Norah

A one act play lasting approximately one hour.

Cast:

Norah…………………………………………….

Sal (Norah’s friend)…………………

Woman/Man on lap top (WOLT)……………..

AÍNE (Norah’s daughter in 20’s)……….

Baby AÍNE in Pram/mosses basket

Voice Overs:

Val (woman from Beechmount)

 AÍNE  (daughter- optional)

Stage setting:

Centre stage is a living room with a settee single chair and small table with mosses basket on top with baby asleep in it. On floor some glasses and a bottle of white lemonade. To the left is living room door and to the right a curtained  window.

To the right front of stage outside living room is woman/man on lap top she/he is sitting on a swivel chair and has pages in her/his hand.

To front left of stage outside of living room is a young AÍNE sitting on a stool.

Val is sitting in rocking chair after phone conversation which bring back memories of July ’81.

Music: The Surpremes, You can’t hurry Love.

Play begins in darkness: Voice over of Val is played of her relating her recollection of what happened the morning Joe Mc Donnell died, and Norah Mc Cabe was shot in the head with a plastic bullet.  When finished lights go slowly up and spotlight is on woman/man at laptop.

Act 1

Scene 1

ENDS CALL HOLDING PHONE IN HAND SHE TAKES A DEEP SIGH AND HOLDS PHONE TO HER CHEST AND THINKS

Val V/O         Oh my God, it’s a time I’ll never forget, we had arrived back from Canada after 3 years there, on the 1^st March, the day Bobby Sands began his hunger strike, we didn’t know that at the time we’d been so busy with selling the house and getting things sorted for coming back.(Pause)  It was me who wanted back, my husband Tom had a good job there in the steel industry but I just couldn’t settle I was far too homesick. I missed my mother and father and family all too much when I was expecting our Sinead, our first born and the first grandchild for Tom’s family and mine; I knew I’d have to return home….(slight pause) But that morning, the 8^th July,  was a strange kind of a morning (slight pause) it was a Wednesday, I woke up to the sound of the bin lids and we knew…that Joe Mc Donnell was dead; that was how everyone found out when a hunger striker died. The bin lids would bang and a rage would take control of…. everywhere.  He was the 5^th hunger striker to die; I didn’t get out of bed to join in with the bin lids because the baby had been up all night crying and I’d settled her and was afraid that I would waken her again. Tom had an interview for a job at ten that morning and I was frightened of something happening to him if we got up….. because I knew he would have went out in solidarity and joined in with what was happening in the street…..so I just lay there thinking about what we’d came back to and I wondered if I’d made a big mistake; I didn’t think about Joe Mc Donnell or about the other hunger strikers, I just thought about us, me and Tom and Sinead and about how Tom would get to his interview later that morning….. anyway, the noise of the bin lids got so loud that it woke Tom and the baby and we all went down stairs. There was no milk and was no sign of the milk man; I’d have been more surprised if he had delivered the milk, I told Tom that he’d probably been hijacked and so I waited for Patsy Crawford’s wee shop, a few streets away to open and I ventured out to get the milk and a bap. The sky above Beechmount was thick and black unlike the clear clean sky over Toronto that we had left behind. There was a raging fire, you could say, in the soul of all nationalist communities that was both contagious and fearless.  Communities united in this terrible rage and were capable of doing things they never dreamt they would or could do in other times. These weren’t ordinary times they were different times that at times were hard to fathom. The bin lids had stopped and there was only the sound of the land rovers and jeeps careering about so I thought it was safe enough to run up and get the milk and some cigarettes, we’d smoked the last one between us before going to bed. The street was littered with broken glass and broken bricks and dying fires that had become a visual symbol of despair engulfing the street with a sinister darkness that kept the birds at bay tricking them into believing it was still night.   Strange too, in the back of my mind somewhere was a menacing thought about that wee girl… Carol Ann Kelly… also going out for milk and getting hit and killed by a plastic bullet…it was the Brits up in Twinbrook, they shot her from a land rover, she was only a child an eleven year old child. Anyway, Patsy had no milk yet, the milk man hadn’t arrived, probably hijacked somewhere but the baps were just in and still warm, and I bought 2 in case the breadman couldn’t get across either. Then as I was paying Patsy, Mrs Cassidy stuck her head in the door and told Pasty it was Jim Mc Cabe’s wife Norah, who was shot by the RUC up Linden Street and that it was serious………I asked her was that Norah Cosgrove from Iveagh and she said it was and I nearly died because I’d went to school with Norah we were the same age and her youngest was born the same time as our Sinead. When she died the next day, it was awful, those dark clouds still hovered over Beechmount for days until after the funerals, 3 funerals in all, up and down the Falls Road and I could hear the inward cries of the babies unborn and the old people crying for the young, and I watch and felt those dark dark clouds  descend over a whole community and I went into deep depression, for a long long time.

LIGHTS SLOWLY UP

WOLT            (Swings round in swivel chair to face audience) Would you believe this, honestly, last night I was searching for my mother’s ancestry and I keyed in her name, Nora Mc Cabe, right, then her date of birth..and all this stuff comes up about Norah Mc Cabe…no not my mum another Norah Mc Cabe and guess what go on guess………..they were born on the same day……different countries but the same day. But, guess what…. this Norah Mc Cabe is dead, she died years ago……she was murdered…….in Belfast………shot in the head and died the next day………and the amazing thing is……..she was shot by the cops……….not by accident………they said they didn’t shoot her at all……..they lied……but………..here’s the thing……they were only a few yards from her when she was shot……..with a plastic bullet……….so if they didn’t shoot her who did?……..I mean who else at the time would have had a plastic bullet gun……….1981………they denied doing it so how come years later………..and it took years for the courts to acknowledge that they did shoot her but then…….no one was ever charged with perjury never mind shooting this woman……does anyone here know anything about it cause I’m only getting this information from my lap top. If she didn’t have the same name as my mum I would know nothing about this other Norah Mc Cabe…….who, in another world might have been…….she might have been my mum…………….

(POINTING AT AUDIENCE)

                        Or even any of your mums!

SWINGS CHAIR ROUND AWAY FROM AUDIENCE: LIGHTS OUT

LIGHTS ON TO AÍNE AT OTHER SIDE OF STAGE SHE IS SITTING ON STOOL HOLDING PICTURE OF HER MOTHER AND WHEN LIGHT GOES ON SHE STANDS AND ADDRESSES AUDIENCE

AÍNE               Who is Norah Mc Cabe (looking at picture then at audience as she answers her own question) they never ask the question Who was Norah Mc Cabe………..just as well because I could never answer that question…….. I was only a little baby in a cot the morning I lost her……my mummy  Norah Mc Cabe.  She left the house to buy milk and cigarettes from the shop on front of the road………I didn’t know that either because I was asleep………I was warm, fed………….and most of all loved………..loved…….by a mothers love.  I don’t hear songs or lullaby’s that subconsciously bring a memory back………now that I’m…. grown I look back on my childhood and I remember sometimes when I’d hear a bang or a thud I’d think of my beautiful mummy and wonder and whisper to her (looking at picture) did it hurt mummy?         (SITS DOWN)

LIGHTS OUT

LIGHTS ON TO CENTRE STAGE NORAH IS SITTING BREAST FEEDING BABY ON SETTEE DOOR KNOCKS SHE GETS UP PUTS BABY INTO COT THEN ANSWERES DOOR. SAL ENTERS WITH A BOTTLE OF GIN AND A RED SCARF. SHE IS SLIGHTLY TIPSY.

NORAH          Sal what time is it……you nearly put the door in – I thought it was the cops or the brits………..what are you doin out at this time of night on your own with a bottle of Gin and that scarf, (points to scarf) where did you find that?

SAL PUTS SCARF AROUND NORAH’S NECK AND SAYS:

SAL                 Merry Christmas Norah. I was down at Heinze’s, it was packed and too warm for me I needed air but it took me over an hour to get from there to here……….the roads clear now everyone’s just waitin……on word……..he’s sure to go sometime through the night……..God help him and his family and the rest of them and whoever else is goin to die……it’s terrible Norah just terrible……… (LAUGHS) I won the Gin and found the scraf at your door (WRAPS THE SCARF AROUND NORAHS NECK) there now an early Christmas present from your favourite Santa…………(BOTH LAUGHING)

SALL WALKS TO COT AND LOOKS AT BABY    

CONTINUES:

                        Ach Norah, she’s so good not even a murmur out of her.  Is she always this good?

NORAH          Always and so was Paul and James I’m so lucky!

SAL                 Hope you don’t mind me callin this late Norah but I just had to talk to someone.

NORAH          Don’t be daft I’m here for you anytime and I mean that so (laughs) take your coat off SAL and give me a feg quick, I’m gaspin, the shops closed!.

SAL                 Norah……….I haven’t a feg left I’v smoked my head off from 5 o clock today…………see sittin in the hospital waitin on results it’s really nerve wrackin…………the place was packed and your wee woman from Beechmount  ya know her with the wee lisp……….can’t remember her name she always wears a purple scarf….

NORAH          Has she a skelly eye?

SAL                 No………I know who you’re thinkin off, it’s not her……she’s years older than her………..oh before I tell ya, get the glasses out, we are going to party……………

NORAH          (SOFTLY) Sal, no parties here, two kids in bed one with a broken arm and I’ve just got this little angle over before you nearly put the door in!

SAL                 Ache go on Norah, we could be dead in the morning (LAUGHS)

NORAH          Never liked Gin anyway SAL, gives me a hang over, I’m on child watch tonight (Norah moves across to cot and stops and holds behind her left ear with a loud sigh)

SAL                 What’s wrong kid, sore head?

NORAH          That’s the second time since I came home tonight that has happened, its like a knife goin through the back of my head right here behind my ear. (rubs behind left ear)

SAL                 Probably wax you need your ears syringed. (JOKINGLY) That’s a job for Jim.

NORAH          Maybe so (moves to cot to check baby is ok smiles as she touches baby’s face) I wonder will Joe Mc Donnell go tonight?  He can’t last much longer……..the news at 9 said he was close to death (sighs) oh God Sal where is this all goin to end……….maybe my Jim will get us a holiday in August I’d love to go somewhere where there’s peace and quiet where the kids can play along the beach and I can just sit there keepin them safe and soakin all the lovely sun up………whata you say to that, Sal?

SAL                 Well, this is what I came round to talk over with you (pause) I, me, well me and Porky might be off on our honey moon in August…………(slight laugh) woow………..(gets up from satee and does a bit of a jig) WELL…….

NORAH          Well………….well good for you Sal when did he ask? Did he get down on his knees or was his back playin him up again?

SAL                 That’s why I’ve called Norah, he ask me today before I got the results………….I should still be out celebrating with him but I needed to talk to someone………just to say it out loud and then bury it……..I’m like a duck out of water. You know me anything for a laugh………….

NORAH          (Folding up nappies) So what’s your problem? You’ve got him at last….oh….. you’re not pregnant are you?

SAL                 No…….I wish I were……….(looking into Norah’s eyes says in mater of fact tone)I need a hysterectomy……I’ve got cancerous cells in my womb………………… 

NORAH          God, Sal that’s awful really awful but then again if they can fix it……….will the cancerous cells be taken out with the hysterectomy? (THROWS HER ARMS AROUND SAL AND HUGS HER) You’ll be alright Sal, its not the worst thing that can happen if……if you know what I mean, if you’re going to be okay afterwards then……….

SAL                 But Norah, that’s part of the dream, our dream to have kids, to make a family…………look at you Norah, you’ve got it all!

NORAH          But Sal, you can have it all too! You can adopt, that’s an option, just look at how many unwanted kids there are in the world…………nothings ever that bad Sal, they can remove your womb but it could be worse, you could have it in the brain………….then……..they’d have to take your head off (BOTH LAUGH)

SAL                 See you Norah, you’re a geg, you always turn things around to make me laugh………….you are definitely a ray of sunshine. A real tonic and talkin about tonic have you any tonic for my gin ‘cause I can’t drink it straight……but like you say Norah, loosing my womb isn’t like loosing my mind.

NORAH          Some tonic left in cupboard behind satee,(SAL GOES BEHIND SATEE AND GETS GIN THEN POURS HERSELF A GLASS WITH GIN)  You know I’d rather just just go than lose my mind Sal,  I wouldn’t want Jim or my kids to see me like that or to have to take care of me…….look at wee Mrs Smyth facin the park, she went out for a loaf and hit her head on the foot path and look at her now……….she doesn’t know who she is even. I think as long as you have your mind nothing else is as bad?

SAL                 I don’t know about that Norah, I’m just afraid!

NORAH          Don’t be……….what will be will be, that’s the way I see things!

SAL                 You always have an answer Norah, that’s why I needed to talk to you, I don’t know what to do now, about Porky and getting married and not being able to have kids………….he doesn’t know yet, hadn’t the heart to tell him. I had to leave him in Heinzes, he kept asking me if I was happy, I kept pretending to smile, but, Norah, he didn’t ask me about the results……….do you not think that’s a bit strange?

(THEY BOTH STARE AT ONE ANOTHER FOR A FEW MOMENT)

NORAH          I don’t know Sal if its strange or not, it depends if its strange to you, you’re the one that matters; and kids, what do you mean,you can have kids, well not your own but they’ll become your own, yours and Porkys when you bring them home. Remember Sal, a home isn’t just a house it’s the place where people keep coming back to, to love one another…………….each room should be infused with love and contentment (SAYS GENTLY) you know that!

SAL                 (Hesitates) No Norah, you know that, you’re married with three kids, ……….you and Jim are so……..so lucky, Norah.

NORAH          Yeah that’s right and so will you and Porky be as well, I know you will, you’re like me Sal, I’ve always only ever wanted to be a wife and mother and to be part of the greatness and powerfulness of family life.

SAL                 You just inspire the two socks of any moanin miney like me Norah (LAUGHS)

NORAH          Ache Sal you’re lovely, if you were a tree I’d hug ya 

SAL                 (Jokingly) Norah, if I were a tree I’d be a weepin willow and you’d be a wise old oak!

NORAH          Less of the old………..

SAL                 How am I going to tell him Norah?

NORAH          Tell him with your heart Sal, that’s what I’d do if I were in your position. No bull shit. Just tell him and if it makes a difference to the way he feels then he isn’t the right one for you. Look, Sal, I know it’s a big deal but if he really loves you for who you are, then, then that’s it. I know Porky, there has never been anyone else for him but his wee Sal.

(BABY CRIES NORAH LIFTS HER AND SITS DOWN AND BEGINS TO FEED HER)

SAL                 See what I mean Norah, that will never be me, ever. I will never hold my own child and nurish her with myself, how I wish with all my heart right now Norah that I had what you have.

SAL LIFTS GLASS OF FLOOR AND POURS SOME GIN THEN DRINKS

NORAH          Being a mother is more that feeding your baby, Sal, love is everything and part of that love is to be there for your child when it needs you most.

SAL                 Yeah Norah, but how will Porky feel about not having his own?

NORAH          His own, his own, if you adopt a child and love the child it will always be your own. Kids know when they are loved.

SAL                 Well, how’s Porky goin to take that, he mightn’t still want me then! Porky’s not philosophical Norah, but I do know he wants his own children.

NORAH          Oh Sal, in that case the sooner you tell him the better!    

SAL                 At last Norah you’ve got it! But how do I tell him? Would you tell him for me?

LIGHTS SOFTEN ON CENTRE STAGE AND MOVE TO WOMAN ON LAP TOP

WOLP            (To audience) It says here… and I quote: ‘A confidential police report into the killing of an innocent civilian, Norah McCabe, by a plastic bullet fired from an RUC Land Rover at the height of the 1981 hunger strike reveals that the order to fire was given by the senior RUC commander, Chief Supt Jimmy Crutchley’. Now remember this is a police report..yes the police reporting on themselves…..Douglas Hurd, a secretary of state for Northern Ireland in 1984 was given this report and it says; (nodding her head at audience) yes, I have it here in front of me, I’ve even printed it out in case my laptop shuts down for some unknown reason which has happened me before, I take no chances these days…anyway it says: “Norah McCabe was shot at around 7.30am which was a few hours after the hunger striker Joe Mc Donnell died on the 8^th of July 1981. Without regaining consciousness, the mother of 3 died the following day aged 33 due to a brain laceration consistent with injuries fired by a plastic baton round”. And it gets worse……….the police deny they had anything to do with it.  In a separate statement it says the medical doctors worked hard to save Norah, but it was not to be.

LIGHTS OF WOMAN AND ONTO AÍNE AT OTHER SIDE OF STAGE SHE WALKS TO EDGE OF STAGE OPENS AN SCHOOL EXERCISE BOOK AND READS

AÍNE               Dear mother, dear mum, dear ma, mammy. Maybe I would have called you Norah……maybe not…I’ll never know now. (looks up at audience and speaks in a whispered tone) I suppose it depends what age you are to decide which title to use, I mean like, when I called daddy, daddy.  When I was a kid I’d call him daddy and then when I got older I’d call him da, my da, always with respect and love for all he did for me……….It was granny Mc Cabe who looked after us and in a strange sense because I never knew my mammy I didn’t know what it was that I was missing………then……..granny Mc Cabe give us all the love we needed. (Sigh) I didn’t know what to write in the letter the teacher asked all our class to write to our mammies, but I just wanted to write something to her because I was feeling a sort of distance between us, what I mean really I suppose is that I just didn’t know how you’re supposed to feel when your mammy goes to the shops and doesn’t come home because she can’t because she’s dead, shot dead for nothing just because she’s there… standing there… and for no other reason………..  So I wrote and rewrote this a million times and it still didn’t say how I felt……..(changes tone) I was 15 weeks old when you were shot dead…mammy I didn’t hear you close the door but I’m sure you kissed my cheek and thought of me as you moved down that empty street……….maybe you were frightened mammy as you heard the land rover screech from out of the silence on the Falls road that morning, the rioters had all gone to bed but you would have smelt the burned out cars still smouldering further up that broken hearted road………..I didn’t know what a broken heart was Mother dear till I realised how you died. Write back if you can. Always your baby. (blows a kiss)

LIGHTS FADE THEN BACK ON TO WOLT

WOLT            (To audience) Look this is it, this is the thing: there was rioting, bin lids and bricks, it must have been awful, but we have to remember there was no shooting, no snipper attacks, just bin lids and bricks and petrol bombs which could not have done any or at least not much damage to the police because they were all in their land rovers with doors and windows shut and well protected by bullet proof glass etc………get it…….none of them ventured out of the land rovers.  There was a dog barking and following the land rovers, which must have been exciting……..lol…..(puts hands over both sides of her face in gesture) I know I know there was no such saying as lol then in the eighties it’s a new thing with face book and all…….anyway this woman Norah walks out of her house in Linden Street where she lived with her husband and 3 kids who were safely tucked up in bed fast asleep and she was gaspin for a cigarette and needed milk for their breakfast, closes the hall door and hurries down a few yards to the shop on the front of the road and on her way, (pause) she never actually reached the shop, because, a land rover carrying RUC personnel screech to a halt and and yes they must have aimed at her and shot her in the head, they had to aim because the chances of that being accidental are about a million to one…………there was no rioting no crowds no anything just Norah Mc Cabe on her way to the local sweetie shop…but there’s more and it get even more unbelievable…..Chief Superintend  Crutchley who gave the order to ‘fire’ denies that it was aimed at Mrs Mc Cabe but at two petrol bombers in Clonard Street but as a map of the area will verify Clonard and Linden streets are separated by a row of shops and houses and to fire up Linden Street is not to fire up Clonard Street because that would be an impossibility…………that would mean the plastic bullet had to turn a corner and then turn again to go up Linden street………I ask you………..!(motions with his hands)

LIGHTS FADE OUT AND FADE INTO CENTRE STAGE

NORAH          It’s like this Sal, if he really loves you and you really love him and he knows and accepts that you won’t be able to have kids…… and he still loves you……….. then what’s the problem………..

SALL DRINKS ANOTHER GLASS OF GIN VERY QUICKLY

SAL                 The problem is…………Porky would make a great da and he wants to be a da…………he might’n want me. He might look else where…………Norah, it’s a pity you could have a baby for us…………………

NORAH STARES AT SALL WITH HER MOUTH OPENED

NORAH          I don’t know whether to laugh or cry at that remark Sal. Jim Mc Cabe would have something to say about that!

SAL                 Only jokin Norah, but I’m in desperation……….

NORAH          Aren’t we all girl, but you’ll have to tell him first and then see if he’s the man you’ve always built him up to be! Look Sal, first things first, he proposed to you today and that’s cause for a celebration, now come on a bit of music (LOOKING OVER AT COT PUTS FINGER UP TO MOUTH INDICATING NOT TOO LOUD STARTS SINGING)

                        CONGRATULATION AND JUBLIATIONS I WANT THE WORLD TO KNOW YOU’RE HAPPY AS CAN BE BE BE BE…. BE BE

SAL                 (Laughing) This is why I came here to see you Norah I just knew I’d get a laugh……..

THEY THROW ARMS AROUND EACH OTHER AND HUG

NORAH          Now for real music (goes over to cassette player) but have to keep it low……….(looking into cot) don’t want to waken this little angel

SEARCHES THROUGH TAPES AND PICKS OUT SURPREMES, YOU CAN’T HURRY LOVE.

                        Pal of my cradle days I’ll keep this for later, YOU CAN’T HURRY LOVE, I just love this Sal, here’s one for the first dance at your weddin .

YOU CAN’T HURRY LOVE PLAYS AND TWO GIRLS GET UP AND DANCE TOGETHER AND SING SONG AT END OF SONG NORAH BEGINS TO CRY AND SITS DOWN ON SITEE SAL TRYS TO COMFORT HER

SAL                 God, Norah, what’s the matter? What’s wrong? I thought you were happy……….

NORAH          (Sobbing) I am……..oh God…. I love Jim… I really love him and our 3 kids………I just love them all to bits what would I do without them………

SAL                 (Laugh) For frig sake Norah I thought there was something wrong there….you’re a geg I came round here to get some comfort and now it’s me comfortin you………(laughs) we’re both a geg aren’t we?

BOTH FALL BACK ON SITEE AND LAUGH AT EACH OTHER AS LIGHTS FADE SLOWLY, MUSIC STOPS, AND LIGHTS OPEN ON WOMAN AT LAPTOP

WOLT            What do you think of this……….(looks for acknowledgement) Well wait till you hear…………..   

SHE MOVES TO FRONT OF DESK WITH PENCIL AND EXERCISE BOOK IN HAND AND READS

CONTINUES:

                        Hunger striker Joe Mc Donnell dies at eleven minutes past five in the early hours of the 8^th July 1981, he was the fifth hunger striker to die and almost immediately there was rioting in Belfast and spreading everywhere else in the North. At approximately 7.30 am Norah Mc Cabe a 33 year old house wife and mother of 3 young children was making her way along Linden Street off the Falls road where earlier, further down the road there had been stone throwing at the RUC who were driving up and down the road, as well as bin lid bashing which was the norm when some tragedy occurred in nationalist areas of the 6 counties at that time.  It goes on: Mrs Mc Cabe was walking alone to a shop on the front of the road to buy milk and cigarettes when she was struck on the back of the head with a plastic bullet fired from one of two RUC land rovers on the Falls road at that time.  There was no rioting or disturbance in that area and the RUC denied firing any plastic bullets at all. (raises her index finger on left hand) But listen to this; this is incredible: At an inquest in 1982 RUC witnesses claimed the road was strewn with beer barrels and concrete blocks.  They said their Land Rover was coming under heavy attack with petrol bombs and stones. But, as part of judicial review proceedings brought by Mrs McCabe’s husband Jim, film footage taken by Canadian cameramen at the scene was produced in a bid to “demolish” the credibility of the police account. Now, just wait till I tell you this: I looked at the video footage on youtube and it’s just incredible, unbelievable, but real…………really……real. You can see the two police land rovers passing Clonard street…… which is yards from Linden street……….then stopping at Linden street and turning as if they were going to go up Linden street but they hesitate and out of a port hole in the first land rover a puff of smoke is clearly visible and a loud bang accompanying the smoke. But wait………..there’s more!

LIGHTS DIM SLOWLY THEN BACK ON NORAH AND SAL- NORAH IS ASLEEP

SAL                 Norah, (whispers) Norah, wake up don’t be sleeping on me Norah, please. (Shakes Norah lightly)

NORAH          Sal, what’s wrong. Is he dead?  Has Joe Mc Donnell died?

SAL                 God no Norah, he’s not dead yet, we would have heard the bin lids if he was.

NORAH HOLDS THE SIDE OF HER HEAD AS IF IN PAIN

NORAH          Don’t know what’s the matter with my head it’s really sore… what time is it anyway?

SAL                 (looks at watch) It’s just gone ten to five, no point in me goin home now I’ll wait till it’s a bit brighter and get a bap and a scone in Patsy’s on the way home……..I’m sure you miss his baps Norah, they’re still warm when my da brings them in after he finishes the night shift, the butter melts as   you butter them……..mmmmmm I’d love one now.           

NORAH          When I go out for my cigs and milk I’ll get one in Gillilands they’re always fresh and firm and easy to cut, that’s what I like about there’s! (Gets up) Right, I’ll put the tea pot on, feed AÍNE and get her ready then myself and hopefully Paul and James will have a lie in………there now……that’s me organised for the day…………

BIN LIDS ARE HEARD BANGING FROM A DISTANCE

SAL                 What’s that….oh God it’s the bin lids Joe M Donnell must be dead-

NORAH JUMPS UP AND GOES TO FRONT DOOR COMES BACK IN WITH A CIGARETTE IN HAND

NORAH          Wee Cooper gave me his last cig – God bless him…….he’s not dead yet but it won’t be long now the Sinn Fein office is still opened that’s where wee Cooper’s goin….they’ll be the first to know down here………

SAL                 It sounds awful Norah but – I wonder who’s goin to die in the next couple of days?

NORAH          I know…….that poor wee lad Guiney and his da………..delivering the milk..he was only 14….

SAL                 Yeah….same as Julie Livingstone she was on her way home from school and wee Carol Anne Kelly what age was she?

NORAH          Eleven, I think – God bless her – she was at a house shop getting a cartoon of milK (shivers) Oh someone walked over my grave – my heads bangin Sal……….(puts hand up to left ear)

WOLP            Just wait till you hear this……….the report states that because the RUC didn’t know where Mrs McCabe was shot they were at a disadvantage because the scene of the crime was not sealed off for forensics to gather information…all that was lost…….(shakes head) only because it was ignored………because the RUC initially denied firing the shot in the first place…..bear in mind the shot came from the Land Rover in which the Officer in charge, a Mr Crutchley, as he is constantly referred to in this document gave the order to fire,  all the evidence from the road proving that the RUC land rover turned briefly into Linden street…was lost…………the fact that someone was shot and killed was of no bearing in any investigation……..The investigation seems to have been conducted from the perspective that the RUC were not involved in this shooting…………And here’s another thing, now listen to this, and I quote word for word, here goes…….’It must be remembered that rear passengers in a Hotspur land rover have a very limited view of their surroundings and it is a known fact that they can become disorientated after extensive driving around a restricted portion of an urban area.  The firing aperture in the side of the vehicle is approximately five inches square (holds card up) so accuracy is always difficult from a vehicle’…………What did I just read?  That sounds like ……..well it would be safer for people on the street if the shooter was blindfolded………….Crutchley gave the order to shoot……and the man beside him with the gun did exactly what he was ordered to do…………..he fired at a woman who was probably frightened by the roar and behaviour of those land rovers………my God what have they done……what did they think they were doing shooting at an innocent woman at that time of the morning when there was nothing going on in the street except a few people on their way to work and one woman on her way to get milk and cigarettes with nothing more than change in her pockets…………my God………I feel angry…………I feel like………..like I’m lost here I don’t know where I am I’m caught up here in all of this. I was only looking up my mums’ ancestry and look what I find why am I feeling this way about a complete stranger Norah McCabe? Can someone tell me……please! (Pause) Why is this making me feel so bad, it’s as though I’m actually part of it part of this whole drama why? (Folds the sheets of paper in his hand up and shuts down lap top) WHY……….it sticks out like a sore thumb……..(in a whisper) doesn’t it? They thought it would go away………….but it didn’t……….Norah’s husband made it his life’s work………..to get justice for his wife and the mother of their 3 children………..But the question is: Did he get justice? After all those years of unrelenting pursuit of Justice he just never stopped……….I’ve read it all here in black and white……..but I don’t know I can’t answer for him. His children didn’t get justice, their mother was…….and is irreplaceable……. where’s the justice in that?

LIGHTS OUT AND ON IN LIVING ROOM

NORAH PUT COAT ON AND GOES ACROSS TO BABY IN COT AND SMILES THEN GOES OUT DOOR.

THE BANG OF THE DOOR IS LOUD FOLLOWED BY THE SCREECHING OF LAND ROVER THEN SINGLE SHOT. LIGHTS OUT AND VOICE OVER OF VAL FROM START OF PLAY IS HEARD.

STILL IN DARKNESS WOLP SAYS:

WHO WAS NORAH MC CABE

She was….. She is

The mother who gave birth

The wife who loved her husband

The daughter who…………….

The sister who……………..

            The friend who……………

The memory that is forever young

The life that is forever missed

The grandmother whose goodness

Shelters the grandchildren that she never held nor kissed…. Because…..

A plastic bullet ended all of this!

V/O                All these years later (pause) and some days it still feels like it all happened only yesterday. The thick black smoke still chokes me up at times but I know it won’t last forever it will fade at some point and I’ll sigh and breathe clean fresh air into my lungs again…..I can do that……..but I can never forget what happened to Norah McCabe and the other sixteen:

                        PETER DOHERTY, MICHAEL DONNELLY, SEAN DOWNES, HENRY DUFFY, SEAMUS DUFFY, THOMAS FRIEL, STEPHEN GEDDIS, CAROL ANN KELLY, JULIE LIVINGSTONE, STEPHEN McCONOMY, PETER McGUINNESS, TOBIAS MOLLOY, FRANCIS ROWNTREE, BRIAN STEWART, KEITH WHITE……PAUL WHITTERS.

                       

END