Maura Lines - Maura Dunne

(Enter into prison 1)

Stay.

Why?

I want to tell you something. You killed ann innocent boy.

I don’t care. (1)

I want to tell you that you deserve to die.

I don’t care. (2)

Come close.

What are you going to do? Clobber me with your handbag?

(After drawing knife) What am I to do?

Just push and swipe.

No, let go. Oh, this rage is pain itself. What I might have done?

Did you come here to kill me?

It crossed my mind.

How did you get the knife in?

I had two. When they saw the fist they were so distracted… they were laughing at me… they didn’t see the second caught in the lining of my bag.

Can I have the knife?

No, you can’t. Is this your first time in prison?

Yea.

It’s like the zoo. Seeing the animals in their cages. Lots of energy and danger trapped in small places. It’s very odd.

What?

Seeing you.

What are you doing here? You must know. You got an a bus and came all the way over here.

Curiosity. Half the time I don’t believe you’re real. That the whole thing’s not a nightmare.

Why? Just get on with your life and forget!

I might learn something.

What’s there to learn?

Isn’t that the thing? You can’t know until you know. (Pause) Do you have enemies?

I’m mostly under the tater. Keep to myself. I’ve only had to fight a couple of times. Broke some ribs, messed up my face. Mostly people are afraid of me because I’m a murderer.

It’s not easy to kill. That’s why they’re afraid.

I don’t get visitors. Have you got a smoke?

I don’t smoke.

I’ll be transferring to Mountjoy when I’m sixteen. It’s been okay with the boys, but the men are more, I don’t know, not much to lose, animal, kinda.

Are you part of the IRA?

You mean like ‘Up the Republic!’ and ‘Tiocfaidh ar la!’ That kind of thing… Not me, but Matt is, says he is anyway.

Matt?

My cellmate. (beat) You shouldn’t be here. This is an awful place. You’re a nice lady.

Did anyone order you to kill Colm?

Order? No. Chas had a gun. Chas Brady. It was gang still. Stupid… stuff. Chas hated Colm.

Why, for godssake? Colm was a sweet kid.

That’s why maybe. He wore that school uniform and went to Drimnagh Castle. Rosy cheeks and clear eyes, make you sick. (Pause) That’s what Chas used to say. I had never held a gun before. Chas said shoot, shoot the Sticky…

What? What did he say?

To be part of the gang, you know, ‘shoot the Sticky, you’ll be part of the gang, one of the big boys’

Do you know what that is?

No, just… no.

You’ve been involved in stuff you know nothing about. My son died for no reason. In a way that’s first than being targeted. Even more senseless. What am I to do? Go back to mourning? People who know still look at me in pity.

You’re a strange lady. Like you’re messed up or something.

I am messed up. I feel like I’m not there, like all the gas there is a cloud… you can’t quite grasp it. You can feel the chill, the damp, but otherwise it’s not there… Do you want a book?

I can’t read.

You can learn.

She’s not my Ma. She’s a… who are you?

I’m a neighbor.

(Enter to house 1)

I nearly killed him.

You wouldn’t have. What were you thinking? Going in there like that?

I told you. I had to see for myself.

Yeah, but that’s not only it. My speech for the Ard Fheis. Sit down I spoke to Iggy. There not going to retaliate.

Why not?

Colm wasn’t targeted.

That’s what the kid said, but it was a Webley, we know it was from their pile.

It wasn’t on purpose. Nobody gave any command.

You don’t know that.

Iggy talked to people in Kevin Street. He roughed Brady up, let him know we know the story.

That’s not good enough! What am I supposed to do with that?

Do what we all do. Live with it.

I don’t want to live with it. I’m not sure I like all this understanding and acceptance lark. So what if it wasn’t a direct order? I’ve still got a dead child. And these fucking Provos off on a rampage, cleansing and purifying and you with your Ard Fheis and your Stalinist Jesuit Marxist Leninist Party crap, what am I supposed to do with any of it!?

We have to be the better person at every turn. We can’t be losing the head at every slight.

It’s not a slight. It’s a dead child!

Sorry, that’s not what I meant. I meant we have to be calm. And remain in the moral high ground. I need you at the Ard Fheis. Now more than ever. They’ll follow your lead. I need those votes.

I’ll kill him next time.

No you won’t. You’d end up in prison.

Makes no difference. The prison’s in here.

Can I count on you to be at the Ard Fheis?

Oh, it’s too damn serious for me to take it seriously. (Pause) I’m with you, Niall, but I hate Ard Fheises. I never know what’s going on.