An Irish Doctor in Peace and at War Quotes

“O’Reilly passed a table where Gerry Shanks was telling a joke to his friends. Gerry nodded to O’Reilly but didn’t break his stride. “… so there’s your mountaineer man on a ledge a hundred feet down, both arms broken, and this other climber higher up throws him down a rope and says he, ‘Grab you on til that there with your teeth and I’ll get you up here, so I will.’” O’Reilly saw the grins on the men’s faces, heard their chuckles already beginning. Gerry had a reputation as a storyteller. “So the one at the top starts pulling away and pulling away.” Gerry accompanied his words with the motions of a man hauling hand over hand on a rope. “He’s working like blue blazes.” O’Reilly had to hear the punch line. “And then, as your other man’s head appears level with the safe ground, the one pulling gasps, takes a big deep breath, and says, ‘Are you all right, Paddy?’ “‘I aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaam,’ says Paddy,” and as Gerry spoke he let his voice fall from a yell to a whisper.”
― Patrick Taylor, An Irish Doctor in Peace and at War

“Englishmen”
― Patrick Taylor, An Irish Doctor in Peace and at War