Jean Grainger

Shadow of a Century (2015)

Scarlett O’Hara, named by her romantic mother, after the Gone With The Wind character, is a journalist. Through her own romantic involvement that leads to her downfall (and the novel’s exposure of present day discrimination against women with some asides to current American politics) Scarlett’s story interacts with that of Irish women’s historical activism.  During her reporting on a robbery she finds an elderly woman concerned about her losses, most poignantly, a:

greying cotton parcel, around a foot square and tied with a length of silver ribbon. It could be the flag Eileen described. She finished tidying the room and went quickly downstairs.

‘Is this it?’ Scarlett asked hopefully…

She took the greying piece of fabric from the parcel. It had been folded with care many years ago and was frayed on the creases. She opened it out gently in case it fell apart, and she laid it carefully across the table.

Scarlett was intrigued. There was no doubt that the fabric was old, but it wasn’t a flag in any sense that she understood the term. It was more like a sack of some sort, which was ripped down the seams. There appeared to be two roughly cut holes on one end and the fabric was darker around them. The fabric itself was soft and heavy. There were a variety of stains on it, from tan to dark brown in colour. Then she noticed something in the corner. In very faded, almost invisible print were written the words Bolands Mills…She began by researching Boland’s Mills…It was in Dublin, the capital city of Ireland, and the mill was one of the locations of the 1916 Easter Uprising.

***

The bundle of flour bags from Boland’s Mills lay in the corner. She quickly grabbed one that had not yet been cut up for bandages. The long sharp scissors that had been abandoned by the young girls charged with that task were still on the floor. Mary picked them up and ran the sharp blade down the seams of the bag, making a rectangle of white cloth. She looked around for something like a stick on which to tie the flag and found to her relief a broom used earlier in the week to sweep away the shards of broken glass that were all over the floor. She wrenched the brush off the handle with a strength she didn’t know she had, but was then at a loss as to how to attach the bag. Men rushed around her, shouting and firing through the windows. Others valiantly tried to put out fires. She took both the bag and the stick back downstairs, hoping that Eileen or Mrs Kearns would have an idea.

‘What are you still doing here? Tom Clarke passed them and stopped, blood on his face as he tried unsuccessfully to douse flames with a bucket of sand.

‘We’re going now. I’m just trying to make a flag to wave when we go out. Mrs Grant is hurt and we have to try to carry …’ She tried her best to hold back the tears but she was failing.

Smiling affectionately at them, he took the cloth and stick from her shaking hands, saying, ‘Give it here to me.’ Expertly he made a hole in two of the corners with a penknife from his pocket, and taking out his boot laces he used then to fasten the flag to the makeshift pole.

‘But now you can’t walk…’ she began.

‘Where I’m going I’ll have no need of shoes. God Bless the Republic!’ He shoved the flag into her hands and was gone…

Progress down the street seemed fraught with danger, even with the flag, as the firing continued without interruption. There was no sign of the other women, gone to the hospital probably, but the scene in front of them meant it was impossible to try to cross the road. Mrs Grant was unconscious and the bandage on her leg was now sodden with blood.

‘We can’t lift her anymore’ gasped Eileen. ‘She’s a dead weight and all the pulling is causing her to lose even more blood.’ …

Let’s see if we can put her onto the flag and carry her that way’…

Jean Grainger is a best selling author of historical and contemporary novels. She has been a tour guide, a teacher, a university lecturer and playwright. She began writing fiction at the suggestion of her clients on tours and The Tour was a Number 1 best seller on Amazon.  Her second book, So Much Owed   is a family saga set during the Second World War.  

Biographical details are an edited version of those that appear on Jean Grainger’s website. Further details of her books are available at: www.jeangrainger.com.