‘Put the weather behind you,’he said. ‘There’ll be another day that will come along and you’ll be a feck of a lot wetter than you there all stuck down and bad tempered. If it is bad enough a man will look at you take you’ve just been out there for a walk in the water and bein’ an idiot you went into it too deep with you clothes still on your back.’

He took at his pint bringing the glass up to his mouth and taking a gasp at the black liquid. He wiped at his beard with his fingers.

‘You rub it in like that,’ he said. ‘It’ll an old man like me keep some colour there and stop out the grey.’

‘So you will have a day and the rain will come down so thick and heavy that it does nothing else but push you flat against the ground so there is nowhere to move forward and every strap of strength in your body feels wasted. Feck it and feck the rain. It’s only a bucket of water and it will be back in the sea as soon as it is down. You’re a man aren’t you and unless you’re out drowning with a pair of heavy boots on you can stand there and let the water wash off you. And when the rain stops and it will then you will be onto another day and if you’re lucky there’ll be a sun out and you can go take a boat on to the water and thrown in a line and you can catch some fish for your sins.’

He finished his pint and put the glass back on the bar.

‘So will yer put away that face and buy me a pint?”