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us, notwithstanding, and we enjoyed our readings immensely.30

      Mary Brigid and Patrick also enjoyed stories such as ‘Doctor Spider’ from the Little Folks series, or other popular children’s stories serialised in The Strand Magazine, the Irish weekly, The Shamrock and the English Catholic magazine, St Peter’s. They always delighted in stories about animals and had a fondness for toy animals, Mary Brigid cherishing into adulthood many of the toys Patrick had given her as a child.31 Mary Brigid spent extended periods on her own, so gifts such as a swan made from celluloid and a family of pigs fashioned from a pen-wiper helped her to pass ‘away many a weary hour of loneliness and pain’.32 Patrick wrote a weekly newspaper for the family that included short articles, jokes, puzzles, and a regular story entitled ‘Pat Murphy’s Pig’. Although the weekly newspaper was handwritten in an ordinary exercise book, Mary Brigid keenly awaited its weekly arrival. In fact, she delighted in any opportunity to spend time with her brother.

      One could argue that the remarkable respect for and insight into children’s minds which Patrick displayed in the latter part of his life was formed during the time he spent educating his younger sister and fostering in her a love of learning. The hours that Patrick and Mary Brigid spent together as children definitely had a lasting effect on both siblings. Mary Brigid wrote plays, children’s stories and a novel. Patrick was inspired by Mary Brigid’s childhood convalesence to write several children’s stories that included sick children as characters such as ‘An Gadaí’ and ‘Eoghainín na nÉan’. In ‘Eoghainín na nÉan’, Patrick told the poignant story of a terminally ill young boy called Eoghainín, who longs for the arrival of the swallows. When they finally arrive, he spends hours listening to tales of their adventures in other countries. As the time approaches for them to migrate to warmer climes, Eoghainín tells his mother that he will depart with them; they watch the swallows leave and, as the last pair fly off, Eoghainín rests his head on his mother’s shoulder and dies. As children, Mary Brigid and Patrick loved to watch the arrival of migratory birds and, in later life, the comings and goings of the swallows always reminded Mary Brigid of her brother.

      In between periods of convalescence, Mary Brigid participated fully in the family’s escapades. The young Pearses had a particular fondness for all things theatrical and loved to dress up and to disguise themselves as different characters. Clothes were borrowed from their mother’s rag-bag, or sometimes her wardrobe and Patrick was never rebuked by his mother for taking her seal coat or best silk dress to be used as costumes for the performances.33 Patrick was often joined by his cousin Mary Kate Kelly or his nephew Alfred McGloughlin to play pranks on unsuspecting neighbours or passers by. Alfred recounted the story of when he and Patrick dressed as beggars for a day, travelling around Donnybrook. Alfred came away with nothing but Patrick received a donation of several shillings from a generous elderly lady.34 On another occasion, Patrick and Willie dressed in old clothes and sold apples to help poor children in the neighbourhood. Unfortunately, their charitable endeavours were soon stymied when a group of local ‘ragged boys’, who resented the Pearse brothers appropriating their business, beat them up. Mary Brigid described the encounter in detail noting that, although the brothers tried to defend themselves, they were outnumbered and were relieved when a teenage neighbour intervened to rescue them.35

      The Pearse siblings, together with their cousins, nieces and nephews, transformed their drawing room into a stage and performed adaptations of Shakespearean plays or short plays written by Patrick. Each of the children embraced their various roles with enthusiasm. In a performance of Macbeth, with Patrick in the title role and Mary Brigid playing Lady Macbeth, Mary Brigid remembered how Patrick did not always approach his roles in a serious, professional manner:

      Unfortunately, however, Pat’s risibility always completely overcame him the instant he addressed me by any endearing term, and he used to break into uncontrollable laughter! This made the whole business absolutely farcical. To see the grave Scotsman holding his sides with hilarity, to hear his helpless peals of mirth was too ridiculous. I used to become seriously annoyed. I would work up the scene most dramatically, and then Pat would ruin it.36

      Patrick wrote his first play, The Rival Lovers, at the age of nine and cast Mary Brigid, then only five years old, in a lead role. Patrick and Willie assumed the lead male roles and Mary Kate played Mary Brigid’s mother. During the dramatic duel scene, Mary Brigid was caught in the crossfire and dramatically fell to her death as directed by Patrick. In the years that followed, Patrick wrote several plays for his siblings and relations, including The Pride of Finisterre and Brian Boru. The Pride of Finisterre, set in the Spanish countryside, was an ambitious production written in verse form for eight characters. Mary Brigid played the role of Eugénie (the ‘Pride of Finisterre’), Willie played her lover, Bernard, Margaret was cast in the role of a noblewoman called Marie d’Artua, and Patrick played her villainous husband, Count Alexander.

      Lesser roles were allocated to their cousin Mary Kate, who played Eugénie’s mother, and her brother, John, who acted as a priest. Patrick also adapted some scenes from Uncle Tom’s Cabin for performance and wrote a play about love and jealousy that Mary Brigid set to music and performed as a mini opera. The young thespians savoured these early performances and the response of their audiences. As Mary Brigid later wrote, ‘I don’t believe that any of the greatest actors on the stage ever felt such exquisite delight when they received the plaudits of a vast audience as we felt when we “took our curtain” amidst wild clapping from our friends! It was simply the perfection of joy!’37

      The subject matter of their performances was not limited to great works of literature or Patrick’s compositions. The young theatrical troupe often acted out religious ceremonies that they had attended at their local church in Westland Row. This church played an important role in the religious upbringing of the Pearse children. Each of them was baptised, received their First Confession, First Holy Communion and Confirmation in this church, and Margaret and Patrick later taught classes in catechism there on Sundays. Margaret recalled that, even in his youth, Patrick had a talent for delivering impressive lectures, especially on religious subjects. At the age of nine, he delivered an insightful sermon to his family on the transfiguration of Jesus Christ; Margaret later wondered how a boy of his age had acquired such a grasp and appreciation of Christian doctrine.38 In their re-enactments of religious ceremonies, Patrick regularly played the role of boy-priest, Willie acted as his acolyte, and the others were his devoted congregation. Unfortunately, the solemnity of the occasion was often interrupted by bickering between Margaret and her younger siblings. Mary Brigid claimed that she and Willie disliked Margaret’s domineering manner, and Patrick was often forced to act as peacemaker ‘for his grave reasonableness was very forceful’.39

      Despite his apparent piety, it seems Patrick was the most mischievious of the Pearse children and had a tendency to laugh uncontrollably at the most inappropriate moments. When a fire broke out in Margaret’s room, Patrick quickly grabbed her bedclothes and a rug to quench the flames. After his heroic deeds, Patrick was overcome by a fit of giggles. Margaret, however, was not amused to find that her cherished bed linen and furniture had been destroyed by a cackling firefighter. Mary Brigid wondered whether ‘Pat’s loud laughter in the midst of smoke and fire, or Maggie’s woe-begone face as she surveyed her bedraggled apartment afterwards’ was the more ridiculous.40

      Patrick’s love of sweet things was also a cause of contention in the Pearse household. When a pane of glass became loose in the landing window of their home, their father affixed some sticky gelatine sweets to prevent the pane from falling out. Later that evening, James noticed that his temporary confectionary glue was slowly disappearing and soon discovered that his eldest son could not resist taking a sweet every time he passed by the window.41 Similarly, whenever their mother left a freshly-baked rich cake with nut topping on the kitchen table, Patrick would invariably consume the nutty topping and leave the remainder of the uneaten cake behind.42

      One Christmas, their mother enlisted the help of her children to make a Christmas cake and pudding. To expedite the process, Mary Brigid chopped the suet, Margaret crumbled and grated the bread, Willie beat the eggs, and Patrick stoned the raisins. Unfortunately, Patrick’s love of sweets, nuts, sugar barley and Turkish delight meant that he consumed more fruit than he stoned. Their mother eventually discovered the considerable reduction in the amount of fruit. She did not chastise her eldest son but

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