Act 3, Part 1 Summary

The Officer and the Volunteer stand guard over the Soldier as Pat, Meg and Miss Gilchrist sit, drink, sing, and bicker over whether Pat was a good soldier in the cause of the IRA. Pat tells a lengthy and frequently interrupted story about how he lost his leg, and how there was a surveyor out measuring a road who got killed and whose body was claimed by both sides. Meg taunts him about being angry and resentful of the young IRA soldiers, and Miss Gilchrist comments that "a bit of shooting makes you forget your troubles." Pat insists the IRA has no right to kidnap a British soldier, but Meg says when there's a war, a soldier has as much right to be a prisoner as Pat has to lose a leg. As Miss Gilchrist takes a drink to the Soldier...