creativisit Archives

Only in San Francisco

February 15, 2022February 14, 2012 by Orna Ross

I’m awake in the middle of the San Francisco night, maybe because my body’s still on London time, maybe because … Read more

Friday Fiction: I'm No Traitor

August 25, 2022November 11, 2011 by Orna Ross

AFTER THE RISING. EPISODE SIX: I'm No Traitor

The story so far: Jo Devereux is back in Mucknamore, the Irish seaside village where she grew up, for her mother’s funeral. In her will, her mother’s has bequeathed a pile of family papers and asked Jo to write about her family’s part in the Irish liberation struggle. Jo is fascinated by what she finds in these papers. But what part did her family really play in that struggle? Why did Dan O'Donovan die? And what does it all mean for her relationship with Rory O’Donovan, Dan's nephew, whom she swore she'd never let back into her life?

You can read previous chapters HERE.

They are unmaking the house. From the door of the shed, I stand and watch the diggers trundle their mechanical dance around the building: forwards and backwards, claws up, claws down, buckets full, buckets empty. Drills puncture the walls and bricks that have supported each other for more than a hundred years fall apart.

On and on it goes, day after day. Inside, steel struts brace the structure they want to retain, stop the whole from collapsing.

I watch the work from my cowshed. Here is where I live now, inside a strange

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Chapter 4. Jo Shares Her Secret.

February 24, 2022October 28, 2011 by Orna Ross

The story so far: Jo Devereux is back in Mucknamore, the Irish seaside village where she grew up. Her mother's dying request is that she will stay on and write a family history, from the pile of family papers she's bequeathed her about the Irish liberation struggle in 1922. Life back in San Francisco is not ideal for Jo but how can she stay on in Mucknamore, when she has never fitted in? And when Rory O’Donovan, the only man she ever really loved, lives there with his wife and children and seems to think they can now be friends, despite all that happened.

You can read previous chapters HERE.

Now READ ON:

Over, yes. But now this compulsion to write about it and live it again. And I have to start with that awful night in San Francisco with Dee, just before I heard that Mrs D. was dying.

I don’t want to remember myself, walking along the solid city sidewalk, through air thickening with the smell of food. Or Dee and I, sitting at our usual table outside Benton’s, heads leaning into each other over bowls of pasta, while the sky faded from blue to purple, and lights sprang on across the city, their sense of promise making me ache, so that the night stretched

After The Rising 3. Never Say Never.

February 24, 2022October 14, 2011 by Orna Ross

The story so far: Jo Devereux has returned to Mucknamore, the Irish seaside village where she grew up, for her mother's funeral after an absence of 20 years. There she reconnects with her sister Maeve and her ex-boyfriend, Rory O'Donovan, the only man she has ever loved, who caused the rift between her and her family. Now read on:

‘So, Dev,’ he says, after my sister has made her excuses and scuttled away. ‘What’s going on? Why are you receiving us in bed, like a courtesan? You don’t look sick to me. You look better than ever.’

As he’s talking, he’s pulling out the chair from the corner and bringing it over, close to the bed. ‘Don’t think I don’t know what you’re up to. Lying low, avoiding the mob. Avoiding me too, you brat.’

Brat-sh. The soft Irish T. He sounds so Wexford to my ears now, such a strong streak of Mucknamore in his accent: the nasal vowels, the singing rise and fall to his sentences. But of course it’s my speech that has changed, not his. I am stuck again by the newness of him, the short hair that makes him look unfinished.

‘It’s all a bit Mucknamore for me.’

‘I knew it.’

‘I hear you’re a full fledged resident now.’ I speak as if I only heard today, as if Maeve and Dee, my Wexford friend who also lives in SF, hadn’t passed on everything they knew about him since I left. ‘Was the progressive liberalism that drew you? Or the cultural stimulation?’

‘No need to sneer, city girl. It’s a good place to live.’

I raise my brows into a question. The Rory I knew could not have

After The Rising 2. Falling Awake

August 25, 2022October 7, 2011 by Orna Ross

The story so far: Jo Devereux has returned to Mucknamore, the Irish seaside village where she grew up, for her mother's funeral after an absence of 20 years. There she reconnects with her sister Maeve, brother-in-law Donal, niece Ria and – to her great surprise – Rory O'Donovan, once the love of her life and the last person she expected to see at a Devereux funeral. Now read on:

Donal explains that we are to stand behind the hearse and lead the cortège down to the old cemetery. Only when he says this do I look across and realize: my father’s grave lies flat and undisturbed.

‘Let me guess: another special request?’

‘Yep. She’s to be buried with her own family.’

Not with Daddy. I’m surprised she braved the scandal of that, dead or alive.

‘And according to the grand plan, we all have to walk there.’

To the old cemetery? That’s down almost as far as Rathmeelin, the next village up the coast. In this heat? I doubt I’ll be able to make it. But now here’s Maeve bustling across, aggravated-big-sister expression in place. ‘Am I supposed to say,

A Crowd of Stars