Redemption - Leon Uris [53]
As Conor thrived and grew in stature, Andrew Ingram found himself suddenly in a springtime of discontent after he had agreed with Kevin O’Garvey to help keep Conor in Derry.
Conor had no idea that there had been maneuverings behind his back to put him into business. At first, like all lies, it seemed small and unimportant. After all, the deception had worked. Conor was not driven out of Derry, and his success had paved the way for others to succeed.
After another springtime of discontent, a brief announcement in the newspaper opened Andrew Ingram’s mind with a sense of horror.
The announcement read that the Select Committee of Parliament chaired by Kevin O’Garvey was compelled to postpone his long-vowed investigation of the Witherspoon & McNab shirt factory.
Following logic, Andrew began to wonder about this anonymous group of Americans financing the ventures in Bogside. Trying to pin a master politician like O’Garvey down was like trying to close one’s fist on a handful of mercury.
Was Andrew reading too much into O’Garvey’s postponement? He questioned Kevin. Kevin came back with an unsatisfactory explanation about a parliamentary maze and a double cross by a couple of members of his Select Committee.
Well, there is only one way to get to the bottom of it, Andrew thought. He must demand to know who the financiers are. That would end all doubt. Kevin had shared many secrets with him prior to this. Kevin would have to lay it on the table.
A meeting had been set, but the night before Andrew Ingram found himself wandering along the promenade of the River Foyle, flushed and dazed. The simple demand he was going to make was not so simple at all. Andrew had wondered about Roger Hubble’s passive reaction to Bogside’s new run of progress. Except for the burnout of the forge, Hubble had accepted it…almost as though he endorsed it.
This was in keeping with Roger Hubble’s overall strategy. When a challenge arose, Hubble calculated how much energy was going to be needed to crush it, and if the challenge succeeded, how much it was going to change things. In most cases it was easier to allow a competitor to take hold, then take control of him. What better way than to control your own competition?
Larkin’s forge would be a perfect example, would it not? After allowing Conor to struggle to establish himself, Caw & Train would quietly draw him in by throwing him a bone.
What Andrew Ingram was revealing to himself was so crushing that, for the first time, he did not confide in his wife until it was too late.
The truth that was emerging was that there were no Americans involved in this. The money had come from Roger Hubble! Dear God! What did Kevin O’Garvey give him in exchange?
The springtime of discontent sank into a gloomy autumn and winter and finally the news that the Select Committee had made a second postponement.
Kevin O’Garvey had called off the investigation of the Witherspoon & McNab factory in exchange for Hubble’s financing of the new enterprises and apprenticeships.
Roger Hubble knew there might be a few successes, but in the end there would be one failure after another and Bogside would still be Bogside.
O’Garvey could no longer bear the destitution of Bogside and more failures of the croppies out on the land. He had tried to do something desperate to bring some light and hope to his people, but he had made a Faustian bargain!
But before you confront Kevin O’Garvey, you’d better think it over, man! Andrew told himself. Kevin had come to Andrew first and lured him into the scheme without his realization, using Conor Larkin as bait.
Once Andrew added his voice for Conor to remain in Derry, he was locked in, whether he knew it or not.
And now, what if he exposed the plot! This lie, the secret, the deceit would devastate Conor Larkin! Ingram, his mentor, and O’Garvey, his godfather and fighter for the people, had passed blessings by allowing child and female slave labor to continue