Jamie's father, James, was often away, on business in Belfast or Dublin,
but sometimes Jamie was allowed to accompany him to races in which a
Jackson horse was entered. Then his father was a different man to him.
Free of the burden of being a parent, free to indulge his love of the
track, James Jackson was attentive to his son, and taught him something
of the ownership of racehorses, and the special skills that racing re-
quired. If his horse won, which his favorite, Crazy Jane, often did, James
was expansive and bought his son gifts. If their horse was not placed,
father and son traveled home in mutual, depressed silence.
Occasionally, his father would entertain, and the breakfast for the hunt
club would be held at the mansion. These social events were used by James
to extend and develop his social and business connections with the ruling
class, with the Leslies and especially Dacre Hamilton.
10 ALEX HALEY'S QUEEN
Hamilton was the major English presence in the county of Monaghan, and
served as sheriff. He was a strict Protestant, with no sympathy for
Catholics. He took pleasure in rigidly enforcing all the penal laws
against the peasants, whom he regarded as illiterate idolaters. These
laws, instituted after the British victory at the Battle of the Boyne,
were used to keep the defeated Catholics out of money, land, and power.
The laws encouraged religious conversion and informing on neighbors-and
even families, for only a Protestant in a Catholic family could inherit
the land.
James expected his children to attend these functions, which they did
unwillingly, for Dacre Hamilton was not loved by any of them. He had once
briefly imprisoned their brother and sister, John and Eleanor, for some
youthful high jinks. John had defended a hedge-school teacher against an
irate landlord, and Eleanor had announced in public that she thought the
religious persecution of the Catholics was obscene. Dacre Hamilton also
protested to James Jackson, and warned him to exercise greater control
over his children's opinions and actions. James had taken a riding crop
to John, and locked Eieanor in her room for three days. It was this that
persuaded John to emigrate to America and Eleanor to move to Dublin. The
other Jackson children were wary of Hamilton, and while they enjoyed the
sport of the hunt, they disliked the overweening sycophancy to England
of the hunters. Encouraged by Sean, Jamie began to believe that most of
the club would rather be in pursuit of Irish peasants than foxes or
hares.
Nothing was more indicative of the social gap that existed between Jamie
and Sean than the manner of their formal education. A tutor was engaged
for Jamie: Jimmy Hanna, an impoverished young man of good leaming, from
Dublin, who had recently graduated from Trinity College and was looking
to make his way in an unfair world. The classroom was the music room of
the Jackson house, and they would sit together in isolate splendor, the
teacher and his only student, and Jamie was introduced to the classical
world of Latin and Greek, of mathematics and history. As he got to know
his student better, and trusted him more, Jimmy introduced him to the
glories of Irish literature. Jamie loved the beautiful words, and the
BLOODLINES 11
worlds they evoked of rain-washed fields and white-walled cottages, of
lowering skies and breaking sunlight. Of heroes and rainbows.
With poetry as a foundation, Jimmy gently led his student to Ireland's
present troubles, gave him a clear appreciation of the battle that lay
ahead to rid their country of foreign rule, and taught him that freedom
was the most precious word in any language.
Sean's school was behind a hedge. The British authorities were fearful
of education for the peasants. History, presented in the wrong light,
could lead to sedition, and many of the hedge-school teachers were deeply
involved in the liberation movements. The teachers taught where they
could, in ditches and behind hedgerows, with some lucky few having access
to a shed or shack. They were paid in kind, with peat for their fires,
or food for their stomachs-small stabs of bacon, or some potatoes, a bag
of meal, a pound of butter or a few eggs. Textbooks were few, and those
the teachers did have they had usually copied themselves, from printed
books they could not afford to buy. Often a young man of the village
would be posted as lookout, for many landlords kicked teachers off their
properties, and burned their precious books, or charged them with
sedition.
Sean's classes lasted only two or three hours, and he could go at all
only when Maureen had something to give the teacher, but Jamie studied
morning and afternoon. His older sister Sara was a frequent visitor to
his classroom, for she was smitten by the tutor.
Jimmy Hanna had come to them through a family connection. The Irish
Protestants were few in number, and even fewer owed their first
allegiance to Ireland rather than England. Jimmy's brother Hugh was a
friend of their sister Martha, who was completing her studies in Dublin.
Both brothers were handsome, educated men, dedicated to the Irish cause,
and both sisters, Martha and Sara, were headstrong and willful. Lacking
parental affection and guidance, they longed for love, and followed the
example of their older sister, the firebrand Eleanor, by challenging
their father and all he stood for, if only to try.to make him appreciate
them more, or at least play some active role in their lives. Their
patriotism was genuine,
12 ALEX HALEY'S QUEEN
and deeply felt, and they saw in their own lives the greater cause. Like
Ireland, they were unloved by him who governed them and had dominion over
them, so they identified with the larger community, and dedicated
themselves to its well-being, for at core they were deeply lonely. When
a handsome young man who shared her convictions rode into Ballybay and
into her life, and encouraged her to have faith in herself, Sara fell
hopelessly in love. She would sit for hours in the classroom watching him
teach, learning from him herself, and about him.
It worked to Jamie's advantage, for sometimes, on a dreary, drizzly
afternoon or a pretty spring day, Jimmy, anxious to be alone with Sara,
would curtail the lessons, and Sara's eyes would sparkle. She would send
Jamie off to old Quinn in the stables, or to Jugs for some food, or to
play with his croppy friend Sean. Then she would sit with Jimmy and hold
hands with him, or sometimes they would kiss, and the warmth and
reassurance of his presence, the strong beliefs that they shared, and the
generosity of his nature persuaded Sara that she was loved.
When she found out that Sarah Black had become more than a friend to her
father, although less than a wife, Sara was bitterly hurt. She could not
understand why her father would not marry the woman, and bring her to his<
br />
house so she could fulfill some of the functions of mother-or older woman
friend at least. In her distress, she turned to Jimmy for comfort, and,
lacking any moral conviction or example, she surrendered herself to him.
They took their pleasure secretly, covertly, in places where they thought
they would not be discovered, but they were not discreet enough. Jamie,
returning to the house one day because Sean was sick, saw them coupling
together in the classroom. He did not announce his presence, for he was
at puberty himself, and fascinated by the things Sean had told him. He
watched Sara and Jimmy for a while, through the slightly open door, but
then became embarrassed and excited, and crept away to his bedroom, to
caress his own adolescent need.
He could not keep quiet about what he had seen for long, for it gave him
some ascendancy over his sister, which was important to a boy of his age.
Sara blushed and flared, and slapped his face for a peeping Tom, and then
cried, and swore
BLOODLINES 13
him to secrecy. When she had his promise, she giggled, and began to treat
him as a young man from then on, and no longer as a boy.
Thus the Jackson children grew up effectively left to their own devices,
and found love where they could. They were not unhappy, for each child had
developed a keen self-reliance, and each tried to give his brothers and
sisters something of what they lacked. These sibling bonds, woven in
youth, stayed with them, and were a source of comfort and support to them
all their lives, though never constraining.
But Jamie determined to create a family that would supply to his own
children what he had never had. His father's house was not his home,
merely the house in which he lived.
For home, he had learned from Sean, is where you are loved.
2
Jamie was fourteen when he had his first experience of violence by the
soldiers. For years he had known that the local priest, Father Moran,
forbidden to practice his religion in public, still tended the spiritual
needs of his peasant congregation in a small cave on Crieve Mountain.
Jamie knew very little about the Catholic religion, but was told by his
father and other Protestants that it was a pagan cult of cannibalism, ven-
erating a priest in Rome, and worshiping graven images. Its followers
believed that in the communion they were eating the actual flesh of
Christ. Jamie had never seen the priest, but knew of him from the peasant
whisperings. He became a legendary figure in Jamie's mind, a secret,
superstitious man of magic, who lived with the leprechauns on the misty
mountain, and practiced strange and ancient rituals, spoken in Latin, that
were to do with birth, and marriage, and death, and the life to come.
14 ALEX HALEY'S QUEEN
He was with Sean at the cottage when the messenger came by. The
messengers carried poles, to help them vault over hedges and ditches, and
brought important news to the villages of Ireland. This messenger, wary
of the longer-haired Jamie, whispered to Patrick in Gaelic, which Jamie
hardly understood. Patrick spoke to Maureen and Sean, also in Gaelic, and
Jamie could feel a sudden excitement among them, and a sense, for the
first time in his life, that he was an outsider to them. When he and Sean
went fishing the next day, Jamie badgered his friend about the messenger,
and eventually Sean swore him to secrecy and told him the news. It was
Easter, and Father Moran was going to say a public mass in the village
square the following Sunday.
Jamie was thrilled and appalled. The saying of mass was proscribed, and
if the soldiers or any English sympathizer knew of it, the priest would
be imprisoned. At the same time, Jamie itched to know about the secret
religion, and what it was that made its persecutors so angry.
Reluctantly, Sean agreed to take Jamie to the mass, but made him swear,
by all he held holy, by his mother's grave, that he would tell no one.
They met at the cottage on Sunday, ate soda bread and cheese, and then
Sean walked with Jamie to the village. Maureen and Patrick went on
before.
Jamie was not sure what he expected to see, but certainly had not
expected what he saw. In the village square, an old man in black was
holding a simple cross and chanting in Latin to the fifty or so kneeling
villagers assembled there. He saw nothing subversive, nothing pagan,
nothing that might destroy the fabric of the society in which he lived,
only a deep and simple faith, and an adoration of the cross and what it
symbolized.
It was Easter Sunday and Christ was the risen king, he understood from
the Latin words, and his Protestant soul could not argue with that, for
it was what he was taught and what he believed. He found the rituals odd
but oddly beautiful. He marveled at the true belief of those assembled,
and at their stubbornness and bravery for resolutely following a faith
that was so viciously circumscribed by the authorities.
Then the soldiers came.
A troop of red-coated British soldiers marched into the
BLOODLINES 15
town, their officer on horseback. The officer rode to Father Moran and
accused him of sedition. Fury and resentment ran through the congregation,
but the priest held up his cross.
"Go peacefully about your ways," he called to his flock. They fell
silent, but stayed to watch for the safety of their shepherd. Jamie,
standing with Sean, was aware of a deep and awful anger in his friend,
and Sean glared at Jamie. -
"Was it you who told?" he whispered furiously. Jamie swore not, but Sean
was not convinced.
"You knew," he said. "And someone told."
Father Moran was arrested and tied to the posts of the village well. The
old priest was flogged mercilessly in front of the people, and then
dragged away. A palpable fury ran through the Crowd as they witnessed the
flaying, and they jeered the soldiers, but the time was not right for
rebellion. Some few lads threw stones and clumps of earth at the sol-
diers, but were chased and beaten for it.
As they walked home, Sean kicked the ground in his fury and frustration.
Jamie tried to say something to comfort him, but Sean rounded on him, and
asked him if he was proud of his rich, Protestant ruling class now. Jamie
protested. He had been horrified by what he had seen, but did not know
what they could have done to prevent it.
"We must fight," Sean said. "We must be rid of them."
Jamie could not see how they could win. The soldiers had guns. The
peasants had only pitchforks.
"It is enough," Sean insisted. "We are many and they are few, and it is
better to die for what you believe in than live in bondage."
He looked at his friend, who was not, at that moment, his friend.
"Would you die for what you believe in?"
Jamie felt guilty, because he was not sure th
at he would. The violence
of the soldiers, and their blatant abuse of their power, had frightened
him.
Sean saw the fear and doubt in his eyes. "Living up there in your fine
mansion, born with a silver spoon in your mouth, you don't even know what
you believe," he said disgustedly, and turned away.
It was true, Jamie thought. He loved Sean and his family,
16 ALEX HALEY'S QUEEN
and Jugs and old Quinn, and his heart bled for their Ireland. He loved his
sisters and brothers, and respected his father and what he had achieved.
Above everything, he knew he loved being alive, and shuddered at the
prospect of laying down his life for a cause he did not believe could
triumph. The temporary souring of his friendship with Sean made him
examine his heart, and he was shocked to discover that there was nothing
he believed in that was worth his life. And not having such a cause, and
lacking his friend, he was lonely, and sought for some passionate faith.
Jamie returned home to be greeted by his father's wrath. James knew his
son had attended the mass, because Dacre Hamilton had told him. He knew
that a visiting English business friend had been assaulted, on leaving the
Jackson mansion, by some peasants as a reprisal for the beating of Father
Moran, because Dacre Hamilton had told him. He knew that his standing
within his small, privileged community was threatened by the various
actions of his children, because Dacre Hamilton had told him.
James Jackson also knew that his business could not survive without the
patronage of the British. He didn't need Dacre Hamilton to tell him this;
it was the law of the land. There was an embargo on all Irish commerce
and trade unless a British agent was involved. If it was decided that
James was a Catholic sympathizer, or an Irish collaborationist, the
agents would find other sources of supply for linen, and James could not
sell his except on the local market, where the prices were meaningless.
All because of his foolish children.
He was hurt and angry. He had tried to give his offspring every
advantage, and, one by one, they had rejected him, and all he had done
for them.
"All this could be yours," he shouted at Jamie, waving his hand at the
estate, pointing to the mill. "But only if you have the good sense to
protect it!"
Obviously, the boy had no sense, and was in sore need of discipline. For
reasons that were as much political as practical, James did what he had
done for each of his other children. He enrolled Jamie in a school in
Dublin, and wrote to his brother Henry asking if Jamie might board with
him there.
BLOODLINES 17
All the Jackson children had boarded with Uncle Henry when they went to
school in Dublin. He was all the things their father was not-a
warmhearted and generous man, and dedicated to Ireland. He had a fine
house in the best part of the city, but was living on yesterday's income.
He owned an ironworks that had been successful, but the more he announced
his sentiments against the British, the more his business declined. He
still had loyal clients, but none of the large orders from the British
Commissioner or the military came his way anymore. His financial fate was
exactly what James Jackson was trying so desperately to avoid.
The prospect of Dublin thrilled Jamie. He had never been there, but knew
from his sisters, when they came home to visit, that it was a vibrant and
exciting city, full of adventure and teeming life. He was sad to leave
Washington and Jugs and old Quinn, and said many fond farewells to them,
and assured Jugs he would change his linen frequently, and eat well, and
not get into trouble. On his last day in Ballybay, he walked to Maureen's
cottage, and said his good-byes to her and to Patrick, and thanked them
for their many kindnesses to him.
Then he turned to Scan, whom he had hardly seen since their argument. To