DONNY BOY

by Glendinning, Robin

Amid the troubles of life in present day Ulster, Ma is coping with raising her mentally handicapped son Donny. Donny has witnessed an IRA murder of a British policeman, and been given the murder weapon to throw into the river, but instead returns home with the gun. Cahill, who is also known as the Quartermaster, has apparently committed the murder and comes to the house to make sure the job has been completed. The almost farcical nature of the celebration which ensues turns to horror with the arrival of the British Army in the neighbourhood searching for a suspect. Cahill vanishes, leaving Ma and Donny to hide the weapon during the search which decimates their house, but the weapon remains cleverly hidden. When Cahill returns after the soldiers leave, the layers of truths and half-truths surrounding what really occurred are peeled off revealing a much different series of events than at first appeared.