All over Ireland rains fell on different souls ….

Double Vision with Charlie Adley

… and the rain fell all over Ireland …

… in Longford it fell but Maeve could not see it fall. As she moved through the cloud that kissed the ground, she tucked her chin into her chest and gave thanks that it was not windy.

Every day of her life she headed up to see her baby girl and her granddaughter, and every day the hill felt just that bit steeper, but Maeve was not one for slowing down. She wasn’t ready to give up on her legs, so each day they ached a little more.

Letting herself into the dark house, she strode towards the kitchen, turning on lights as she went. Kettle filled and on, teabag in mug, she went to the back door and picked up the wicker washing basket.

Then over to the washing machine, emptied the load and draped the clothes on top of the radiators around the house. Her daughter told her to just throw them in the tumble dryer, but Maeve could not do that; not when the heating was running and the radiators were steaming.

‘Why would you use so much electricity when you didn’t need to? God, it’s great to have it at all. When I was their age we’d hardly ever even seen it, let alone have it in the house.  I don’t think they’d like that, not at all. Not without their precious iPads and X-Boxes and all that. So no, I’ll not waste good electricity when there’s heat on the rads.’

Maeve found comfort in laying the clothes out on the radiators, as each day she’d assess the size of a new pair of socks, the stretch on her granddaughter’s t-shirt that had become too small.

So her daughter would chide her that the house wasn’t heated because she’d put all the wet laundry on the radiators…

… and Maeve would say that as it happened, the air in a house does become very dry with the central heating, and the wetness of the clothes would make for better air to breathe …

… and her daughter would look at her and wonder which programme she heard that on, but she’d say nothing, because she was grateful to come home to a lit house, a boiled kettle and a hug from her mam…

… and the rain fell all over Ireland.

It fell in great pulsing waves on the runways of Shannon airport, smashing the windows of the terminal building with exploding shotgun sheets…

To read Charlie’s column in full, please see this week’s Galway City Tribune.