The Ballad of Ronan McCoy

Chapter 21

The bell of St Matthew’s church rings on the hour every day of the year.

I don’t know if it’s automated or if a person does it by pulling a rope like one of those traditional monks with the haircut and the brown robes.

What I do know is that on New Year’s morning, for the only time in the whole year, the bell tower chimes out a tune.

And it’s only on that day that people realise there’s more than one bell up inside the tower.

For just one day the bell that rings all year by itself gets some company and doesn’t ring alone.

I wonder if that’s the only day of the year where that bell, when joined with all the others, rings the loudest?

The tune they chimed together that New Year’s morning was ‘The Gloria’.