Chapter 15

I WAS in difficulty with regard to her burial, as I wasn't sure how to get a plot in the local cemetery, and I mentioned the matter to the Matron. She told me the matter was already arranged, that a phone message had arrived saying that the coffin would be sent from Achill Sound and that they were taking her to the family burial ground. Two years later (10) I found out from her grandmother that had she known Kathleen wished to be buried in Ballinrobe she would have left her body here.

A road leads from Achill Sound, through Dooega and on to Keel. It is called the Atlantic Drive and is much frequented by tourists. Just before one comes to Cloughmore the graveyard of Kildownet lies to the right of the road. Ivied ruins of an old castle stand nearby, and when the tide is full the blue waters of the Atlantic lap against its foundations. In the centre of this graveyard, Kathleen is buried.

The cottage where her grandmother lived is only three fields away, and the strand on which she played is in the vicinity. She is buried in the only part of the world she knew outside the convent. Her grandmother or ’gwanny’, as she called her, lies by her side and, not far away, in a common grave lay the charred remains of those who were burned to death in Scotland some years ago.(11)

But the real Kathleen, the child you have been reading about is not dead. She is alive in Heaven. While you were reading about her she was with you, anxious to know if you liked her, and if you did like her you have made her happier. (12)

If you did like her, tell her so, and remember the promise which she made, a promise she will faithfully keep: “If anybody hears about me and likes me, I will help them also, and will help them to be always good.”