Kathleen: The Celtic Knot

Cottage Industry

Polly is as good as her word. The next evening, she brings over one of the curtains, and she drapes it over Kathleen to see how it suits her. Kathleen looks gorgeous. Da thinks they’re both mad, trying to make a dress out of curtains. Polly says she’s enterprising. Mr. de Valera would be proud of them, producing homespun dancing costumes. They’re a proper little cottage industry. Da snorts, and pretends to be irritated. But Kathleen can see he’s trying to stifle a laugh.

By the end of the evening, the structure of the dress is in place. It’s held together with pins and tissue paper and things marked on it with white thread. Kathleen is terrible at dressmaking, so she doesn’t really follow it.

Meanwhile, Mam is not doing any better. She’s not worse, though. She coughs a lot, she seems to be at a certain level of illness. It’s as if all her strength has been sapped away, and without it, she can’t make the effort to get well again.