CONN
Shawn Heffernan!  Is that impostor still alive?

BRIAN
He is, and for fiddling these Sligomen think there’s not the
like of him in the whole of Ireland.

CONN God help them if that’s all they know.  We played against each other at the Granard Feis.  He got the prize, but everybody knew that it was me played the best.

BRIAN
There’s few of them alive now that mind of the Granard Feis. 
He got the prize, and there’s no talk of you at all.

CONN
No talk of me at all?

BRIAN
It’s said that since you settled down you lost your art.

CONN
And what had the men at Flynn’s to say about that?  BRIAN They
bragged about you for a while, but the Sligomen put them down.

CONN I wonder would we have time to go up, play a few tunes, and come back, while Maire would be doing something?  It would be a pity not to give them fellows a lesson and close their ignorant mouths for them.  I wonder would we have time? (Anne comes in with Maire) I thought you went somewhere and left Brian and myself here.

ANNE
We’re going somewhere and Brian might come with us.

MAIRE
Every one is going to Moynihan’s.

CONN
It’s a pleasant house, a pleasant house.  Brian will make his
ceilidh [3] with me.  We might go over a few tunes.

ANNE
Let Brian come where there are girls that might miss him.

MAIRE
Anne, you’re a great one for keeping up the story that girls
are always thinking about men.

ANNE
And so they are.  Just as men are always thinking about girls.

MAIRE
You’d make a good ribbonman.[4] You’d put a face on anything
you said.

[Footnote 3:  Celidh, pronounced cayley, a visit.]

[Footnote 4:  A ribbonman—­a member of a secret agrarian society.]

ANNE
Ribbonism and secret societies were denounced off the altar.

MAIRE
Goodness!  The men will begin to think they’ve secrets worth
telling.

ANNE
Have you secrets worth telling, Brian?

MAIRE
I daresay he has.  There are foolish women in the world.

ANNE
Are you coming to Moynihan’s, Brian?

BRIAN
No.  I’m going where there’s men.

MAIRE Come, Anne, till I deck you out.  Come here, daughter, don’t wear flowers.  I think they’re unlucky.  Here I am talking like this, and I going to a dance.  I suppose I’ll dance with seven or eight and forget what’s on my mind....  Everyone is going to Moynihan’s except the men here.  Are you going out, father?

CONN
I’m making a ceilidh with Brian.

MAIRE
Well, God be with you both.  Come on, Anne.

  Maire takes down her shawl, and puts it over her head.  She stands
  at the door, watching Anne, who goes to Brian.

ANNE
Brian, what have you against Moynihan’s?