‘You always were the gloomy one,’ teased Gilly as the two men lay down to try and sleep. The bonfires were burning fiercely and ash still fell like confetti at a funeral.

Mac and Gilly had been undergraduates together and had remained friends ever since. They even got married on the same day, to the Garritty sisters, Aoibhinn and Sibeal. Whereas Gilly and Aoibhinn had recently celebrated their Diamond wedding anniversary, Mac lost Sibeal to a sarcoma in 1973.

‘Sleep well, my friend,’ whispered Mac. ‘This is simply the last of it. Nothing more.’

It began to rain and the two men pulled a ripped tarpaulin over their heads.