Belfast (2021)
Ciarán Hinds: Pop
Photos
Quotes
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Pop : You know who you are, don't you?
Buddy : Yes, Pop.
Pop : You're Buddy from Belfast 15, where everybody knows you and your pop looks out for you and your mummy looks out for you, your daddy looks out for you, your granny looks out for you, your brother looks out for you, and the whole family looks out for you. And wherever you go and whatever you become, that'll always be the truth. And that thought will keep you safe. It'll keep you happy... Will you remember that for me?
Buddy : Yes, Pop.
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Buddy : She looks at me sometimes, but we're not allowed to talk in the class, so I can't say anything. And then when we go out to the playground, she always goes off with the other girls. Anyways, I think she loves that other fella.
Pop : Ah, you don't know that for sure. Women are very mysterious.
Granny : And women can smash your face in, too, mister.
Pop : Your granny's become less mysterious over the years.
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Buddy : We have to do a project about the moon landing.
Pop : What? Those boys not come back from that?
Buddy : They did. Now we have to cut things out of the papers, and explain how they got there.
Granny : If they did get there, if they did get to the moon. Not what it says here. God doesn't like it.
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Pop : Get yourselves to the moon. London's only one small step for a man.
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Buddy : Is it 27?
Pop : That's close enough. And now just make sure your numbers aren't very clear to read. She might give you the benefit of the doubt if your seven looks like a one with a fancy tail, right? The same with a two and a six. Right? Keep her guessing. That means you'll have two or three horses in every race.
Buddy : Isn't that cheating?
Pop : No, well, I'd call it spread betting. And if it gets you moved up by one seat to bask in the light of her glory, then you're off to the races.
Buddy : But sure there's only one right answer.
Pop : If that were true, son, people wouldn't be blowing themselves up all over this town.
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Buddy : My ma says, if we went across the water, they wouldn't understand the way we talk.
Pop : That shouldn't be a problem, son. I've been married to your granny for 50 years. I've never understood a word she's said. And if they can't understand you, then they're not listening, and that's their problem. You know, when I was in Leicester, they said the same thing about me. You know, so I put on a different bloody accent every day just to annoy them. They never knew who I was. But I did, and that's the only one who needs to know. You know who you are, don't you?
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Pop : Oh, that puts me in mind of a great wee system we had in the old days for paying the rent. The rent man would come round and collect the money for every house in the whole street, and once he had done and all the rent books were marked up to date, one of the boys would hold him up at gunpoint in the back entry and take all the money back off him, and then he'd hand it straight back to all the residents in the street, with a little commission for the service. Yeah, it was a very effective system. And the rent man was so good about it in the end that eventually they cut him in for a wee bit, too, and everybody was happy. Except for the council, I suppose.
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Pop : You don't usually buy your wisdom with a walk in the park. Your heart - has to explode.
Granny : Mr. Philosopher. And when did your heart ever explode?
Pop : That time I saw you in those brown stockings.
Granny : Holy God.
[laughs]
Granny : I remember that. It took me half the day just staining my legs brown with the tobacco water. Then our Annie took half the night to draw the seam up the back of me legs with a pencil. You couldn't understand why you couldn't get your hands round them. You thought it was magic.
Pop : It was magic. When you've gray hair, people think your heart never skipped.
Granny : Did yours ever skip?
Pop : Aye, it danced a bloody jig every time you walked in the room.
Granny : Nah. You were full of it then, and you're full of it now.
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Pop : I'm going nowhere you won't find me
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Buddy : I watched every night, too, that they were up there, and how did I never see Mike Collins in the mother ship doing his orbit? Sure you would have seen the shape of Columbus against the light of the moon.
Pop : No, that's 'cause mostly he was on the dark side.
Granny : Exactly. It's the side that Lucifer hangs his shillelagh.
Pop : What? No, look, he was on the dark side of the moon most of the time where we couldn't see him, you know, while he was doing his orbit, and then maybe, you know, just before he was due to come round the corner, you had to go in for your tea.
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Granny : You could do the project together, you and the young lady. You'd get the same marks and maybe end up on the same seat together.
Buddy : But how do I even talk to her?
Pop : [singing] How do you handle a woman? There's a way, said the wise old man, A way known by every woman, Since the whole rigmarole began...
Granny : [speaking] Yeah, it's all rigmarole with you, mister.
