"The Building" by Seamus O'Kelly

"The Building" by Seamus O'Kelly (1908, 22 pages)

March 1 to March 31

Resources

I have not yet been to Galway, Ireland but I do not think you would find another city of its size on the planet that has produced so many great writers, among them Seamus O'Kelly (1875 to 1918)  I have previously posted on his "The Weaver's Grave", "The Rector", and "The Wayside Burial" and his tremendously fun to read story about a cousin of the leprechaun, "The Shoemaker".    "The Weaver's Grove" is a beautiful story that is considered on the classics of the Irish short story.  The short stories of O'Kelly are considered transitional works from the tradition of the story teller with a transition in some to modern short stories.   His stories are set among the people of the west of Ireland and show a great love for the traditions, people and beauty of the area.

"I love Irish Short Stories"
Ruprecht

I am currently reading a very informative and interesting book that helped me understand this story, Occasions of Sin:  Sex and Society in Modern Ireland by Diamaid Ferriter.  He talks about how the famines resulted in delayed marriages and reduced the number of possible marriage partners.  He says in Ireland in the time when this story was published (1907) a marriage was commonly entered into almost as a business arrangement and I see that in this wonderful story.

"The Building" is the story of one Martin Cosgrave.  We first meet him after someone had read him a letter from America saying a woman he had always loved from afar, Rose Dempsey, was coming back to Ireland proposed marriage to him, if he did not already have a wife.  Cosgrave has some land and we can really feel his love for it.  We learn of his life history.  When young he took to the road and learn the stone mason's trade and knew how to construct buildings.   He was gone a long time and when he came back his father was dead but he was the joy of his mother's old age.   Then he looks around his house and thinks it is not a fit place to bring a woman.   He imagines that Rose is used to grand houses.   He sees a beech tree grove and sets to building a house there.  O'Kelly does a great job of letting us see the building of the house and feel the man's pride in his work.   Cosgrave begins to abstract himself from all but the construction of the house.   "His whole attitude was one of detachment from everything that did not savour of the crunch of stone, the ring of steel on the walls of a building".  More and more he cares only for the building and the coming of Rose.  

He knows the train she will be arriving on.  His anxiety increases as people get off the train but he does not see Rose.  Then he sees a woman he thinks is Rose.  He calls out for her but it is her sister.   He asks where Rose is and is told she is not coming and the sister told him Rose is not worth troubling himself over.   She speaks her sister's name with some bitterness.  We witness the crushing of Cosgrave's spirit as his world comes crashing down on him.   His work now seems a cruel joke.   

The ending is really emotionally complex and brilliant.  I read the last few pages several times they were so beautiful.  

"Ladies, discount shoe
repairs now offered"-
Rory

"The Building" takes us deeply into the life of William Cosgrave, we feel his pride, his love of the land and his struggle to keep himself going.   It was a time of emotional reticence and we can for sure see that in this story.    

You can download the collection, The Waysiders, in which I read this story, along with other stories by O'Kelly at Manybooks for free.