The "Mason's Apron Reel" had been running through her mind ever since she saw the photograph of Hiram Powers as if she were Belfast fiddler Sean McGuire like a recording heard by thousands of people in a country where you've never played, in the splashing notes of the not yet named jig, Irish streams and rivers flowed down to the sea, like the waters of the fountains in Rome where Donnchad mac Briain courted a princess so long ago.
It was an improbable legend, discovered on the 4th of July. But Donnchad mac Briain was an O'Brien, Irish men with curly black hair and blue eyes were too darned attractive. The music flowed as if every note was a story that would continue to play and replay in her mind. The story wasn't complete without Hiram Powers. She knew that the moment Liam began his story.
In the rapid, clear music, it was hard to know where the sorrow ended and the joy began. And she knew how perfectly she was playing her own song. So whatever happened between Walter and Trial, a Puritan family gave Irish slave Walter Power back the land that was taken from his family by Cromwell
Judy Malloy
The Mason's Apron
fiddler's passage
Junction of Several Trails
Book II of
From Ireland with Letters
