Guests of the Nation
Bonaparte and Noble become friends with Hawkins and Belcher, but their superior Jeremiah Donovan, the commanding officer of the local IRA flying column, remains aloof from everyone else in the cottage.In order to get the two hostages out of the cottage, Donovan lies to them and says that they are merely being transferred; on the way down a path into a nearby peat bog, he tells them the truth.He also requests his captors to allow him to desert and join the IRA in order to be spared death, but they refuse to answer him.As Belcher fumbles to tie a blindfold around his own eyes before he is executed, he notices that Hawkins is still alive and tells Bonaparte to "give him another."• Belcher: A large Englishman who is one of the hostages, he was the quieter of the two who ingratiated himself with the old woman of the house by helping her with her daily chores.Hawkins's terror at the prospect of death highlights the futility of the conflict in terms of humanity and the friendships that developed between the captors and hostages.Donovan believes in a questionable interpretation of duty to his country, of which he constantly speaks and which he cites as justification for the execution.Noble is a devout Catholic who had a brother (a priest) and worries greatly about the force and vigour of Hawkins' terrible arguments.[1] This collection includes: Isaac Babel's Red Cavalry influenced O'Connor especially in this story "Guests of the Nation".[2] "Guests of the Nation" was made into a silent film in 1934, screenplay by Mary Manning, directed by Denis Johnston, and including Barry Fitzgerald and Cyril Cusack.