Authors: Anne Doughty
On a Clear Day (39 page)
She put her hand into her trouser pocket and took out the rings. They caught the sunlight and winked at her. Bonded together with a single long, fair hair with a hint of red they were marked with initials that spoke of a passion for the land of Ireland.
Her thoughts went back to Andrew. She went over all they had shared when they’d been
together, the long letters they’d written week after week, when they’d been so far apart. He’d been so tender towards her distress, so eager to help and comfort her. Yes, they too were bound together, by their love for each other and their love of this land spread out all around her.
She took it all in once more and smiled suddenly. Her desolation had gone. Dispersed like the morning mist in the warmth of the sun. She was herself again, the future open before her. But where that future would lead, she could not see, even on such a clear day.
The Ulster into which Clare Hamilton was born in October 1936 is now as remote as if she had been born in some much earlier century. Clare’s story is her own, but I have tried to be accurate about the details of everyday life in that very different world, a world where telephones were rare and the pony and trap was more common than the motor car.
I am grateful to all those who gave their time to help me, particularly the staff at Armagh Museum, Armagh Ancestry and the Irish Studies Centre in Armagh who were all not only helpful but welcoming. I hope they will think their efforts were worthwhile.
My greatest debt, however, is to my cousin John Ross who lent me the newspaper and magazine articles written by my uncle, William John Ross of Salter’s Grange. Writing on many topics for Ulster publications he catches the mood and the preoccupations of the time, even down to the post war beauty hints which he wrote under the name of Doris Gibb!
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A
NNE
D
OUGHTY
was born in Armagh, Northern Ireland. She is the author of twelve novels including
A Few Late Roses
which was longlisted for the
Irish Times
fiction prize. After many years living in England she returned to Belfast in 1998 and wrote the first of the novels that make up the Hamiltons series.
The Woman from Kerry
The Hamiltons of Ballydown
The Hawthorns Bloom in May
A Girl Called Rosie
For Many a Long Day
Shadow on the Land
On a Clear Day
Beyond the Green Hills
Allison & Busby Limited
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First published in Great Britain in 2002.
This ebook edition published by Allison & Busby in 2015.
Copyright © 2002 by A
NNE
D
OUGHTY
The moral right of the author is hereby asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All characters and events in this publication other than those clearly in the public domain are fictitious and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent buyer.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978-0-7490-1775-0