Thunder

Chapter 1

There came the sound of soft but audible sobbing outside the kitchen door and Paddy Walsh quietly went and opened it and found his mother there leaning up against the wall gently crying into her long sleeve bottle green wooly cardigan.

She had been upstairs having her afternoon nap and Paddy Walsh and all the rest of them had completely forgotten about her until now.

He took her gently by the arm and led her into the kitchen and sat her down at the table while Susan poured her a cup of milky tea.

‘I’ve been listening to you all; I could hear every word,’

She said smiling at Ali.

Only now did Paddy Walsh really notice for the first time how old and frail his mother was and he felt great sympathy for her as her frail bony hands lifted the cup to her lips. She was shaking like a leaf in a summer breeze as she laid the cup back down and said.

‘I remember well that year 1947’ she paused then said.

‘He was like a’ . . . excuse me, She said looking at Albert… . ‘Like a black man when he came home that summer, burnt to a crisp he was, so burnt his skin was blistering on his hands and face, it had been a very long winter here, and it felt like spring was never going to come at all, then there he was, pockets full of money;

Singing up to my bedroom window, six o’ clock in the bleeding morning all dressed up like a dog’s dinner, living the life of Reilly over there while we went hungry here.

Oh I know he sent some money home but it was never enough.

I remember he smelt kind of funny, I remember saying that to him, and he said to me, ma, he called me ma back then, it’s just body spray, I paid 1/6 for a can of something called Old Spice, well, we barely had the price of a batch loaf and he here was splashing out that kind of money on smelly stuff for his body, mind you he always smelt of putty, you got used to it after awhile… oh he was jack the lad alright… even pretending to lose his Irish accent, but we were too hungry to care about anything like that;

And I missed him so much when he was away, he did mention he was doing some job in Birmingham and that there was still a month or so to go before they got it finished,’

She went staring off into space then came back and added. ‘He could only stay about a week, then he was gone again, I remember thinking to myself, back to his hussy across the sea, so,’ she said looking at Albert closely saying.

‘I don’t mean to be crude but you were the leftovers from that time in his life

Albert said raising his voice.

‘I am nobody’s left over’s, he loved my mother, stayed with her every chance he got, he moved around a lot then,’ mother jumped in saying.

‘I bet he did, around the fucking bedroom and it wasn’t only his paint brushes he was dipping,’

Eileen placing her hands on her mother’s shoulders said.

‘Now mother, that’s no way to talk in front of our guest, go on Albert, finished what you were saying,’ he went on to say.

‘My mother is and always was a very proud woman, yes she can trace her roots all the way back to the Nubusie tribe in Nigeria, the great granddaughter of a high chief called Mungoa, not only chief but shaman to all the other tribes along the Mugusi river, she would never allow anyone to take advantage of her, never in a million years, so,’

He stopped and was now looking at mother.

‘So your husband,’ then looking at the others around the table he added, ‘Your father, must have been one hell of a man, to have captivated my mother so,’ Paddy Walsh said to John.

‘What does captivated mean?

If the truth was known Paddy Walsh could barely read and write on account of him mitching from school every chance he got.

John answered saying. ‘Captivated… it means, been held spellbound… by someone or something or other, not physically but in the mind’

Paddy Walsh nodded saying. ‘Oh like, we are here now captivated by fucking poverty?’ John looked at him and said. ‘Well yes in a funny sort of way, I suppose you could say that,’

Mother said to herself more than to anyone else.

‘I suppose he had a child in every town that had a church to be painted, a true Catholic always spreading his love around and been a painter had a child of every colour as well.

I suppose, you know like the sailors have a tart in every port, only God knows how many children he really had’

Albert was silent for a moment but only for a moment.

‘He was not like that at all, my father, your husband was a good man, if he did commit any crime against you, it was only out of loneliness… I guess,’ mother jumped up from the table.

‘Loneliness, you say, we’ll let me tell you how lonely I was bringing up these kids on my own while he played the gigolo in foreign lands with the natives, if you pardon the pun, God only knows how many other children he had over there?’

Albert said to her.

‘That’s the second time you have said that, lady but let me assure you, I’m the only child in my family, and I wanted for nothing, its true he was away a lot of the summers but many fathers have to go where the work is, it is not a crime is it?’ mother said to all there.

‘No it is not a crime to go looking for work, but it is a crime against God above to have two families and to favour one above the other, we only saw him once every six months or so, yes he did send a little money back every week but he left more than his money behind.

I felt like an economic prostitute on more than one occasion I can tell you but, as you can see gathered here around this table, a table that the Vincent De Paul bought by the way,’ but he did leave some treasure behind, he left me my lovely children, all twelve of them, now young man, I have been watching you for some time now, and you do look a little like him, and have his little traits, like he always scratched his…’ Eileen shouted.

‘Mother’

Her mother stern faced answered her saying.

‘What; what? I was only going to say the way he always scratched his elbow, just like he’s doing now, the very same,’

There was a loud bang on the hall door and David answered it. He came back into the kitchen followed by Billy Brennan, Susan’s husband who was looking for his wife, who happened to be still pouring out cups of tea. He was not too pleased when he saw Albert sitting at the table having just been poured a cup of tea by his wife and he said to her rather brashly.

‘You, get away from that table, and get your coat… you’re coming home with me,’

He looked with distaste at Albert sitting at the table and everyone there could tell what he was thinking.

‘Who is this… this person?’

He managed to say to John.

‘Oh, he’s a visitor from overseas,’ John replied then said. ‘Why don’t you ask him, he can talk? Billy ignores him saying to Paddy Walsh.

‘I can see that he is not from around here, even a blind man can see that, what is he doing sitting at your table?’

Paddy Walsh said him.

‘He can speak, why don’t you ask him?’

Albert was just about to say something when Billy turned to his wife and said. ‘Right, you, home, how many times do I have to tell you, I want you in my house when I get home, not in someone else fucking house, in mine, you hear me?

I pay enough fucking money for it’

When Billy got his wife home he beat her something awful saying to her between blows. ‘I saw the way you were looking at him, you were drivelling from your mouth you bitch, am I not good enough for you now, you like them black now, you must have heard about their big dicks and now mine is too small for you is that it, do you want to fuck him now, do you bitch?’ he beat her so bad she could not cry out and as he punched her full force in the stomach he said to her.

‘And if anyone asks, not that they give a shit about you, but if anyone asks, you fell down the stairs, right, now get my fucking dinner and be quick about it,’ She was hurting so but it was no good protesting her innocence to this very small stupid man as he wouldn’t listen to anything she had to say anyway.

He never had before and if he is anything like his father he never will do.

The shouting and screaming could be heard in the Walsh’s house that was right next door left hand side.

Eileen tried discretely to raise up the volume on the radio so that Albert wouldn’t hear it but he already had and as Paddy Walsh shifted uneasily on his chair John said.

‘I don’t know why she stays with that bastard of a husband, I have a good mind to go in there and punch his lights out,’

Mother said to him.

‘You’ll do no such thing, she knew he was like that a month after she met him, she knew all about his father beating his poor wife every Saturday night so she knew what she was getting into when she married him.

So keep your nose out of it Johnny lad, she’ll not thank you for it,’ just then there was a pitiful scream that seem to come from upstairs and Albert jumped to his feet looking up at the ceiling.

Mother said in her squeaky voice.

‘It’s next door, there is nothing we can do, we have been through this almost every week, every time he gets a few drinks he, well, you can hear what he does, we can’t interfere we live here and he really is a nice man when he is sober.’

Albert said to her.

‘You may live here, and may not want to get involved but I don’t live here and I cannot sit here while he is trying to kill that nice young lady’

John was on his feet now saying to Albert.

‘Don’t go please;

‘If you go in there, he will really explode, you saw the way he treated you a few minutes ago, it will just be the excuse he needs to really go to town on her, no, you stay out of it, this is the way they are, have been for years, you go in there now and they both will turn on you.’ He paused to catch his breath then went on to say.

‘I promise you, you will be the worst off, even the Guards won’t come between a man and his wife, so you just sit down and have another cup of tea,’

Another scream came from the house next door and this time Albert was up on his feet again and halfway out the door with John, Paddy Walsh and the two girls right behind them.

John running behind was saying to Albert.

‘I’m telling you, don’t interfere, you don’t know what you’re doing, he will go for you and only end up hurting her the more, Albert, please stop;

Think about what you’re doing man?’

Albert was banging the hell out of next doors brass knocker even kicking the bottom of the doors wooden panel until it split in two.

John was mortified knowing full well what was about to ensue when Billy saw who it was that was wrecking his hall door. True enough when Billy looked out his upstairs bedroom window and saw Albert banging on his hall door he came charging down the stairs like a man demented.

He opened the door and as soon as he showed himself Albert grabbed him by the shirt and pulled him out into the garden and beat the crap out of him and left him face down in the dirt with a broken nose and busted lip and missing a few front teeth.

John was amazed at the way Albert handled himself as he knew Billy was a good fighter but with Albert he was like a man with no arms at all and thought John to himself. ‘And hell followed with him’

He just didn’t get the chance to defend himself and while it was good to see him getting beaten for a change Johnny knew that this was far from over. He had to really drag Albert off Billy and pushed him all the way back out of the garden and into the house.

‘Oh, your poor hands are bleeding,’

Mother said sitting him down and getting a wet cloth to wipe away the blood to reveal a small few scratches on his knuckles where he had punched Billy in the face.

Paddy said to her.

‘You should have seen it ma, the way he hit Billy, one two one two and Billy didn’t know what hit him and down he went like a sack of potatoes, one two, one two and down he went, like a… ’ mother cut in saying.

‘Yes you said Johnny, like a sack of potatoes,’ and still wiping away the blood from Albert’s hand she said to him.

‘What you did was very brave but also very stupid, yes you beat him up and he deserves it, Christ even I felt like killing that bastard on more than one occasion, but you must understand son,’ she takes a mouthful of tea and goes on.

‘They thrive on violence, him and his crazy family, bare knuckle street fighters all the men in that family are, them and that traveller family they hang out with, they live for it; every day beating up some poor fucker or other, yes you hurt him but what’s more important to him now is he has been made to look a fool outside his own house, already it will be all over the estate that Billy boy Brennan has been beaten up in his own garden;

He is going to be worst than ever now, and who do you think he will take his vicious spite out on now, huh?

Poor little Susan that’s who, and don’t forget his brothers, he has six brothers all older than him;

He’s their baby brother and they are all like himself, drinkers and wife beaters, now I wouldn’t give much for your chances of getting out of Dublin in one piece so I suggest you get your skates on and head for the airport,’

Eileen was keeping watch from the parlour window and she came into the kitchen to say.

‘It took him a long time to stand up, he looked a sorry mess, he went to come in here but then stopped and spitting out blood and broken teeth he stopped and staggered back into his own place;

It all seems quite in there now and if I know Susan she is soothing his wounds, he has some very big brothers in…’

Mother said to her.

‘Yes yes, I just told him all that,’

Then turning to Albert she said.

‘Are you going to make a run for it? John there will go out and get up a taxi that will take you to the airport,’

Albert said to her. ‘I can’t stand planes, I came by ferry, the one back is not till 6AM in the morning but I will not run from anyone, I can handle myself don’t worry I will be alright,’ John looked at mother then at Paddy Walsh then back to Albert saying.

‘We have to live here, you don’t;

We are not afraid of him but we are terrified of his brother’s.

They are animals when they’ve been drinking, so you and I will slowly walk out of here while Eileen will go next door and casually mention we have gone to the airport to see you off to Liverpool, that way they might just leave this house alone;

Come on Paddy Walsh, we can take him to my sister’s house over in Coolock and stay there until it’s time for the ferry, it’s going to be a long fucking night’

Chapter 2

Albert protested saying.

‘I have never run away from a fight in my life, and I’m not going to start now, their fight is with me, not you people so why would they come here and cause trouble?’ John answered saying.

‘Because, you are here, we did nothing to stop Billy getting beaten so as far as they are bleeding concerned we are on your side, so come on, my mother doesn’t need this hassle,;

And as I said we have to live here while you are safely tucked up in your bed across the Irish sea, well out of harm’s way, now are you coming or do we have to carry you?’

Paddy Walsh looked at John and John looked at Paddy Walsh and just shrugged his shoulders meaning he knew full well that no one would be carrying Albert anywhere; he was far too big of a man for stuff like that. then Albert looking at old Mr’s Walsh changed his mind and said.

‘Okay, I’ll come with you, for your mothers sake, but know this, I am not running away, I want to make that quite clear to all of you, I’m not running away,’ Paddy Walsh said to him.

‘We know how brave you are, we saw with our own eyes how brave you are, no need to worry about what we think of you,’ just then Eileen came back in and said.

‘He is hurting really bad in there, but not as bad as poor Sue… the poor girl looks done in, I’m not sure if it is the pain you caused him or his pride but he swears blind he’s going to kill you, you knocked out his front teeth, a whole bunch of them, he is no longer the good looking Billy the kid he thought he was, now if I were you, I would head for the hills pronto,’

John said to her.

‘We’re taking him over the North side to Marys house, he’ll be safe there till the ferry in the morning, well better hurry, he has sent Susan over to get his brother Sean;

She will take her time but it won’t be long till they all know what happened and who did it.

They are some mean miserable shower of bastards beating defenseless woman and anyone on their own, so if I were you guys I’d get moving,’

Albert nodded in agreement and John and his brother Paddy Walsh went with him to find a taxi and get the hell out of there before the shit really hit the fan.

Big Sean Doyle was furious when he heard what happened to his little brother Bill and beaten by a black man as well by Christ.

No black fucking bastard was going to get away with that.

When he heard where it happened and who was present he raged all the more. Those fucking Walsh’s didn’t do a fucking thing to help his brother.

Those nigger loving bastards were going to get it as well and get it heavy and hard.

No one messes with the Doyle family and gets away with it especially no fucking nigger from across the water can come here and half kill his brother and think he can just go back home without suffering the consequences.

No sir.

No fucking way.

There was going to be some heavy payback and no nigger or nigger loving motherfuckers was going to piss all over his family and walk away scot free.

No sir.

No fucking way was that ever going to happen.

Big Sean Doyle was a big man with a full head of white hair and built for shoving all kinds of crap on all kinds of building sites but he didn’t like working 9-5 like all those other brain washed fuckers.

He was a tall man 6-3 with fists like shovels. In his late thirty’s he was a docker like his father and his grandfather before him but that was years ago. No need for those big ships now.

Some years ago he made his name after and a bare knuckle fight over some girl or other and that set him up with some travelers known as the Connors that thought him the finer art of bare knuckle street fighting and everyone in Dublin and elsewhere got to know him and his brothers.

Not just for street fighting but for his involvement in the busy up and coming drugs trade that was flooding all the poorer estates.

Big Sean and three other members of his family ran the up and coming drugs racket on the South side.

While his best friend and traveller Michael ‘Fagan’ O’ Conner with two others traveler families ran the North side and Sean was quite the main man on both sides of the city and he took great pride in removing anyone that opposed him in any way however small by turning his pit bull on them and tearing lumps of flesh out of them.

He was a vicious human being taking great delight in torture and murder of anyone that showed any kind of disrespect to any member or even casual friend of any of the two families’.

An hour later it was all over the network.

Some black bastard had crept up behind poor old Billy and hit him over the head with a hammer and even while Billy was on the ground the black man continued to smash Billy’s face in with the hammer even to the point of breaking poor defenceless Billy’s front teeth.

Everyone was to keep a sharp lookout for this black man and the one that spotted him would receive a great reward from Sean personally.

In the taxi on the way over to the North wall John couldn’t help noticing that the driver hardly took his eyes of Albert so much so that Sean had to tell him more than once to keep his eyes on the road.

Then again there were not too many black people in Dublin outside of the hospitals.

If there were even two it was probably the same black person been seen by two different people.

Probably this very black man that Paddy Walsh that was now in the taxi with in the middle of the day heading North was about to be seen by everyone and anyone that was out for the day with their kids on a Saturday afternoon.

But he can’t go around with his head in a paper bag so there was not much to be done about that but it did worry Paddy Walsh that Albert was about to be seen by his sisters Mary’s friend Kathleen Whelan.

A snake in the grass if ever there was on. Couldn’t hold her water and couldn’t wait to tell all and sundry that favourite catchphrase.

‘Did you hear about’ Mary O’ Toole taking in a lodger? And a black man at that, Jesus she must be in dire straits to do that and it’s not only large appetite’s they have’ so her poor husband Fredrick will have to be on gee duty as long as that black man is around his well some might say pretty but well maybe she is but she’s not beautiful… anyway those black men would ride anything so Fred will have to keep well up on his tippy toes.’

Anyway there was no way out of it and as there were more black people on Dublin’s streets than there were sunny days then this one was going to be seen by half of the people in the city including Kathleen Whelan.

With taxi drivers been what they were then all the taxi men in Dublin and further afield were going to know where this black man had been dropped off what his name was and what he had for breakfast this fucking morning.

Paddy Walsh couldn’t help but wonder if he was doing the right thing getting his sister involved in this mess.

He knew that soon all the kids in the neighbourhood would be gathering around her house as if it were Christmas and Santa had just gone into number 23 Oakfield road. So it was only a matter of time before big Sean Doyle got to hear of it.

Mary was the snob of the family. The real lady of the house with her fancy curtains and fancy double glazed aluminum front door the only such door on the street yet she still remained humble and would go out of her way to help anyone with the result she help almost everyone on the road. Everybody was in the same terrible predicament with nothing but the dole money coming in and not every house had that even but there was always St Vincent De Paul that wonderful charity that went helping those in need which was just about everyone in the estate.

Back in Billy’s house Sean was giving his little brother a good looking over.

‘It’s going to cost you getting those knashers fixed, but maybe not, I know a dentist over in the shopping centre that owes me a favour or two, now Billy tell me about this black mother fucker that did this to you?’

Billy told him how he first set eyes on the bastard sitting around Walsh’s table next door and how he caught his wife drooling all over him and when Billy had finished telling his lies his big brother said.

‘That will be his big dick, when I was over in London all the white chicks were chasing the black guys, not for their money because they had no fucking money, no… it was for their big dicks, some of them fuckers didn’t need to carry baseball bats they were so big they only had to turn around and someone will fall down mortally wounded.

The woman loved them, the white ones especially, those slappers were all over them, filthy bitches, giving themselves like that, until we moved in and took control of things, now they were getting screwed and getting paid for it as well. Some of the blacks remained stubborn so we had to cut a few of them up but eventually they came round to our way of thinking in the end and we made a small fortune out of them those women no matter what size the men’s dicks were, but they sure loved the black ones, now Billy, does anyone know where he went after he beat you up?’

Billy told him.

‘Next door, he came from and next door and he went back into next door, but he has gone from there now, got a taxi, Eileen said they were heading for the airport, gone by now I should imagine, he knew he had to get out fast for as soon as I got my breathe back he knew I would come looking for him,’

Big Sean looked at him with disgust. ‘Yes, course you would, but I’m here now, I have already put out a few feelers, if he is still in this town, I will find him,’ Then writing down something on a piece of paper he said.

‘Here Billy go over first thing to this dentist in the morning, just say I sent you, won’t cost you a penny, and I promise you, this nigger is going to pay for what he did to you, and pay with more than a few fucking teeth, keep your eyes on that bitch of a wife of yours, didn’t I tell you before she had a roving eye.

For fuck sake she even tried me up once, the night of your bleeding wedding she come on to me, like a fucking stream train okay she had a skin full, still she’s no good I tell you, get rid of her, I can help you there as well, just call me anytime day or night, she will quietly disappear, vanish without trace, look after yourself now little brother and don’t worry about this black guy, he’s my problem now.’

There was no way that Paddy Walsh could sneak Albert into his sister’s house with anyone seeing them, not at three in the afternoon.

Christ the man was 6-4 and built like a brick wall so it was enviable that someone was going to see him going into the house and sure enough dozens of people did and out of the woodwork came enough kids and they gathered around the garden wall of the house like dogs on the trail of a bitch in heat.

Sitting at the table Paddy said to John.

‘It’s like Duffy’s fucking circus out there, John, we can’t stay here, I’d bet my next weeks’ dole money that Big Seanie already knows he’s here John, so we’re going to have to move fast,’

His sister Mary said to them. Kathleen’s husband Jimmy has a new car, well it not new new… got it from some uncle of his that doesn’t use it anymore… but it’s fairly new;

He sits in the window watching it every waking moment so any dog that goes to cock his leg or any kid that comes anywhere near it and he’s out like a bullet from a gun, but Kathleen can talk him into anything so she can, she just has to lick her lips or push her tits into his face and he’s hooked… I’ll go have a word with her, I won’t be two ticks, then you can take him for a long drive around the Phoenix Park while you’re waiting for the ferry, I’m sorry Paddy but I don’t want any trouble, not around here,’

Young John said to her.

‘Ok girl, it’s not fair on you, Mary, go get this Kathleen’s husband with his nearly new car, we’ll head out of here, but you don’t know where we’ve gone if anyone does ask, yeah,’ she nodded and said.

‘I don’t want to even know his name Johnny, God he is gorgeous, a fine handsome man if I ever saw one, take him out the laneway out the back, its full of rubbish not many people go that way anymore, so maybe no one will see you go, but yeah pigs will fly,’

John kissed his sister on the cheek then the two of them went out the backdoor and across the garden to the laneway where they walked a few hundred yards up the lane until they saw a blue Ford Corsair pull up and a door opened with Henry beckoning them to hurry and get inside.

Once inside the car sped away so quickly there was smoke coming from its two back tyres.

Fredrick was standing at his gate watching them burn the rubber on his nearly new car tyres and he was close to tears until Kathleen came and stood beside him and gently eased her hand across his penis that instantly grew to twice its size and then he took her arm and led her quickly up the stairs to the bedroom. The boys were only on the road for few minutes when a white Renault Estate car pulled up alongside them at a set of traffic lights.

The man in the passenger seat made a gesture with his hand as if to shoot the driver of the Ford and as soon as the lights changed to go the Ford took off at full speed with the white car following close behind and ramming the boot of the Ford with such force the whole car lunged forward.

Up side roads then through back alleyways and back out on to the main road they followed so close behind it looked as if the Ford was towing the Renault.

Into the park they went at breakneck speed and up hills and down hills they went as if racing on a cross country race track with the Ford just keeping ahead of the French car. Then the Ford slipped in between some large Oak trees and into a wooded area and for awhile John and the lads thought they had lost the white car.

Chapter 3

‘It is gone too quite,’ John said to his brother Paddy Walsh.

‘Far too quite, look there, see him, and there’s someone creeping up along that tree line, see him?’ then out of nowhere came the bullets buzzing past their heads as they quickly reversed the car and made off down the main road of the park as fast as the nearly new car would go.

In the rear view mirror Paddy Walsh could see the white car zooming into sight as more bullets went flying past.

Fuck this for a game of soldiers he thought as Henry drove the car for all it was worth.

John told Henry to go back inside the trees and try and lose them in the wood and when he veered off the road and up a slight incline and down the other side only to come smashing down into a load