now.
I’m a big girl.
Not that girl you tossed on the floor.
LINDA. But what about Ray?
SANDRA. What?
LINDA. You don’t want to do this to Ray.
Or to your children.
SANDRA. What?
LINDA. Drag this dirt into their life.
SANDRA. Stop!
RAY. Yes stop.
Stop this right away…
LINDA. So what do you want?
SANDRA. Want?
LINDA. Is it money?
DAIRNE. Oh my God…
EDDIE. Linda!
SANDRA. I want him to admit it.
LINDA. You want him to admit it? And if he does?
EDDIE. If he what?
LINDA. If he does?
Will you go back to London?
And will you swear that this… that this conversation never leaves this room?
EDDIE. Don’t be an idiot, Linda.
LINDA. And don’t you be an idiot, Eddie.
This is damage limitation.
Think of the girls.
SANDRA. Yes, think of your girls, Eddie Dunne.
Think of your daughters.
Imagine some bastard did to one of them what you did to me.
EDDIE. Don’t talk about my daughters.
SANDRA. Why?
EDDIE. Because they are nothing like you…!
SANDRA. Why?
What am I?
EDDIE. I love my daughters.
SANDRA. And your love makes them special, does it?
Your love is more important than mine?
YOU are more important?
DAIRNE. Why don’t you just admit it, you bastard.
EDDIE. Because it’s not true.
DAIRNE. Do you hate the guy at the party, Ed?
Do you hate who you used to be?
LINDA. Why don’t you shut up.
DAIRNE. Why don’t you shut up!
RAY. Stop it.
Stop this.
I’ve asked you all to stop.
LINDA. See! Look what you’re doing to Ray!
DAIRNE. Go on! Admit it.
SANDRA. That might be justice enough for me.
LINDA. Okay… okay then, he’ll admit it.
EDDIE. What?
LINDA. If that’s all she wants… fucking admit it and we can all go home.
EDDIE. Are you serious!
LINDA. Yes I’m serious. I’m warning you… I don’t… I don’t want Dad or the family or my daughters brought into this. This… This… is your mess. It’s always your mess, Eddie. And I’m not pulling you out any more.
EDDIE. All right.
All right.
If that’s what…
If that’s what you ‘need’.
Maybe…
Maybe there was a night.
SANDRA. On Rathmines Road.
EDDIE. On Rathmines Road.
SANDRA. When you followed a girl.
EDDIE. When I followed a girl.
SANDRA. Into a room.
EDDIE. Into a room.
SANDRA. And watched her.
EDDIE. Watched…
SANDRA. And tricked her.
And forced her.
He shakes his head.
EDDIE. It was just sex.
And you were up for it.
She was up for it.
SANDRA. I wasn’t ‘up for it’.
EDDIE. So you should have said.
SANDRA. I did say.
I did say.
The music from the party returns.
EDDIE. That’s not how I remember it.
SANDRA. But you do remember?
EDDIE. I didn’t sleep with a lot of girls.
SANDRA. You didn’t ‘sleep’ with me.
EDDIE. Maybe not.
Maybe it was rough.
Rougher than I remember.
Maybe you did say no.
SANDRA. I did.
I said ‘No’.
Over and over.
EDDIE. But…
SANDRA. But what?
The music stops.
Say it.
Say it, Eddie Dunne, because I need to believe,
I need to believe what I remember.
I need to believe ME.
EDDIE. I’m sorry.
I apologise.
I wasn’t aware… I wasn’t aware of of the pain caused…
SANDRA. What?
Rathmines Road Page 5