Sheelagh Kelly

“Mary Feeney lay in the strong, protective arms of her husband, staring at the twinkling constellations that scattered the black velvet above them. If there were truly a Heaven up there how could it better the one which enveloped her at this moment? The thought was blasphemous, she knew, but she could not help the thinking of it. A similar thought ran through Patrick’s mind: what man could ask for more? He had a beautiful wife to bear his sons, a warm roof over his head and a plot of land for his livelihood. Below him he could see the nodding heads of the potato flowers reflected in the pale light. Fields full of the tiny, silvery beacons bursting white and healthy from the kind earth. He filled his lungs with the scent of peat and bracken, of wild honeysuckle and meadowsweet. If God had created man in His own image then surely He must have adopted a similar criterion for the land, for if ever a place were akin to Heaven then this was it.”
― Sheelagh Kelly, A Long Way From Heaven