6/2/01 – I had a game of chess with Sean.
7/2/01 – Sean had to be collected from school – someone had stood on his thumb. He later claimed that it had clicked back into place – i.e. it had been dislocated and was now ‘located’ (or the bones had been ‘reunited’) … Sean and I played chess.
11/2/01 – [In Warrenpoint for anniversary mass; met numerous relatives and ate and drank …] The climax was when Sean, egged on by Nuala, spat on his hand and shook hands with Tony to seal the deal that Tony and Molly would visit us in the summer.
15/2/01 – I had a couple of games of chess with Sean (he beat me yesterday), and did ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire?’ with the kids, who were up quite late.
16/2/01 – We went to a disco at the rugby club, at which medals were presented to some under-age soccer colleagues of Sean’s (although Sean didn’t get one) … Sean and Susanna were up dancing.
17/2/01 – Sean and I had a couple of games of chess and a game of pool. [We were playing a lot of chess in these days.]
25/2/01 – Sean had been at Martin’s party all afternoon, and Pauline collected him.
3/3/01 – Pauline helped me with the stones, as did Sean for a while, then all the kids played in the meadow – it was a beautiful day.
5/3/01 – Sean says that he is worried about his lack of progress in Irish, and that the Irish will be much harder in the master’s class next year. So I will help him with his Irish.
8/3/01 – Sean seems to have lost his sparkle at the moment, for reasons we can’t discern. Susanna, on the other word, is a ray of sunshine as usual.
12/3/01 – Sean, on getting home from school, was in much better form. He beat me in two games of chess later, which perked him up further. He was back to his old self, and promised us that he would stay that way.
15/3/01 – I played some pool with Sean.
17/3/01 – Sean and I played football in the field.
18/3/01 – Played football with Sean in the field … Sean and I played chess and pool.
20/3/01 – I had a couple of games of chess with Sean – his latest comedy persona is an old, rather stage-Irish, priest. Nevertheless, he cried with disappointment at losing the second game.
23/3/01 – We got the kids out to school – Sean brought his chess set as he hopes to have a game with X at break time (X being apparently ‘the best in the area’) … Sean’s picture, as part of the quiz team, was in the Anglo-Celt today … He slaughtered X at chess – it appears that X hardly even knows how to play. He was very proud of himself for getting 115 out of 116 sums right in a timed test.
24/3/01 – Sean was singing in the choir at confirmation.
31/3/01 – Played football with Sean and Susanna in the field … Sean and I played football with Mark and Ross.
The road to God knows where ... Brendan O'Brien 