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The bathers from the Forty Foot had rounded the bend and were nearing the promenade below. The younger was a shock-headed black-haired lad, Jim's age, though bigger-built. He tossed his cap in the air as he walked and as he walked he lurched slightly, weak of one leg. For all he had been swimming, he had a filthy look about him and his towel was a rag of threads. The other, by his tweeds and tone, was of the quality.

Jim believed he recognized the lad. He was not sure but, delaying to see, he left too late to leave. Movement now would draw their attention.

They halted at the private steps that led to Ballygihen House. The toney man, who had his back to Jim, said, 'I might show you still, if you'd a mind.'

The lad shook his head. 'Due back for work. Already late as it is.'

'Another time, perhaps. I believe you'd take to it. Don't think about the leg. You're quick enough off the mark.'

'Another day, maybe.' He had the usual Dublin drawl, but with an open edge, like a kick, at the end of it. Breath of the west, Jim thought.

The man made a sudden motion-- 'Here,' he said-- and silver spun in the air. A fist shot out and nimbly the lad caught the coin.

'For your trouble,' said the man.

Ivory flashed between thick, dirty lips. 'No trouble at all.' The smile, like the face, was familiar. Then the lad's gaze lifted and he saw Jim watching from above. His eyes were dark as night, not dull, but gemmily shining. The smile broadened as though in invitation, as though the rocky shore and the birds and the blue were his to share.

'What cheer, eh?' he called.

Jim found himself smiling back. And long after, while he scorched down Glasthule Road, well late for school, he was smiling still. What curious cheer. At Swim, Two Boys pg 45.


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The eldest of the Doyle children and the only boy, Doyler was born in 1900 while his mother's husband was away with the Dublin Fusiliers. Unsure of his true father, Mick Doyle grudgingly accepted the boy and he was given the name Doyler Doyle "to be sure of it."

He and Jim Mack attended the same school as boys, though Doyler was an outcast at the school due to his poverty and uncertain parentage. They bonded at the age of 12 over an incident where Doyler was brought to Mr. Mack's general store by his father in order to steal soaps to sell. Doyler stole the soaps but then returned them to Jim, though Mick Doyle beat him badly for it.

Not long after, just after he and Jim had gotten back the exam results that would allow them to go on to the next educational level, Doyler disappeared to County Clare to live with his mother's people.

Four years later he returned with a fierce new socialist ideology and a limp that he claimed he'd gotten from the police at the Newsboys' Lockout in Dublin. In fact, he'd gotten the injury from Mick Doyle, who beat him with a chair leg when he found out that Doyler intended to go on with school.

He and Jim immediately picked up their friendship where they'd left off and vowed to practice swimming every day, preparing for Easter 1916 when they planned to swim out to the Muglins and claim the tiny rock of an island for their own.

Doyler Doyle is from Jamie O'Neill's novel, At Swim, Two Boys. This journal is for RPG use at hearts_andminds.

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