Vol. 2 No. 1 - Modernist Magazines Project

THREE TALENTED
CHILDREN
DOMHNALL O'CONAILL
Acting on Mrs. Shea's advice my mother put an advertisement
in The Manchester Evening News. The advertisement
was. * Lady with three talented children suitable for
theatre work.—Box XYZ.'
My eldest sister could dance a hornpipe, my other
sister was good looking and quiet, and I could sing such
things as :
Horsey keep your tail up,
tail up, tail up,
Horsey keep your tail up,
Keep the sun out of my eyes.
Mrs. Shea was the woman next door and used to go
to the pawnshop for us ; my mother was too respectable
to go. She wore men's boots and her house smelled of
stale fish. Mrs. Shea also spoke a lot about ' the Boards '
as she called the stage.; she knew lots of people on * the
Boards '—at least she said she did : her father had owned
a dance hall some forty years previous, so she knew what
she was talking about. She referred to the pawnshop as
' The War Office.'
Well one afternoon she sat in our kitchen talking of the
German bands of years ago. I remember that no one
listened to her. My mother walked in and out of the
scullery. I played with the cat. My eldest sister was, as
she put it, weigh ng up Mrs. Shea's filthy clothes. Suddenly
the idea struck Mrs. Shea (maybe it was just a method of
getting someone to listen to her) that my mother could