[first lines]
Red Kelly
[narrating a written letter]
My dear child, I know what it is to be raised on lies and silences. That is why I write to you now. So you do not grow to confuse fiction for fact, and view your father in an unsavory light, as I did mine.
Red Kelly
You see, your grandfather were a Son of Ireland, a Son of Sieve. Ripped from his home by his English oppressors, and transported to the prisons of Van Dieman's Land, Australia. I do not know what was done to him there, as he never spoke of it, for he were a man who chose to keep secrets from his kin. But I've come to learn secrets shackle one tighter than any chain, and lies fester long after their invention.
Red Kelly
So as you read this history, my history, know that it is for you, and will contain no single lie. May I burn in hell if I speak false.