Part 4 ..Peggy continues her monologue. And we meet the baddies.....

I can hear him now. Feckin’ Publicans have bought enough cars out of my money. I have the lump now, a nice whack of money, and I’m holding on to it.

But to his credit he did change. Began to look after the house, paint it and repairs and the like, and to be fair he even gave me a a bit more money.

He put in his time catching songbirds, and making small cages and perches and gettin' food bowls and water bowls, and seeds for them.

I enjoyed their singing in the evening. What will I do with them now? They can't be let out into the wild, they are not able for that any more. Maybe Donie will take them. I'll ask him, when he comes up to the house.

The only thing was, Jonnie wouldn't give up the coffin-nails, even though I nagged him about cancer and lung disease. I even stooped smoking myself and asked him to do it as well, at the same time.

Then now: at a time when the roles should have been reversing, when he was due to pay back his debts and look after me a bit, he went back to being selfish, he went over the bridge.

That’s what they call death in this town: goin’ over The Bridge to the Graveyard.

He always said. 'Over the Bridge, it's the graveyard, but people are dyin' to get into it.'

The pub was not elaborate, it was a dingy dark place: a country pub. Not a happy cheerful place: a place for drowning sorrows, fuelled by low incomes and welfare payments. An old man's refuge. It had to be that way since few young people would forsake the bright, music filled lounge bars for dismal.

The O'Connors are sitting around a rickety round single pedestal beer ringed and otherwise stained table: the origins of the dirty patina long forgotten.

"Get some drinks. Get hot whiskeys, I’m freezin’. "

"Jees Miki. That bloody graveyard gives people their deaths."

"What killed him in the end? Was it the breathing of was he just gummed up in the veins? Kate, you were keepin' and eye on him. Any clues."

"He was bet that’s all. Bet up. Worn out. You could play the drums on his thighs. What I want to know. What’s to be done with Peggy? I’m not sure she can look after herself there in the house."

" Leave it for a while. See how it goes."

"Kate, Peggy's bet in the legs. The feet are crippled with the arthritis."

"Wait for a while. We can’t have them saying we fecked her out: into The Home."

"Hey! Shut up, keep it down. Here she is now. Who’s that talking to her? Who is it? Do anyone of you know? Is it some of the other nieces and nephews? John Joe sidle over and keep an eye on them."

"Sidle yerself, Miki, or better still have Keyhole Kate go over and snoop. She's good at that, not minding her own business."

"Drunk."

"Noser, Busy Body."

"Shutup, quiet! I'll go."

Mikie, approached his cousins, smiling, hand outstretched offering condolences, and platitudes. "He was a great Uncle, will be badly missed...."