It's All In The Name

My father had a great interest in education. He grew up in Tralee, Co. Kerry. His family had biblical names. He was Jeremiah but was always called Jerry. His father was Cornelius, and known as Con. Con married Hannah Stack. My father had one brother, Bartholomew referred to only as Bertie. I was named after Con but am known as Nelius !!
When my Grandmother, Hannah died, a lot of her furniture was transported from Tralee to our house in Sligo. One of the items was a lovely firm bed, that I slept in. It had four oak posts and a nice carved headboard. One night, I woke to find a priest kneeling alongside my bed. His prayer book, with black, tooled leather cover, and black braiding was open and rested on the ledge of an oak wooden kneeler. He was reading from it and his lips moved. The only colours to be seen were the vivid red, yellow, green and violet, ribbon bookmarks. Every so often he would turn a page and dart a piercing look in my direction. I closed my eyes tightly, pretending to be fast asleep, fearing that if he found me awake it would be the end of me. Slowly, I would half open my eyes again to see if he was still there, and he was. I dared not move anything, except my eyelids.
Some weeks later a conversation arose about the bed, and indeed, it transpired it was owned by a priest before it came in to the possession of my father's mother.
Another item that came to be in our house from my father's home in Oakpark, was an old book. It was my father's, beginner's text book, to study English. His initials are on the top of the first page, written in blue ink, with an old fashioned nib. On one of the following pages his brother Bertie's name is written, with the same pen, and the capital letter B now pokes through the tattered pages.