Field of Tears - genaflevering

Are the horrible memories from the Irish Civil War still lingering in the grass on the field? What does the tears of the grandfather symbolize? “Field of Tears” is a short story written by Declan J. Connaughton in which he tells the story about an old man and his granddaughter called Rita. She frequently comes to visit him at the nursing home where he has to stay against her will, simply because he is too old and weak. She knows this and it’s also one of the reasons why she goes to see him that often, to spend time with him before it’s too late which makes every second she has with him precious. Rita wants to take him out for a drive and the grandfather guides her to a field he remembers from when he was stationed during the Civil War. As he sits in the car facing the sea, he starts to recall a memory from the field and suddenly Rita isn’t there anymore but his comrades from the war are.

“Field of Tears” is a historical fiction short story that follows a man who took part in the Irish Civil War which followed the Irish War of Independence, where the Irish people fought for the right to be an Irish Republic. England wouldn’t let them have their will but they made a treaty that ended the British rule in most of Ireland. This wasn’t satisfying enough for some of the Irish republicans that didn’t want to take part in the “Provisional Government”, who supported the treaty and this lead to a civil war between these two opposing groups.

The story gives us a glimpse of the guilt that is still with the people attending the war so many years after and it will be there until the very end. In a civil war it’s your own people that you’re killing, that’s something the grandfather is well aware of and he also was back when he was a young man at eighteen standing in that field and having to take another man’s life. In his flashback to the field you can tell that he is at unease with the whole situation, especially while they’re bringing the stranger up the road: “In the distance De Burca could make out several figures approaching. He felt sick to his stomach. O’Leary appraised him closely. “I know how you feel”, he said, “but this is war”. This gives us the impression that they feel bad about what they’re doing but they also know it’s necessary because they’re at war.
The title “Field of Tears” also lets us know how it felt back then and how it still feels, even at ninety eight he still feels the sorrow of the past and it lives with him every day. It’s a field filled with tears and filled with grief of the lost lives of both soldiers and civilians. “Well, this is as good a place as any, is cuimhin liom, De Burca”, he said loudly.” From what one of the grandfather’s comrades, O’Leary says, we can assume that it isn’t the first time this field has been used to assassinate one of the enemies. Is cuimhin liom means “I remember” and this tells us that they have been there before. So when he and his granddaughter drives out to the field again eighty eight years later the memories and grief comes rushing back to him and he cries, just like he has been doing through the years standing in that very field. This we can interpretate from this quote: “Then the tears came – down his face and down through the years. From young man to old man…” The title is therefore a symbolic statement of the pain and sadness the grandfather has felt throughout the years looking out over the field and reminiscing the time of the Civil War and his part in it.

Rita and her grandfather have a good relationship to each other and they are very close. One of the reasons why they’re so close is because she knows that with the age her parents are, losing her grandfather is even closer and she fears every day that it will be their last which just makes their time together more precious. Though she loves spending time with her grandpa she wishes it could be somewhere else but the nursing home because she hates one of the nurses there. There’s a lot of tension between her and the nurse as we can see in this quote: “Walking away from the nurse’s station, she felt a cold hard stare marking her progress, like a laser level with its precise red dot.” The nurse follows Rita with her eyes walking toward the day room where her grandfather was waiting, but while walking she thinks to herself that she doesn’t like that nurse and hates the way she intimidates her. We are not explained to any reason why their relationship is so tense, it just is and it always has been. Despite the fact of the bad relationship between Rita and the nurse, she still keeps visiting her grandfather and she will continue doing so. She enjoys spending time with him and going on trips with him, like the one out to the field, though she’s not aware what lingers behind the perfect picture of the big open field.

How can it be that this specific field can wake different emotions in Rita and the grandfather? All he sees is pain and sorrow but Rita can only see the untouched land and a field filled with peace. This is nowhere near what is actually is, she isn’t aware of the horrors that happened there during the Civil War and what her grandfather was a part of. She isn’t aware of the fact that this was the field where he killed another human being for the very first time. And for him, the field still holds the horrific actions that occurred and what he had to do. But what can you do in a situation like that? If he hadn’t killed the civilian that supposedly was a betrayer, it would have been his life on the line instead and he knew that. That’s why he acted the way he did, not because he wanted to take another man’s life, but simply because he knew that it was the only thing he could do to. But the guilt has been with him throughout the years, even after decades the tears are still coming down his face, tears of pain, guilt and sorrow.

Websites used for research

“Irish Civil War”. Wikipedia website. Viewed 11/03/15. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Civil_War --------------------------------------------
[ 1 ]. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Civil_War