# Read the first page of The Heather Blazing by Colm Tóibín

Read the opening of The Heather Blazing by Colm Tóibín free, no signup. An Irish judge reckons with his past in Wexford.

- Page: https://uncovered.ink/read/the-heather-blazing-colm-toibin
- Genre: Literary fiction
- Year: 1992
- ISBN: 9781476704470
- Read it blind (cover and title hidden): https://uncovered.ink/?b=9781476704470&s=read-page
- Buy: https://bookshop.org/a/125786/9781476704470
- Borrow: https://search.worldcat.org/search?q=9781476704470

## The opening

Eamon Redmond stood at the window looking down at the river which was deep brown after days of rain. He watched the colour, the mixture of mud and water, and the small currents and pockets of movement within the flow. It was a Friday morning at the end of July; the traffic was heavy on the quays. Later, when the court had finished its sitting he would come back again and look out once more at the watery grey light over the houses across the river and wait for the stillness, when the cars and lorries had disappeared and Dublin was quiet.

He relished that walk through the Four Courts when the building was almost closed and everyone had gone and his car was the last in the judges' car park, that walk along the top corridor and down the centre stairway; old stone, old wood, old echoes. He loved the privacy of it; his solitary presence in the vast public building whose function was over and done with for the day.

Years back he would stop for a moment, as he had been instructed to do, and examine his car before he opened the door. Even though the car park was guarded, it would still be easy to pack explosives underneath; often as he turned the ignition he was conscious that in one second the whole car could go, a ball of flame. He laughed to himself at the phrase as he stood at the window. A ball of flame. Now things were safer; things were calm in the south.

He went over to his desk and sifted through his papers to make sure that everything was in order for the court. He noticed, as he flicked through the pages of his judgment, that the handwriting, especially when he wrote something quickly, had become exactly the same as his father's, a set of round squiggles, indecipherable to most others.

He gathered the papers together when his tipstaff told him that it was time.

“I’m ready when you are,” he said as though the tipstaff were the one in charge. He put on his robe and his wig, pushing back some wisps of hair before walking out into the broad light of the corridor.

He had learned over the years not to look at anyone as he walked from his rooms to the court, not to offer greetings to a colleague, or nod at a barrister. He kept his eyes fixed on a point in the distance. He walked slowly, with determination. Downstairs, the Round Hall was full, like an old-fashioned marketplace. The corridors were busy as he walked towards the ante-chamber to his court.

This was the last day of term, he would have to deal with urgent business before getting down to read the judgment he had been working on for several months. He looked again through the pages, which had been cleanly typed by a court secretary and then covered by emendations. All the references to previous judgments were underlined, with the dates they had appeared in the Irish Reports in parenthesis. This judgment, too, would appear in the Irish Reports and would be cited when the rights of the citizen to state services were being discussed in the future, such as the right to attend a hospital, the right to attend a school, or, in this case, the right to full-time and comprehensive psychiatric care.

## Books with a similar feel
- [Intermezzo by Sally Rooney](https://uncovered.ink/read/intermezzo-sally-rooney.md)
- [Foster by Claire Keegan](https://uncovered.ink/read/foster-claire-keegan.md)
- [Whistler by Ann Patchett](https://uncovered.ink/read/whistler-ann-patchett.md)
- [The Bee Sting by Paul Murray](https://uncovered.ink/read/the-bee-sting-paul-murray.md)
- [Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver](https://uncovered.ink/read/unsheltered-barbara-kingsolver.md)
- [The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes](https://uncovered.ink/read/the-sense-of-an-ending-julian-barnes.md)

---
Source: Uncovered (https://uncovered.ink). A short sample shown for reading and discovery. Rights holders can request removal at https://uncovered.ink/takedown.