CONTENTS
| PAGE | ||
|---|---|---|
| I. | THE INFORMER | [1] |
| II. | ON THE RUN | [20] |
| III. | THE LANDING OF ARMS | [37] |
| IV. | THE RED CROSS | [54] |
| V. | THE R.M. | [69] |
| VI. | AN OUTLAW | [79] |
| VII. | THE STRANGER WITHIN THE GATES | [97] |
| VIII. | MR BRIGGS’ ISLAND | [108] |
| IX. | THE REWARD OF LOYALTY | [120] |
| X. | POTEEN | [137] |
| XI. | THE MAYOR’S CONSCIENCE | [152] |
| XII. | A BRUTAL MURDER | [166] |
| XIII. | SEAL ISLAND | [176] |
| XIV. | A FAMILY AFFAIR | [191] |
| XV. | THE AMERICAN NURSE | [208] |
| XVI. | FATHER JOHN | [223] |
| XVII. | THE BOG CEMETERY | [236] |
| XVIII. | A JEW IN GAELIC CLOTHING | [253] |
| XIX. | MOUNTAIN WARFARE | [262] |
| XX. | THE GREAT ROUND UP | [281] |
| XXI. | THE TRUCE | [300] |
TALES OF THE R.I.C.
I.
THE INFORMER.
In many parts of the west of Ireland one finds small mountain farms of from five to twenty acres, generally consisting of twenty-five per cent rock, twenty-five per cent heather, and the remainder of indifferent grass-land. On such a farm a peasant will rear a large family, and how it is done is one of the mysteries of Ireland; but done it is, and often.
Patsey Mulligan was one of a family of ten, brought up on one of these farms until he was seventeen, when his father told him that it was time he thought of keeping himself, and, incidentally, of earning some money for his mother. Patsey quite agreed with his father, but soon found that it was much easier to talk of getting work in such a poor district as Cloonalla than to get it.
In the end Patsey made up his mind that the only thing to do was to go to England in search of work, and one cold winter’s morning he set off from his home, in company with three other lads from the same townland, to walk the fifteen miles across the mountains and bogs to the nearest railway station at Ballybor. Arriving in England, they made their way to a town in Yorkshire, where one of them had a brother working in a coal-mine, and within three days of leaving his home in Ireland Patsey found himself a Yorkshire miner.
Hardly had he settled down to his work in the coal-mine when the war broke out, followed by a rush of young miners to enlist, amongst others Patsey Mulligan; and before he realised what he was doing, he was a full private in a famous Yorkshire regiment. Patsey had, however, enlisted in the name of Murphy, hoping to keep his people in ignorance of the fact, knowing it would break his mother’s heart if she knew he was fighting.