Road bowling commissioner Doran, in his investigation into a match-fixing scandal, confides in the book-maker Iollan that he doesn’t want to know if the Irish champion, Art, lost the match to the German challenger on purporse.
IOLLAN
His well-being, is it? How would it make you feel, Doran, if people didn’t think you were doing a good job as the commissioner of our road bowling association? How would your well-being be if, instead of people being mad at Art for losing to a Jerry, you were the one taking the heat for letting that German into the tournament in the first place?
DORAN
It was the biggest event of the year, Iollan, everyone from anywhere can –
IOLLAN
I know that, and you know that. But the everyman, he doesn’t care because there is no world that affects him outside of this village, outside of this county, outside of Ireland.
DORAN
But we don’t shut out outsiders –
IOLLAN
Too many good men and women are trying too hard to survive to worry about the details of an issue, aren’t they? They don’t see the organization that allowed the Jerry to play; they see the man who lost — their own man. They don’t see the men who pass their laws; they see the men who enforce them. Now, which one of those two really deserves the blame? They don’t see the men who start the war, but they always see the men who finish it — the ones who make it back and the ones in coffins. How do I think Art looked? I think he looked like the weight of his country was on his shoulders, and instead of helping him carry it, you are looking to pile on.
DORAN
Now, Iollan, that is not what I am doing at all.
IOLLAN
Then what are you doing, Doran?
DORAN
I am saying I do not care if you fixed the match or not! I do not want to hear about it. I do not want anyone to hear about it.
IOLLAN
How can you accuse us of fixing the match?
DORAN
I am not.
IOLLAN
Have some faith in your fellow Irishman.
DORAN
I have faith. I have nothing but faith in that boy. The people of Ireland need to have faith in that boy, and you will deny to any man that that match was fixed.
IOLLAN
There’s nothing to deny. How should I know why he lost? People lose. If there was an accusation every time someone lost, just because your eyes saw something they weren’t expecting, there would be no matches. It’s a problem of expectations, not a problem of what is.
DORAN
There is no problem.
IOLLAN
And what if there was a problem? What if you found out he did lose on purpose?
DORAN
I do not want to know.
IOLLAN
Then what? Nothing. That’s what. You’re an embarrassment. You’re one of those men who only want to know things. You’ll never act on them. You’re like a man with a bookcase full of novels he’s never read. Art lost because time makes you a loser. It always comes out on top, no matter who you are, no matter what you do. Time will always run out on you.
