The Callaghans Part Four. The Maiden's Prayer. Chapter 3.

The Callaghans

Part Four.

The Maiden's Prayer.

Chapter 3

When his parents returned to Birmingham Finbar managed to get more work at Moor Street Market. He was of legal working age but he didn't have any leaving certificate from school so he never bothered and in any case he didn't know how to go about registering. If he'd have stayed in Birmingham and left school, he would have been issued with a National Insurance Number and a National Insurance Card. The employers filled the card with National Insurance stamps which would made him eligible for, what was called, the old age pension and other benefits.

He had visited Moore Street market many times with Joe and he liked listening to the traders trying to sell their wares. He chanted with the woman selling the oranges 'odengeeez' he shouted and he got a few laughs from everybody. They liked it so much they gave him the job. From there he carried bags of potatoes to and from other stalls and eventually became a general help or, as Joe called him, a general nuisance.

Carmel and Patrick returned to Dublin again, for St. Patrick's Day, which they didn't normally do but because Finbar was there it was an excuse to see him. Joe had collected shamrock for them from St. Stephen's Green, which he kept in a little bowl of water, and the four of them wore the shamrock on their chests as they walked to where the shamrock was picked.

Finbar liked St. Stephen's Green too and afterwards they went to the pictures in O'Connell Street, next to the Gresham Hotel. The film was about the sinking of the ship Titanic and was called A Night to Remember.

The four of them loved it and they likened it to their travels across The Irish Sea. Afterwards they talked about it in The Gresham Hotel, where they each had a glass of uisce beatha, , or Irish whiskey, and Finbar drank fruit juice.

Carmel discovered a Nelson type inhaler, which she got for Joe and Patrick told Finbar to make sure he used it. All he had to do was fill it with boiling water. It was a bit like a long cup or mug and Joe had to breath in through a spout at the top; it seemed to work well.

It was ironic to Carmel and Patrick that they were in England, for financial reasons, the work, where they didn't have a bathroom, or indeed hot running water, and back home, in dear old Dublin they had a bathroom and all the hot water they ever needed all heated up with a good fire of turf.

Finbar continued writing to Sofia in Birmingham and also to Carmel and Patrick, so he became a dab hand at putting words together. With Sofia he, with her, discussed meeting with her when he returned to Birmingham, and they also hinted at Sofia visiting him in Dublin but . . . . . they were children, not even at the age of consent so why it might have been okay for Finbar to stay with his folks, Sofia didn't know anybody in Dublin.

He was happy at the market and, now and the went with Joe to Old Mother Red Caps. Joe joined in with the singing and strummed his banjo but did nothing solo and Finbar started playing the harmonica. Patrick had bought a new one and sent it over in the mail. Finbar gave it a good look, a little play, not too much just a little scale, then he took the old one from the top of the piano and played that. He compared the two and decided to play the old one.

Another thing he did was to play Joe's tin whistle; Joe handed it to him when he stood up to play, he put it to his lips and Deedle ap a doodle de doodle ap a doodee. Deedle ap a doodle de doodle ap! eedle ap a doodle de doodle ap a doodee. Deedle ap a doodle de doodle ap! And improvised a tune after that.

Joe joined in with the banjo and a fella with a bodhrán played along: bucka bucka bucka bucka bucka bucka bum: bucka bucka bucka bucka bum. Then the crowd started clapping and a singer from the stage, joined in, with what they might call a portaireacht bhéil – a kind of Irish scat singing.

Every time Finbar went to the place he did something new.

One day in summer, Finbar was in Moore Street and who should he see arriving but Joe. When others noticed who Finbar was talking to, they gathered around as Joe was a well known character around the streets. People knew him from the times he sang in many of the pubs and played the banjo and Finbar felt so proud and Mrs. Duffy who sold the oranges said 'now we know where you get it from.'

They never recognised that Finbar and Joe had been regulars at the market; it was the music which made the penny drop just who he was.

Joe's breathing got a little better, as the warm breeze turned into a light soft movement of air, and as Joe felt the warmth of it from his ankles to his nose he said 'people often wonder why I never wear socks and I just think of this day – let's go and get a nice cream cake.' and off the two of them went to Bewleys.

Finbar never went anywhere near the official place he needed to register as an inhabitant of Dublin, he was born there so he must be a citizen but what harm was he doing, he was buying things in the shops and they'd pay tax on it.

Carmel and Patrick came over for the following Christmas and Saint Patrick's Day and it became evident that Joe was relying on Finbar. He nursed him through two other winters and sometimes when he went out he was pushed in a wheel chair by Finbar. He got the chair from Mrs. Boyle's son when his mother died and, like The Atomic Flyer, Finbar decorated it with stickers from a bicycle shop but he couldn't find one with Atomic Flyer on it so settled for Zarkow 1 which was Flash Gordon's rocket ship.

One day a letter came from Sofia and she told him she was going out with some fella from Great Barr, over the other side of Birmingham. She said she usually met him at the Kardomah Cafe on the corner of Navigation Street; usually met him, he thought.

Brighton Road, Balsall Heath, in Birmingham, is almost the southern most point on Moseley Road before it gets to Moseley. Beyond that, Moseley Road becomes Alcester Road. The word Alcester is a very familiar word to the neighbourhood as the number fifty bus displayed its destination as Alcester Lanes End, which hardly anyone had ever been there, or even knew where it was. The correct pronunciation was Ulsster, a bit like the Provence in Ireland, but the people of Birmingham would say Allssester so if anybody mentioned it you knew which were the Brummies.

Back to Brighton Road, which is off the east side of Moseley Road, and the first thing to see in the distance was a railway bridge, maybe a hundred yards down. One of the houses on the right hand side had a porch over the front door, and that was the house Finbar used to look at to as he rode the Dynamic Flyer on the way to school.

Not long after Finbar received the letter from Sofia he knocked that door and stood on the step. After a minute or so he could see a tall figure through the diamond leaded glass door approaching. The door opened and it was Sofia's dad; when he saw Finbar he stopped for a moment; he knew who it was:

'Yes, young man?' he said.

'Is Sofia in?' said Finbar.

'Yes she is' said Mr. Taboné, 'who shall I say is calling.'

Finbar knew full well, that Mr. Taboné knew who it was and stopped saying anything for a moment, then said 'Finbar John Timothy Joseph Callaghan.'

'Oh' said Taboné 'Mr Callaghan of Meet Mr. Callaghan, fame?'

A feature film of the time.

'More than likely' said Finbar,

Taboné tapped him gently on the shoulder and said 'How are you Finbar – Sabbinirica.' 

'Okay' said Finbar and Mr. Taboné gestured him in and opened the door, off the hall, into the parlour.

Finbar went inside, also called the 'front' room and sat down on the sofa which had its back to the bay window so that when he waited for Sofia he saw the whole room. At the back was a piano and on the right, above the fire place was a huge picture of a family. Finbar presumed it was the Tabonés back in Sicily in the olden days, before Italy was at war with Britain. At least he did wonder if Sicily was in Italy and if Sicilians were also Italians. In fact he wondered, as he was sitting there, if the Scottish and Welsh people were also English; he knew the Irish were only Irish but – then he remembered the name British. Yes they were Scottish and British and . . .

The door opened and in stepped Sofia; sixteen year old Sofia looking radiant and beautiful. She wore a pair of slacks and a polo necked pullover, and a huge smile on her face.

'Hello' she said.

'Hello.' said Finbar, and he stood up.

She didn't move. He didn't move.

He smiled 'When did you come back?' she said.

'Yesterday. Yesterday morning.' he kind of mumbled.

'Oh' she said 'I can hear your accent.'

He smiled.

I came on the bus, from the station and forgot the Brummy accent. It sounded, it sounded . . . . '

'What?'

'Strange.' he said 'as if they were all putting it on. You sound the same.'

'The same as people on the bus, or . .'

'No – the same as you used to – must be the art school.'

'Oh yes – I forgot I told you about the art school.'

'Is it the one on Moseley Road? Is that Moseley Art School?'

'Yes' she said 'how's your mom and dad?'

'They're okay.'

'You didn't tell me you were coming.'

'No, I had to come over suddenly' he said 'I had to thank Syd for a picture.'

'You came all the way to thank him for a - a picture?'

'Yes.'

'Syd?'

'Our neighbour. I can only be a minute. I, er – do you want to meet up?'

'I don't mind.' she said 'when?'

'Tomorrow.'

'Yes – okay.'

'I have to be in, er, in we Hurst Street tomorrow to er, to meet Don – Don from the scouts.'

'Okay – what time?'

'I don't know, can I meet you about four – at the number fifty bus outside the Hipp?'

'The Hipp?'

'The Hippodrome.'

'I think so – I'll come straight from school – no let's say four thirty and I can get changed.'

'Okay.' he said.

He didn't have any business to meet Don and he didn't know how Syd was but he looked in at Syd when he got home. He looked older than he remembered him but he was okay. Elsie wasn't getting around too well and had a walking frame. A zimmer they called it. In the evening Camel and Patrick introduced him to Calista and Mateus who had opened an Indian Restaurant on Moseley Road. It was the first Indian meal Finbar had tried and he wasn't quite used to it so didn't eat it all.

But they loved Finbar, it was the first time they met. They had a nice conversation at the table then they returned to their little cottage with the cold water and outside lavatory. At dinner they talked about the points system and how many they needed to get a council house.

'How low do you have to go when no hot water doesn't give you enough points for a house this day and age?' said Mateus.

The next day Finbar met Sofia outside The Birmingham Hippodrome; of course it was her smile he saw first.

'How'i ye?'

'Hi' she said.

They walked up Hill Street, away from the railway station and Sofia said 'Where are you taking me?'

'Aha' said Finbar.

As they walked they came to Jack Woodruff's Guitar Shop. She stopped. 'I've been having guitar lessons there.' she said.

'How are you getting on?'

'Okay now.' she said 'but when I first started not so good. On the second week the teacher didn't turn up. Then he came the third week and not the fourth.'

'What did you do?'

'I told them in the shop so they recommended a woman guitar teacher. She was great – a girl from Yardley.'

'You'll have to play something for me.'

'I only play chords.' she said.

They walked on 'where are we going?' she said again, then they turned the corner into Navigation Street and the Kardomah Cafe.

'Oh?' she said.

They went in and he ordered two drip coffees. Two cups with a plastic thing on top which allows coffee to drip through into the cup.

As he sat down he said 'now where's this bloke from Great Barr?'

She laughed.

'Still in Great Barr?' he said.

'And how's Sydney?'

©2025 Chris Sullivan