And sure enough I was, but it's a long time ago now.' He sighed, and for a minute or two he said no more.

Hyacinth began to wonder what he meant, and whether the promised confidence would be forthcoming at all.

Then the priest went on: 'When I was a young man--and it's hard for you to think it, but I was a fine young man; never a better lad at the hurling than I was, me that's a doddering old soggarth now--when I was a boy, as I'm telling you, there was a deal of going to and fro in the country and meetings at night, and drillings too, and plenty of talk of a rising--no less.
Little good came of it that ever I saw, but I'm not blaming the men that was in it.

They were good men, Hyacinth Conneally--men that would have given the souls out of their bodies for the sake of Ireland.

They would, sure, for they loved Ireland well.