*Excerpt from Ciaran Carson’s Question Time. This is a piece of prose from his volume of writing entitled Belfast Confetti.


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You were seen coming from the Shankill.
Why did you make a U-turn?
Who are you?
Where are you coming from?
Why did you stop when you seen the car?
You know the car.
The car. Outside Sinn Fein Headquarters.
You looked at it
You looked at it
You were seen, You were seen.
Coming from the Shankill.
Where are you from?
Where is he from?
The Falls? When? What Street?
How far down the street was that?
When was that?
What streets could you see from the house?
Cape Street? Yeah.
Frere Street? Yeah. Where was Cape Street?
Again. Who lived next door?
Next door again.
Why did you stop when you seen the car?
Why did you turn?
So you moved up the road? When?
How old were you then?
Where was that? Mooreland?
Where is that?
Stockman's? Where is that?
What's next?
Casement? Right. What's next?
You were seen.
Where do you live now?
Where's that?
SO where did you live again?
Yeah, I know it's not there anymore.
You just tell me what was there.
Again. No. 100. Where was that?
You were seen.
What's the nest street down from Raglan Street?
Coming from the Shankill....

The questions are snapped at me like photographs.  ¶ 4:45 a.m.