The half-Irish book-maker Iollan and the Irish gambler Dallan discuss their family arrangement, specifically Dallan’s son Ciaran (who is really Iollan’s son) and the gambler’s wife Nessa, who has lived in sin with the book-maker for years.
IOLLAN
That boy was a mistake.
DALLAN
My boy is not a mistake.
IOLLAN
The biggest mistake was trusting you, letting you talk us into giving him to you in trade. If I would have been half the man I thought I was, I would have got Nessa on that boat, and the doctor would have done him right early.
DALLAN
Doctor. Don’t talk to me about your back-alley butchers.
IOLLAN
We’ve got business to take care of.
DALLAN
What business is that?
IOLLAN
Your half of that trade.
DALLAN
My half?
IOLLAN
I want that divorce.
DALLAN
Divorce. You’re like a little girl tugging on my leg — daddy, daddy, daddy, please, daddy, can I have the divorce. You can pull all you want, but it won’t do you no good. I’m not a criminal, I can’t give you something that’s not legal.
IOLLAN
I’m not talking about a piece of paper.
DALLAN
Then what are you talking about?
IOLLAN
You, as a man, a man of honor, who made a square deal with us, renounce your marriage.
DALLAN
Renounce?
IOLLAN
Admit that you’re divorced.
DALLAN
But I’m not divorced.
IOLLAN
And we had a deal.
DALLAN
You were going to kill a baby! You Bits don’t understand it. With your religion of convenience, you see paper and marks. Well, let me tell you, that’s more than a piece of paper you’re talking about, Iollan. We believers recognize the most valuable contract of all: one signed with the Lord Jesus Christ. A divine document declaring a union of souls, of faith, of loyalty to the Lord, not your disposable world of lust.
IOLLAN
Oh ye of such unquestionable moral conviction, of faith. Oh knight of the brick castle built on a foundation of straw. When will you stop hiding behind God instead of standing in front of Him?
DALLAN
You’ve got to let this go, fella. You’ve got to be a man. Be a man. You don’t know how to be a man.
IOLLAN
How does one be a man in your world? Beat his child, destroy everything he’s had through lies, and pints and whiskey, become a Christ in his own mind?
