The Secret Scripture

Dr. Grene writes that he took a trip to Sligo on a beautiful spring day, which did nothing to make the Sligo Mental Hospital look less dreary. Percy Quinn, an old friend and colleague with whom Dr. Grene hasn’t kept in touch, is now plump and balding. His office is in one of the hospital’s twin towers. Dr. Grene found Percy to be “exceedingly cordial” when Percy apologized for not attending Bet’s funeral (269).

Dr. Grene reminds Percy that he wrote asking about Roseanne. Percy says that he’s found out a few things about her. Roseanne’s mention of Nazareth probably refers to an old orphanage in Sligo called Nazareth House, which is now a retirement home. Dr. Grene wonders if he could go there and ask for records. Percy presumes that he could, though there is still some secrecy in institutions like those. In the past, they were accused of committing great cruelties.

Percy then says that there was once an orderly at Sligo Mental Hospital named Sean Keane, who was “a bit funny in the head,” and made a complaint against another orderly named Brady back in the late-1950s for “molesting [Roseanne] over quite a long period” (271). As a result of this sexual assault, the authorities at the hospital decided to move Roseanne to Roscommon.