The Callaghans Part Four. The Maiden's Prayer. Chapter 4

 ©2025 Chris Sullivan

The Callaghans

Part Four.

The Maiden's Prayer.

Chapter 4

There were lots of things Finbar did, whilst in Birmingham. He looked up Daniel, who had left the scouts and he looked at his little office come place to dump things, since he'd been in Dublin, and as he was still officially resident there, Carmel and Patrick were offered a maisonette, on a new estate being built in Sparkhill. One evening they went for a walk around there to Alfred Road, which is where it was located, and they didn't fancy it. There are many kinds of maisonettes and the ones in Alfred Road were like houses on top of houses. They didn't like the place much and turned it down. Patrick said he wouldn't like to be under people walking about over his head, when he was trying to get some sleep.

The Birmingham Council told them they would be demoted down the list but they decided to decline the offer.

Before going over to Birmingham, Finbar packed his granda, Joe, off to his brother in Cork. It made him feel secure if he knew he was being looked after and he was with someone as Joe was not as strong as he used to be. That's age, of course, but being gassed at The Somme didn't help.

He took Sofia out to a few places. He felt a bit strange taking her on the number eight bus to the Bristol Picture House on Bristol Road, once, by not being able to sit next to her. She up front and he at the back. He kept looking at her in case the person next to her got up and got off but it wasn't to be. So when the bus got to Moseley Road he waited on the platform for her and they walked off hand in hand.

When they stopped for a moment to peek down his little lane they let go of their hands and when they started off again, she put her hand into his arm like a husband and wife might do.

They walked up to Brighton Road and before she went in to the house, they stood at the end of the tiny front garden with a privet growing above the little three foot wall, where they kissed and cuddled for a while.

Inside, Mr. and Mrs. Taboné knew where they were and knew what they were doing and as the 1960s had only just begun, and hadn't started swinging yet, they really did know what they were doing and if they didn't, that was then and we won't pry.

He waited till she had closed the door before he set off. They had just been to see G.I. Blues, with Elvis Presley, and in the opening scene he, Elvis, is sitting in a tank, and when they finish their task he says 'Home James, through the park.' and the audience loved it. There was Elvis being a soldier and driving a tank and they laughed again and when Finbar stood in the doorway, as she closed it, and said 'Home James, through the park' in his best Elvis, she laughed too.

Around that time lots of youth clubs, church halls turned into dance halls and over in Weoley Castle, where his father had worked in construction when he came over to England, there was some kind of club of local kids which he took Sofia to. They caught the number eight bus, again, and this time they sat next to each other and he said 'I'm going to write that book.'

'What book?' she said.

'Around the World on a number eight bus.'

When they got to Bristol Road they caught a number sixty one bus to Weoley Castle and asked for a club called The Stonehouse Gang and when they got there they heard, coming from inside, Apache by The Shadows. It cost Finbar a few pence to get in, as they were not members, and when they got inside they found there was a group on the stage playing it. He wondered for a moment if they were The Shadows but could see they were local musicians who had formed the group. Once in a while a singer sang a couple of Cliff Richard songs and then he sang 'Mean Woman Blues' which was terrific.

When the group took a break a deejay puts some records on and when The Shape I'm In by Johnny Restivo, came on, Sofia grabbed Finbar onto the dance floor. She heard the intro, which was a boogie woogie piano, then a couple of treble chords on the guitar and she was dancing. She danced around Finbar, using his hand to twist around and jump. Those few chords seemed to grab everybody in the room and as soon as the song came on there was a big cheer, even though they had loved the live group. When it ended people shouted 'again' and the deejay played it again. Finbar had never felt so much rhythm and, in the vernacular of the time, was on cloud nine.

'We could do that' she said, as they sat down for coffee back at her Brighton Road house, 'We could get togther and play that.'

Her parents were in bed so they didn't play any music 'but not now, not even on your whistle' she said, pointing to the woodman's whistle on his top pocket 'what is that anyway?'

'Ah, I just have it.'

'What for?'

'I just do – my granda always carries a dog whistle, in his pocket. He never sees a dog just likes the look of it – it's a silver colour, with a chain.'

'That's just a piece of . . . . what is it?'

'Sycamore.'

Another day at Sofia's house Finbar found that she was a wonderful guitarist. She had said she only played chords but she had a great ear for finding chords not necessarily major chords but diminished ones with a seventh here and there. Theory of music was beyond him he just knew how to play most instruments but not the piano. He thought he had let Mr. Ferris down, his piano teacher.

Suddenly she played the chords to Peggy Sue, a song by Buddy Holly where the guitar break was played with chords and not solo strings. Finbar knew the song, and heard it played when they went to the Stonehouse Gang at Weoley Castle, but the guitarist, even though he played it well, didn't play it like Buddy Holly; Sofia did.

Finbar knew the rhythm, and the fast various areas was chic-chic, chic-chic, chic-chic chic-chic, ching - which is what Sofia played but at the Stonehouse Gang it chic-a-chic, chic chic.

The harmonica might have spent a lot of time on the piano in Dublin but he had packed it in his case when he came over so one day he brought it to Sofia's and as he played, Sofia played along with him. Not just pop and rock'n'roll but classics and she picked chords with her fingers too and accompanied Finbar with great dexterity which enabled her to play more variations and complicated chords. Sometimes a chord was played before he varied a tune and he listened to it very quickly and it led him on to something else, something beautiful and they both realised they were writing music; composing.

He told Daniel about her and the three of the met up and Daniel joined in singing. He had a wide tenor range which wasn't restricted to forming words classically and he could do a good Elvis type voice, which led to a Mario Lanza type and then onto a rock'n'roller like Little Richard.

Mr. and Mrs. Taboné were astounded at the sound coming from their parlour and came in and Mr. Taboné sang a pop song of the time Poppa Piccolino and Mrs. Taboné joined in:

All over Italy they know his concertina
Poppa Piccolino, Poppa Piccolino,
He plays so prettily to every signorina

Poppa Piccolino from sunny Italy.

They sang and for the words they didn't know they sang la.

It was a wonderful moment as the Tabonés were not performers.

Nobody knew what to do with this talent, they knew they had to do something but Finbar didn't want to move back to Birmingham, there was a lot he liked about the place but loved Dublin. In Dublin he was a different man, and he was almost a man. He was seventeen, Sofia sixteen and Daniel seventeen.

When it was time for Finbar to go back to Dublin he was broken hearted and as the train pulled out of New Street Station he felt tears welling up inside him. His chest had very strange sensation and he could see Sofia was upset too.

How could they get the three of them together, Daniel was happy where he lived and he had a girl friend called Nualla, he didn't want to leave but they were teenagers; what could they do?

That was between Sofia and Finbar, not the fact that they harmonised together which he got great satisfaction from. He asked himself where was he needed and that was with Granda Joe.