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‘special’ tea. Scones with jam, apple tart and some ‘shop-bought’ cake. These were lowered. But best of all was the chat. I loved to hear the life-stories of the neighbours, the farms they occupied and, sometimes, the farms they should have occupied if the world had been fair. Kate told me of people who were long dead, and the places where some of them are said to appear, ‘God rest their souls.’ On my first visit to Kate’s cottage, she gave me a little dish made of a scalloped shell. I still have it. I loved Kate Dempsey and I still love her memory.
    There are other memories, of course, that are not so pleasant. If at all possible, these are best forgotten. Bad memories, when dwelt on, can only make you bitter. Bitterness is no good for man or beast.
    Of course, there are the memories I wish I had. Memories of the mother who died when I was three. All I can remember of her are hands, doing chores, turning the gramophone handle, holding me, and, finally, lying still and white. I have a photograph of her, but can never conjure up the living face. Memories of a baby who died after one day and one night. ‘You have a little angel in heaven,’ said a neighbour, by way of comfort. I wanted him out of heaven and tucked up in his pram.
    C’est la vie
.

 
     
    RODDY DOYLE was born in Dublin in 1958. He is the author of six novels,
The Commitments, The Snapper, The Van, Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, The Woman Who Walked into Doors
and
A Star Called Henry
. He won the Booker Prize in 1993 for
Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha
.

VINTAGE CANADA EDITION, 2003
    Copyright © Roddy Doyle 2002
Afterword copyright © Ita Doyle 2002
    All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review. Published in Canada by Vintage Canada, a division of Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. Originally published in hardcover in Canada by Alfred A. Knopf Canada, a division of Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto, and simultaneously in Great Britain by Jonathan Cape, London.
Distributed by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.
    Vintage Canada and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House of Canada Limited.
    Grateful acknowledgement is made to the following for permission to reprint previously published material:
    Extract from ‘The Hallway’ by Dermot Healy. By kind permission of the author and The Gallery Press, Loughcrew, Oldcastle, County Meath, Ireland. From
The Reed Bed
(2001)
    Extract from
My Last Breath
by Luis Buñuel published by Jonathan Cape. Used by permission of the Random House Group Limited
    Extracts from
Halliwell’s Film and Video Guide 2001
by Ruth Halliwell. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd © Ruth Halliwell 2001
    National Library of Canada Cataloguing in Publication
    Doyle, Roddy, 1958–
Rory and Ita / Roddy Doyle.
    eISBN: 978-0-307-36898-0
    1. Doyle, Roddy, 1958–     —Family. 2. Doyle, Rory
3. Doyle, Ita. 4. Dublin (Ireland)—Biography. I. Title.
    DA995.D75D69 2003a        823′.914        C2003-902237-4
    www.randomhouse.ca
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