The Irish Prisoner
A few years ago we were invited to Ireland to watch Her Majesty the Queen's ceremony of Kindness, i.e., actually receiving the Irish Prisoners that occupied the prison, and hearing their allegiance to her. When we got to the prison we accidently entered through the wrong door, and witnessed a very different scene. We saw the prisoners in their cells as we peered in, the light was awful, but we could see that their hands and feet were tied. In fact there were chains on their feet which dragged about two feet behind them when they are taken anywhere. The guards laughed at the prisoners there all the time and spat at them as they walked past, especially when they were being called to her Majesty's pleasure.
Niall, which means either cloud, champion, passionate, or vehement is an ancient name borne by several of the high kings of Tara, the most famous of whom was the powerful semi-mythological fifth century king known as Niall of the Nine Hostages, ancestor of all the O'Neills and MacNeills that followed. The prisoner that we spotted was named Niall too, and was in fact the reincarnation of Niall of the Nine Hostages and called by those who imprisoned him ScuttieβΌ
Scuttie was a prisoner at Her Majesty the Queen of England's pleasure. The Queen's picture was on all the walls of all the prison, which were there so that the Irish prisoners would remember that they were subservient!
Five minutes after we crept in and began talking to Niall the guards arrived. The guards were either English or Irish whose allegiance was to the Queen of England, and as such bitterly hated by the Irish prisoners. We, of course discreetly disappeared around the corner, but not too far so we can watch the events going on. The guards arrived swearing and cussing and go into the cells and begin pushing and shoving the prisoners out; none came willingly. When they spat on the floor the guards spat on them, and pulled their pants down, and take the straps they had in their hands and gave them about 10 strikes.
The guards were yelling at them, "Dirty animals pull your pants up so that you appear at least to be decent human beings in front of Her Majesty."
This happened at least 10 times as they crawl along the freezing cold and drafty halls of the prison basement, and the prisoners were muttering, "That old bag, whoring bitch."
The guards said, "If she heard you say that you would pay with your lives, but as it is she enjoys watching you eejits getting punished."
However, as we watched the prisoners move along the cold, wet basement halls of the prison they became more and more agitated. The guards become even more vicious with their slaps and strikes with the strap. When they reached the end of the corridor leading up to the big hall where Her Majesty is to receive them, there is a huge picture of her.
The guards yelled out, "Stop you fecking fools and bow down now to Her Majesty's eminence here in front of you."
As we look on, Naill being the most stupid of the prisoners decided to spit at the picture that's why he was called Scuttie by the English! After which, one of the guards dragged him into a corner, away from the other eejits. His hands were still tied behind his back, but the guard hauled them up over his head and tied them on to the large meat hook that was inside the crevice of the dungeon-like corner which was used for punishments.
Suddenly, and again our stupid Scuttie yelled out, "Bastard, I'll see you in hell before I will bow to that slut."