Madam took her Fianna boys in full force to the opening night performance. They occupied pit and gallery while the rest of the theater was filled with British officers and their wives. The fine uniforms and evening dress made a great showing, for Dublin is the most heavily garrisoned city of its size in the world.
The play went on peacefully enough until the Germans appeared on the stage. At their first appearance as the invading foe, the Fianna, in green shirts and saffron kilts, stood up and sung in German "The Watch on the Rhine," just as the countess had taught it to them.
Of course there was consternation, but after a moment an officer stood up and began to sing "God Save the King." All the other officers and the "ascendancy people," as we call our English upper class in Ireland, rose and joined him. But you cannot safely sing "God Save the King" in Dublin. Eggs and vegetables at once began to fly, and the curtain had to be rung down. So ended the Dublin run of "An Englishman's Home"!
These things the Fianna boys told me on our way to the shooting-gallery where they wanted to see the Glasgow "boy" shoot. I hit the bull's-eye oftener than any of them, much to the delight of the boy who knew I was a girl. He was not much surprised, however, for by her own skill Madam had accustomed them to expect good marksmanship in a woman.
II
As this was my first visit to Dublin, Madam thought I might want to see some of the sights. She took me to a museum and next suggested that we visit an art gallery.
"What I really want to see," I told her, "is the poorest part of Dublin, the very poorest part."
This pleased her, for her heart is always there. She took me to Ash Street. I do not believe there is a worse street in the world than Ash Street. It lies in a hollow where sewage runs and refuse falls; it is not paved and is full of holes. One might think it had been under shell-fire. Some of the houses have fallen down,—from sheer weariness it seems,—while others are shored up at the sides with beams. The fallen houses look like corpses, the others like cripples leaning upon crutches.