28. Boudica in Dublin (5 pgs.) – Champions Renaissance

ACT I - CHAPTER 28

BOUDICA IN DUBLIN

Saturday May 12, 2018

Croke Park Stadium

Dublin Ireland

That weekend Alexandre had traveled with the France team to Dublin to prepare for the World Cup. It was a friendly match with Ireland, who had not qualified. The gallery of the stadium was green, the same color as the shirts of the Irish team that had won the first half by one to zero.

“Guys, we have to turn the game around! We have to score more and be careful with the counterattack! Dubois, look for Alexandre in the middle! Abebe, watch out for Snowell’s entries!” the coach cheered on his team in the locker room, while outside the crowd roared, “Will Grigg’s on Fire,” a popular song in Ireland.

In the second half, Ireland scored again at the start. Alexandre’s team played defensively, but ten minutes before the end of the game, a teammate scored a goal with a header from a corner kick. They played on the attack in the last few minutes trying to turn the score around, but they couldn’t even tie, losing two to one. When the coach held the press conference, he explained that the French team was progressing well and that the poor results were part of it.

Back at the Walker Shell Hotel, located in the center of Dublin, he joined Victoria and Francisca at the bar. Outside the Irish fans were still singing. After a while they decided to go to Temple Bar, but they wanted to go by taxi.

187

“Oh, please give me your autograph Alexandre!” an Irish girl told him and they took a selfie with other fans. Due to the crowd, it was difficult for them to leave the hotel and get to the taxi.

“Let’s go to the Temple Bar neighborhood,” Alexandre told the taxi driver as they began their march through the crowd.

When they arrived, they got out, he pulled up his hood and put on his sunglasses. Victoria and Francisca were wearing jeans and t-shirts.

The taxi driver had left them at “The Pendragon’s” bar.

Before entering they saw a group of Irish team fans still singing and drinking beer in their green t-shirts.

“We were never in Temple Bar,” Victoria told Alexandre.

“I love Irish music,” said Francisca.

“Me too. Two blocks away is the famous The Merlin’s Bar. A very good Irish band is playing today. We’re going over there!” said Alexandre.

“Have you already been here?” Francisca asked Alexandre with a mischievous smile, guessing what he was going to answer.

“Yes, we were here with Ronald a couple of years ago. Vacation! It was a few weeks later that I met Victoria.”

“Irish music is very happy and I can’t sit still for long if I listen to it,” said Victoria, looking at Francisca.

“Me neither. I love Dublin!” Francisca said, and she thought in somebody else in somewhere else, Maybe I can love you. Maybe her fear of falling in love was starting to disappear.

They ate sandwiches, listened to music and drank beer. When they changed the orchestra, they didn’t like it and decided to go to another place. After visiting several bars, they entered Merlin’s Bar and they loved the live music.

“This way,” a girl student waitress told them when they entered and saw that there were few people.

“How good the music!” Alexandre commented.

“You haven’t heard anything yet! Later the best music group in Ireland will arrive,” said the waitress.

“Lucky! Do you have a table near the stage?” Victoria asked.

“They’re reserved, but I think there’s one left,” the waitress said and led them to a small one that was a few meters from the stage.

188

“It’s perfect! Bring us beer!” Alexandre said and the waitress left to get the order after they had completed it.

The band that played live was two men and a woman. She, played the violin; one of the men, sang and played guitar; the other, beat with his hands a large box on which he sat playing percussion.

The place was pure Irish joy. They followed the rhythm with their clapping and they did the same. Alexandre looked at Victoria and saw her as a Viking in her land; to Francisca, with her long curly red hair, which at that moment reminded him of Boudica, the Celtic heroine whose name meant “victory.” She had been the warrior queen who had led the Celtic tribes in war against ancient Rome. Historians had described her as tall, with fierce eyes, red hair down to her hips. She came from a family of aristocrats and always wore a thick gold necklace, which among the Celtic peoples meant nobility.

As Roman law only allowed inheritance through the paternal line, when the king who was her husband died, her kingdom was in debt to Rome. Boudica had no way to pay and her kingdom was annexed, her property confiscated and her nobles treated as slaves. They whipped Boudica and raped her daughters, unleashing her fury. She conspired with her neighbors and, inspired by the exploits of the Celts who had defeated Julius Caesar, Boudica burned Londinium, that later become London, and massacred its inhabitants.

Gaius Suetonius Paulinus, the governor of Great Britain, was unable to defend Londinium because he was on a campaign in North Wales pursuing the Druids, who were the true power of the Celts.

When he returned both armies faced each other at the Battle of Watling Street. Boudica’s army, although numerous and superior five to one, was not uniform or disciplined, since Celtic custom included children, women and the elderly in battle.

On the contrary, the professionalism of the Roman army decimated the bravery and numerical superiority of the islanders, accompanied by a strategy that knew how to take advantage of the characteristics of the terrain in battle. The massacre was total. The British Celts were trapped between two steep hills. Forty thousand died, crushed among themselves or annihilated by the enemy’s army. The Romans left no survivors and even killed pregnant women. Boudica took poison so that the Romans would not catch her and its two daughters fled never to be found again.

189

For Rome there was no equality between men and women, but there was for the Celts. Francisca and Victoria carried Boudica’s story in their DNA. Irish music fueled that fire that united them to their history, that united them, and that united them with Alexandre. They looked at each other and laughed.

“I think Alexandre deserves a gift,” Francisca said in Victoria’s ear with a mischievous face.

“What gift?”

“I’ll tell you later the idea that just occurred to me,” she said, looking at a wonderful Irish woman walking by in jeans and red boots.

“What idea?” Victoria insisted.

“Red boots!” Francisca said.

“Red boots? What’s that?” Victoria asked.

“No. Let me get the details and then I’ll tell you. I love you,” she said and kissed her cheek.

“I love you too, my protective goddess and friend,” Victoria said, kissing her back and they both kissed their respective shark teeth. Alexandre saw them out of the corner of his eye and raised an eyebrow. Once again, he felt elated and grateful to be alive.

Victoria realized that he was looking at her with tenderness and desire, like a man who loves his future wife, and she was moved.

“I love you!” she told him and kissed his mouth, keeping the rhythm of the music with her legs. Some people were already on their feet dancing at the bar. Francisca couldn’t resist the urge. Merlin’s Bar was a time-bomb waiting to explode.

Alexandre felt that two warrior women, like Boudica, shared their wild necklaces that made them look even more beautiful.

Then the music stopped dead and the musicians left and others arrived. They were the musicians of what was supposed to be the best band in Ireland. These? Alexandre thought, not at all impressed. The new band consisted of a pretty redhead who would play the violin, a man who would play a small accordion, another young man who would play guitar, and an Irish teenager who would sing and play the tambourine.

190

When they started, the bar exploded. The music was impressive and produced uncontrollable joy. People jumped out of their seats and they did the same. They clapped following the rhythm and jumping. There were cheers and shouts of joy.

Alexandre danced between Victoria and Francisca, hugged them, let them go; they hugged him, they let him go; they hugged each other, they let go; they held each other’s arms and twirled like they do Irish dances.

And while they danced, the ancestors in their blood celebrated the festival of Samhain, the Celtic new year that Boudica celebrated and continued to celebrate for centuries.

They danced all night and when the sun came up, they took a taxi that took them to the hotel.

When they got out of the car, they noticed that Francisca was not getting out.

“But how! Aren’t you going with us?” Victoria asked.

“No. I must travel to London to meet my father. I got a text while we were dancing. I had never seen him so worried before. He wants to talk to me about something urgent.”

“Did something happen to him?”

“No. He told me that he is okay, but that needs to see me now. I really enjoyed tonight. I will never forget it. I love you,” she said and went to the airport.

He and Victoria went up to the hotel room.

“Why do I love that woman so much?” Victoria exclaimed.

“She is adorable, right?” he said.

“Yes, she has both of us under her spell,” she added.

191