Oisin Ran, it seems like that's all he does anymore, run. He ran from Ronan, he ran from his mam, he ran from Dermot, he ran from Father John, he ran from God and he ran from himself. He wants to stop but he's too frightened maybe even a bit too selfish to stop but we wants to, He wants to stand up to Dermot and he wants to stand up to Father John, he also wants to tell Ronan he loves him without feeling like he's betraying God, But he can't or maybe he just wont, he doesn't even know anymore.
Dermot's words ran too deep this time, his hits felt like light thuds on Oisin's now numb body but his horrid words cut like daggers, So Oisin ran, He grabbed his guitar and a bag with some clothes and he just ran. He spent the night on a doorstep on Grafton Street and spent the day busking trying to get up enough money for the ferry to England, he was going to find his father, a man he had never met, a man who didn't even know he existed. He knows his name, Brendan, he knows he was married when his mother met him and he knows he lives in Chester, from what Oisin has found online about him he isn't a good man, but who is? Oisin isn't.
Oisin pretends that people aren't staring at his bruised face or his shaking hands, he tries to pretend they're staring at him for different reasons, but he can't think of another reason for someone to look at him without pity or disgust in their eyes.
He finds the village easily enough and it wasn't hard to find the only other Irish man there, Oisin wanted to run again, he needed to run, but he had nowhere to go, he needed to be brave, he needed to prove Dermot wrong, wanting and needing are two very different things though. Right now in this moment he needed to do this, he needed to be strong, he needed to prove that he could be more than a scared little boy who was so broken, he could feel the cracks in his own soul.