I walked down to the square. Tam was on
the corner, leaning against his barrow and affecting the worst Irish accent I
had ever heard:
‘Get yer loovely
toilet paper here – all de way from ould Doublin!’
‘All right,
Tam?’
He ignored me.
Someone had just picked up a sample. The transaction was completed, much to
Tam’s delight.
‘What’s with the
brogue?’ I said.
‘Ever seen green
bog roll?’ he said. ‘Course ye have. This lot, however, haven’t. Call it a
Celtic sales pitch.’
‘But they can’t
speak English,’ I reminded him.
He jingled the
coins in his hand. ‘Away wichi!’ he said. ‘Dey loove de ould blarney.
Interested?’
We still had
half a family pack at the flat. I was about to explain this when my attention
was seized by the sight of two men in leather caps pushing a barrow into the
square. They took a furtive look round then parked. They carefully removed the
tarpaulin that was covering their wares.
‘Now there’s
something ye don’t see every day,’ said Tam, and scratched his head through
tartan.
A periscope was
lying inside an inflatable dinghy.
‘I
hope their patter’s good,’ he said, and looked at his own merchandise. ‘My
stuff’s more household oriented, though.’
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