Chapter 12

summary

The last chapter is about Henry’s escape.

Henry hides himself during his wife keeps on killing people but she also cares for him. Henry becomes well-built again and his wife becomes pregnant. One night, Henry has a visit from Ivan and his men, he tells Henry that the war comes to an end and that Henry could be death. And he also explains to Henry, that when he and Miss O’Shea want to stay alive, Henry has to stop his wife killing people.

Henry wants to go back to Dublin and he asks Miss O’Shea to go with him but she does not want to. When Henry arrives Dublin, he wants to meet Mr. Climanis, but he is dead, so Henry decides to  visit Jack Dalton to find out who killed Mr. Climanis. He hears that he should be murdered, too.

Henry decides to hide again and he crossed Ireland in the groundwater for months. Then he goes back and visits his little, five month old daughter and Old Miss O’Shea. He stays some days, but his wife is not with them. He lefts Kilmainham again with a train to go to Dublin. The Civil War is over. Henry visits Granny Nash to ask for Alfie Gandon who killed Climanis and decides to go to Dolly Oblong’s.  He walks into her room and asks her for Alfie Gandon, too. She tells him that Gandon will visit her and that she is frightened because he will kill her. Alfie Gandon arrives and Henry murders him.

Henry goes back to Kilmainham, where he visits his wife, who is lock up with three hundred women and girls by the Free State government. He is not able to life any longer in Ireland and he lefts Ireland with twenty years for to start a new life.

impressions

I realised, that at the very beginning of the chapter Henry is not the narrator up to the conversation with Ivan. “And Henry Smart slept.” (p.308,l.22)

 

Chapter 11

summary

Henry is caught but he cannot see anything. There is a man asking for his name but he does not answer. He could remember that when he visited his Granny, the Auxie’s went through the door of her room and they took him into prison. They asked him which one he had murdered but Henry did not answer, they took him off his clothes and they stamped and hit him with a riffle. He wears a blindfold which they tell him to take off and when he opens the eyes there is no one else but he. He stands right in front of a wall and he knows that he is in a cell. Right beside him is a man on the floor who says that he knows Henry but Henry does not answer.

Two men are arriving and they call Henry Jack Dalton, so he protests and says that his name is Fergus Nash and they left the cell. After a while they bring him out of his cell into a lorry which takes him to Kilmainham where he comes into another cell. There is another man who falls into Henry’s cell and Henry knows who it is.

The next day a guard called Fray visits him and gives him a griddle cake, cooked by Henry’s wife, and there is a massage by it. So the guard leaves the cell and Henry can escape out of the prison. At the last door he has to open for being free, the guard is there again and he has another massage for him. A tram fare.

So Henry takes a tram and after a while Miss O’Shea gets on. They realise that they have not seen them since four month.

impressions

I think this chapter is hard to read, because you can read where Henry went through. And in my opinion these days where he was stamped and he was in the prison, weigh on his mind, because at the end of the chapter he says: “I didn’t know if I had ever sleep again.” (p.306, l.7)

 

Chapter 10

characters

 Henry:

• he was shot by a bullet so he was not able to do things for weeks
• he decided never to use dum-dum bullets
• after he shot a man on Sunday morning, the 21^st of November 1920 he decided that his war was over
• Granny Nash said: “You’re just like your father.” (p. 289, l. 34)

Miss O’Shea:

• she was also shot by two bullets in her arm
• she was wearing trousers

the daughter from the old cunt:

• Henry said: “Her head was as rough as her language.” (p. 271, l. 10)
• She was a hard-looking item
• younger than her husband
• big round face
• angry red skin
• she gave Henry something to eat after he was able to
• she gave him a place to sleep

Jack:

• he explained to Henry, that he is a Jew from Latvia, so he was a Jew and a Latvia
• he did not like religions
• he was not a communist but he believed in communism

The Black and Tans:

• their uniforms were a mix of black and military khaki
• Henry said: “They were a new thing, a new, desperate animal:” (p. 264, l. 29-30)
• they murdered priests and mayors
• they shot children
• they shot livestock

The Auxiliary Cadets:

• nickname: Auxies
• Henry said: “They came from the same bitter world as the Black and Tans.” (p. 274, l. 34)
• but they were paid more
• uniform was more complete, army-like
• Henry: “These guys knew their stuff.” (p. 276, l. 6)

The Cairo Gang:

• group of British Intelligence agents
• they were good
• they knew how to spend money

 summary

The chapter starts with Henry and Miss O’Shea who fight in the war of Independence, together. While they are fleeing from their enemy, Miss O’Shea gets three bullets into her arm. But she keeps running with Henry on her side, they want to reach the wall, where they can hide themselves but Henry gets a bullet, too, and he cannot see anything. He sleeps for weeks and sometime he awakes, not for a long time, but he is able to realise some things.

When Henry wakes up again, he is by an old cunt and his daughter, she gives him something to eat and a bed where he can sleep. He finds out that his wife saved him after the bullet went into him. By night, Miss O’Shea arrives and they flee from their enemy, driving days on their bike.

On Sunday, the 21^st of November, 1920 (remembered as the first Irish Bloody Sunday), Henry and Archer murder a Member of the Cairo Gang in a hotel. Thirteen of them are murdered on this day. He and Archer left the room and Henry decides that his war is over.

At the end of the chapter he visits Granny Nash.

vocabulary

 to do s.b. a favour – jmd. einen Gefallen machen

porch – Vordach

bucket – Eimer

 

Chapter 9

characters

 Henry:

• Henry S. Smart, S. = sedition
• He called himself a Captain when he was in Roscommon
• he loved griddle cakes from old Missis O’Shea
• he made soldiers out of the guys from Roscommon, most of them related to old Missis O’Shea
• he married Miss O’Shea on the 12^th of September, 1919
• he never knew her name
• he became one of the Squad, the Twelve Apostles
• he met Mister Climanis and he liked him, Henry said, he was a good man
• he wanted to die for Ireland
• he murdered Annie’s husband, because it was one of the names he got from Jack
• he got a birth certificate from Collins where he added four extra years to Henry’s life

 Ivan:

• Henry said: “Savages like Ivan did the work of hundreds.” (p.239, l.6-7)

 Mister Climanis:

• his woman: Maria, she felt in love with his hair
• he made pipes
• he was Latvian

 Miss O’Shea:

• she was the daughter from old Missis O’Shea
• she married Henry
• fourteen years older than Henry

 old Missis O’Shea:

• Brown eyes
• always a bun
• Miss O’Shea’s mother

 other:

• Piano Annie
• Jack Dalton
• Michael Collins
• Maria
• Archer

 summary

 The chapter starts with Henry’s last visit by Annie. After this, he starts teaching country boys and he trains them being a soldier.

In January, 1919, the election starts but Henry is just to young to take part.

De Valera becomes president, whether he is imprisoned, and Collins becomes Minister of Finance.

Henry rides his bike back to Roscommon, where old Missis O’Shea lives. There he meets a group of young men and Henry decides to make soldiers of these boys. Every night he trains them for being able to fight in the war. 

Henry becomes acquainted with Mister Climanis and they get friends.

One day, Henry meets Miss O’Shea and she is the daughter from old Missis O’Shea and they marry on the 12^th of September, 1919. He is 18 years old and she 32.

Back in Dublin, Henry swear into the Squad, now he is a member of the Twelve Apostles. So Henry has to kill people very often and he has to hide, at last hill kills Annie’s husband.

 impressions

 I think Henry is really influenced by, for example Collins, because he becomes every day more a murderer. In the middle of the chapter he sais, that he is able to kill a rozzer but at the end, he kills Annie’s dead husband. 

 

 

  

  

Chapter 8

characters

 Henry:

• he liked Michael Collins; “He was a great man. I loved him […].” (p.204, l.5)
• he killed an inspector
• he had to work on the docks again

 Michael Collins:

• Thomas Ashe had been one of his closest friends
• Henry sais: “He was a plastic man.” (p.196, l.25)
• his hair was brown, fair and black
• he was broad
• middle-aged
• Collin’s cousins: Nancy O’Brien, she had a job in the castle

      Pearce Beaslai’s

 Old Miss O’Shea:

• Henry sais: “She was small and ancient, and partly hidden in a shawl that might have had more colours than black.” (p.205, l.16-17)
• Henry sais: “[…] she’d nearly been my lover’s mother.” (p.206, l.40)

 Thomas Ashe:

• A veteran of 1916
• he died in September after a hunger strike, he was force-fed, because of nausea and internal bleeding he died
• he was popular, especially in the villages around Dublin
• Collin was one of his nearest friends
• his funeral was huge

 Alfie Gandon:

• the way Jack describe him: “He’s our landlord. […]. He’s one of us.” (p.193, l.27,29); “He’s a giant in this city, […]” (p.193, l.33); “He is a powerful man, […]. And a good one” (p.193, l.35); “He’s is perfect.” (p.194, l.1); “He’s our respectable face.” (p.194, l.2)

 Diarmuid Lynch:

• Sinn Féin’s  Director of Food
• a returned Yank
• a citizen of the U.S.
• he got married with his wife in his cell

 other:

• Jack
• Granny Nash

 summary

 This chapter is especially about Henry’s way from Dublin to Roscommon with a stolen bike.

It starts with a protest meeting and the prisoners of the “Easter Rising” should be murdered.Through the crowd, Henry takes his father’s leg and beats one of the rozzers and he left the place. With this murder the police overreact and many people take notice. Jack, Henry’s friend sais, that he and Henry and the other man are writing history and he sais that the future is the Republic.

Michael Collins sends Henry back to the docks, where he take boxes with things in it like rifles. Collins has many couriers who sent boxes to other men.

Henry asks Jack questions about Alfie Gandon like he did it with his granny before and he learns of Jack that Gandon is their landlord.

Then Thomas Ashe dies, he was a veteran of 1916 and he dies after a hunger strike and being force-fed by prison authorities. His funeral is huge and Henry and Collins write a poem for him.

Collins gets more and more informations from his own spies about the enemy, like addresses, faces and names. Henry will have to murder some of his enemy but he does not matter about this because in his opinion these rozzers are no humans.

One day, Henry starts riding a stolen bike from Dublin to Roscommon, because Collins sais that he needs men on bicycles (they are the new horses). Henry has not been out of Dublin before.

When he arrives to the Greville Arms Hotel near Roscommon, he meets Collins who arrives by train and Collins tells him that it was only a test. And they starts a fight but not because of hate. Henry’s eye gets damaged and when he wakes up, he is in a room with a woman he does not know. It is Old Miss O’Shea and Henry thinks it is the mother from his lover but she has no daughter being a teacher. She gives him a soup and after this he left the house and he ride his bike back to Dublin.

impressions

 In my opinion this chapter is the most interesting, because Henry lists up many roads on which he drives for arriving at Roscommon. And with this roads and places you can follow his way he rode with his bike.

I did some information on internet about this:

When you will drive this distance with your car, you will need ca. 1 hour and 50 minutes (154 km).

When you will go this way on foot, you will need ca. 1 day and 5 hours.

Chapter 7

characters

 Henry:

• he got work as a docker by “George’s Dock”
• he loved his work when he had to hump bananas
• he became one of the legends in the First Battalion, F Company
• he became a Fenian when he had sworn into the Irish Republican Brotherhood
• he liked Jack, his new friend

 Piano Annie:

• She brought bred for Henry
• she had a job for Henry

 Granny Nash:

• she gave Henry information about his father and Dolly Oblong and Alfie Gandon but only when Henry gave her a book to read

 Alfie Gandon:

• businessman
• Home Ruler and Catholic
• a landlord and a Killer (Granny Nash said)
• he was elegant
• small but properly shaped
• smaller than Dolly Oblong

 Jack Dalton:

• he had been in the College of Surgeons in Easter Week
• Henry’s new friend

 other:

• Docker – are the hardest men in the world, they drank to wake up and they drank during work
• Piano Annie’s dead husband
• Melody Nash – dead
• Dinny Archer – “Dynamite Dinny”, a graduate Frongoch, one of the soldiers
• Ernie O’Malley – intelligent, one of the soldiers

 summary

 The seventh chapter is about Henry who lives by Annie until her dead husband arrives, so he lives on the street until Jack Dalton takes Henry with him.

 Henry lives by Piano Annie and she feeds and gives him work. Work as a docker by “Georg’s Dock”.

At first Henry has to help on the “Aristotle”, a crumbling bucket, than he has to shovel phosphorite and after this he humps bananas and he loves doing this.

One day, after Henry has dropped into the floor, Annie’s “dead” husband opens the door. So Henry tells him that he has mixed the doors to escape a conflict between Annie’s husband and himself.

So he is homeless again. And he visit Granny Nash and he asks her some questions about his father. And when he brings her some books to read, she starts telling about his father, Dolly Oblong and Alfie Gandon.

Sometimes, when Annie’s husband is not at home he visits her, too.

But one day a man, Jack Dalton, arrives at the Docks and he sais that he knows Henry and he takes Henry with him. They become really good friends and Jack provides for Henry.

And the next war starts. Henry become one of the legends in the First Battalion, F Company, like Jack.

They collect money for buying guns and they have their fun, for example in a céilí.

But after some days the fun is over and they prepare themselves for the war with the other soldiers.

Henry is ready to fight again and he murders his first Rozzer by late Saturday afternoon.

  

Chapter 6

characters

 Henry:

• he was 14 when the “Easter Rising” started
• six foot and two inches tall (1,88m)
• he called himself the best looking man in the G.P.O.
• he was one of the Irish Volunteers
• he was one of the few real soldiers there
• he had never had a job before
• he was no ordinary boy
• practised and cool
• he gave himself other names – to a rozzer he said the name “Brian O’Linn”

 James Connolly

• in the “Easter Rising” he was Commander-General of the Citizen Army
• he founded the Irish Socialist Republican Party
• he had tought Henry to read, he had fed him, had given him clothes and he liked Henry
• he was always busy
• he was sharp
• the men (in the G.P.O.) loved and feared him
• he got a bullet in his leg and when the fight was over he was shot like some other soldiers (like Pears)

 Paddy Swanzy:

• one of the Irish Volunteers
• a friend of Henry
• he was shot by the enemy during the “Easter Rising”

 Felix Harte:

• one of the Irish Volunteers
• he was also shot by the enemy during the “Easter Rising”

 other members of the Citizen Army:

• Winnie Carney – Connolly’s adjudant
• Michael Mallin – the second in command
• Thomas James Clarke – commandant
• Peter Ennis – caretaker
• Padraig Pearse – “his arms had no more muscle than his poetry” (p.132, l. 6-7)
• O’Toole, Walt Delany, Seán Knowles, Charlie Murtagh, Cheers, Willie Oman

 important ones in history:

• Éamon de Valera (14.10.1882 – 29.08.1975), he was an irish politician, he was a member of Sinn Féin, he founded the Fianna Fáil party
• James Connolly
• Eoin MacNeill (1867- 1945), The O’Rahilly (1865-1916)
• Seán MacDiarmada (1883-1916), Joseph Mary Plunkett (1887-1916), Edward Daly (1891-1916), John MacBride (1865-1916) – they were member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood
• Michael Collins (1890-1922), Irish revolutionary leader
• Lord Kitchener of Khartoum (1850-1916), commander-in-chief in several British colonies
• Daniel Mannix (1864-1963), a Roman Catholic priest who disapproved of violence against the British
• Frank Lawless (1872-1922), member of Sinn Féin
• Mick Malone was killed in one of the bloodiest fights of the Rising
• Richard Mulcahy (1886-1971), survived, and became  politician
• Éamonn Ceannt (1881-1916), he was a founder of the Irish Volunteers
• Robert Emmet (1778-1803) he organized a rebellion against British rule for which he was executed
• Winifred Carney (1887-1943), one of the few women in the G.P.O. during the Rising, she was Connolly’s secretary, she was member of the Cumann na mBan
• Elizabeth O’Farrell (1888-1957), she was a member of the Cuman na mBan, member of the Citizen Army, she worked as a courier 

 summary

 The sixth chapter is about Henry who fights as a Volunteer in the “Easter Rising”.

 Henry Smart is with some other Irish Volunteers from the Citizen Army in the G.P.O. and they barricade the windows for their protection.

The G.P.O. hall is Henry’s home, for three years Connolly, the Commander-General of the Citizen Army, take him up. Connolly tought Henry, fed him and gave him clothes.

The Volunteers hold their position behind the barricades when they saw the first soldiers of their enemy. They begin to shoot but it is an easy fight and they beat the enemy. Many children and women go into the magazines which haven been destroyed by the bullets of the arms and they steal everything they can get.

A few days later the war begins. But Henry is not by his comrades when he hears the first bombs and machine guns. He is downstairs with Miss O’Shea, his old teacher, and they kiss each other and have sex.

Back downstairs, the fight starts. The buildings are on fire and the guns keep going at the Citizen Army, so they keep firing, too.

They fight Wednesday, the whole night, Thursday and they also fight on Friday.

The G.P.O. is on fire and Connolly is wounded. So Henry gives the commando to open the gate and to fight face. They starts running  in lines right to their enemy.

Many of the soldiers get down by the bullets, so Henry’s friend Paddy Swanzy and Felix.

It is Saturday night and the fight is over and the soldiers have to march by day and night to reach Richmond Barracks where they are put into cells until the G-men take them out. A G-man ask Henry questions and it is agony for Henry, he is disturbed and go some steps back and falls into a hole and he lands in the Camac River under te city where he was with his father and Victor some years before. After walking a while he climbs back to the street and searches for Piano Annie, a member of the Cuman na mBan who came to the G.P.O. days before. And he keeps living by Annie and she helps him to forget about what was happened.

 explanations

 Cuman na mBan – an Irish republican paramilitary organization of women, to aid the men’s fight for Home Rule

G.P.O. – General Post Office in Dublin – Irische Republikanische Bruderschaft, sie wurde 1858 gegründet und war besonders wichtig während des Osteraufstandes

 vocabulary

 obeye – gehorchen, befehlen

the missus – die bessere Hälfte (Frau)

crowbar – Brecheisen

portico – Säulengang

cartridge – Patrone

steed – Ross

submerged – versunken

to frow – Stirn runzeln

stiffen – erstarren

urgent – brisant

banister – (Treppen-) Geländer

to melt – schmelzen

scalp – Kopfhaut

agony – qualvoll

  

Chapter 5

characters

 Henry and Victor:

 what they did for surviving:

• they robbed and helped, invented and begged
• they helped truggers
• they stole newspaper for selling
• they stole back flowers for selling
• they helped the drovers
• they stole money from purses and pockets
• they killed rats to rub the soup onto their body

Henry: “there was nothing I wouldn’t do” (p.73, l.1-2)

character:

• they were made of Dublin muck
• they were small
• little princes of the streets
• Henry was a beggar’s assistent and Victor was Henry’s
• Henry had charm and invention
• he was never a child
• he was the brightest spark in the city
• he was eight
• liked Miss O’Shea
• he was a genius
• Victor could empty an inside pocket without touching it
• he and Henry had no religion

other:

• Miss O’Shea, brown eyes and she had fallen in love with Henry
• Mr. Lipman, the Russian Jewman, he was fair and a decent man
• the beggar, named Rafferty
• the nun

 summary

 The fifth chapter is about Henry and Victor and what they do for surviving.

 Henry and Victor are always together and they live in the streets of Dublin. They really do all for getting money or some food and sometimes they visit their mother. She is always confused.

One day they help the drovers with their cattle and they buy a cow, there are many children in the city which where hungry and so Henry and Victor share the bullock with them. Men want them to fight against the ranchers and they will give the children  money, if they maim the cattle, so they do.

Henry wants to reach something, so he and Victor decides to visit the national school and with persuating the teacher they start school. But two days later a nun visits the school and Victor and Henry have to leave because they have no enrolment.

Then, one night, Victor dies. Henry is sad and there is no one besides him, anymore. He decides to surch his mother.

 own impressions

I think, this chapter is important for realising that surviving in slums was really hard, especially for children at that time.

And it is impressive to see what they did for surviving.

Besides, it made me sad to see where they went through, for example they has no food for days. (p.87, l.22-23) and at last Victor’s dead.

 vocabulary

 to share – teilen

to melt – schmelzen

to mourn – trauern

to strike a blow – jemandem einen Schlag versetzen

to maim – verstümmeln

enrolment duty – Einschreibepflicht

 

09.29.09

chapter 4

Veröffentlicht in A Star Called Henry-Reading Logum 3:59 von miriamstephan

09.24.09

Chapter 3

Veröffentlicht in A Star Called Henry-Reading Logum 4:50 von miriamstephan

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