Dublin People

D U B L I N PEOPLE
Stage 6

D o you ever stare at strangers on a bus or a train, and
w onder who they are and what they're like? A girl, going
h ome from her job to an empty bedsitter, perhaps. She
l ooks shy, unsure of herself, probably doesn't find it easy to
m ake friends . . .
O r a middle-aged man, with a cheerful sort of face — the
k ind of man who likes to have a drink and a jokein the pub
w ith his friends. But now he looks irritable, depressed,
m aybe even a little guilty . . .
H ere, in short stories full of compassion and humour,
M aeve Binchy takes us into the lives of two such people.
I rish people, living in Dublin, but we would recognize them
a nywhere. Jo, newly come to the big city . . . and Gerry, a
m an with a problem. We share their anxieties andhopes,
t heir foolishness, even their tragedy . . .

M aeve Binchy ( 1940-) w as born in County Dublin, Ireland.
She is a journalist and a well-known author of several
b estsellers, which include novels, such as Firefly Summer
a nd The Copper Beech, a nd volumes of short stories. The
t wo stories retold in this book are from her collection
e ntitled Dublin 4.

O XFORD BOOKWORMS
SeriesEditor: Tricia Hedge

DUBLIN PEOPLE
Maeve Binchy

retold by
Jennifer Bassett

O X F O R D U N I V E R S I T Y PRESS

Oxford University Press
G reat Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP

CONTENTS

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O XFORD and OXFORD ENGLISH

are trade marks of Oxford University Press
ISBN 0 19 422705 7
Original edition © Maeve Binchy 1982
First published by Ward River Press Ltd, Eire 1982
This simplified edition © Oxford University Press 1993

F lat in Ringsend
M urmurs in Montrose

First published1993
Fifth impression 1997
The moral right of the Author has been asserted
N o unauthorized photocopying
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may
be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted,
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
p hotocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior
written permission of Oxford University Press.
This book issold subject to the condition that it shall not,
by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or
otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent
in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is
published and without a similar condition including this
condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
Illustrated by Susan Sluglett
Please note that thetwo stories in this volume
a ppeared in their original form in the collection
of short stories by Maeve Binchy entitled Dublin 4.
Printed in England by Clays Ltd, St Ives pic

Exercises

102

G lossary

105

1
45

FLAT IN RINGSEND

*

Jo knew what she should do. She should get the evening papers
at lunch-time, read all the advertisements for flats, and as soon
as she saw onethat looked suitable, she should rush round at
once and sit on the doorstep. Never mind if the advertisement
said 'After six o'clock'. She knew that if she went at six o'clock,
and the flat was a good one, she'd probably find a queue of
people all down the street. Finding a good flat in Dublin, at a
r ent you could afford, was like finding gold in the gold rush.
T he other way was by personalcontact. If you knew
someone who knew someone who was leaving a flat . . . That
was often a good way. But for somebody who had only just
arrived in Dublin, there was no chance of any personal contact.
N o, it was a matter of staying in a hostel and searching.
Jo had been to Dublin several times when she was a child.
She had been on school excursions, and to visit Dad that time he
had...