History

Born among the rubble of Dublin, Aoife was never meant to survive. Her mother, the famed Dubliner Roisin O’Kelly, had not known that she had been pregnant in the first place, having been kept busy by her customers who always sought her silk slippers. It would be a tragic comedy that she would fall in a sweaty mess off Marrowbone road’s alleyways, coating herself in the grime to give birth to her one and only child on the morning of April’s Fools Day. Well, wasn’t that a laugh! Roisin O’Kelly, once the most beautiful in all of Dublin, now a mother to a child who’s first breath was choked with blood and mucus, could not have foreseen how that day was due to go, even as she hobbled into the Donoghue kitchen, where she washed the child and cut the umbilical cord. Born into chaos and a night overlooked by the full moon, she named her child Aoife O’Kelly, the seed of some customer long lost to the ever growing Dublin crowd.

As a working woman (Roisín would sometimes offer her services to factory houses, but would mostly work the streets as a prostitute and thief), she often left her infant in the arms of her fellow working ladies, where mostly she was kept under the watchful eye of friends who doted on the small babe, and though it was meant to be a temporary arrangements due to the amount of care a baby would need, by just twenty-four months after her birth, Roisin was continuously sent to prison due to her work and twitching fingers, but mostly the reason came about because of her tight-knit connection to the Fenian Uprising. It is said, though behind closed hands, that Aoife’s father must have been that of Sean Mac Stiofain, a known terrorist who had made a name for himself and had since escaped out to the country where he was awaiting a barge to New York for safe keeping — with such a man for a father, what did they expect of Aoife O’Kelly?

As food begins to dwindle, Aoife continues to grow. Shadowing her playmates, she learned to pick the pockets of esteemed generals and how to flounce the beggarman of his change. She was taught how to handle a pocket knife and how to escape from a grip on the arm. Her general sense of self-defence was quick to learn, and by the age of five Aoife spent her days weaving between the crowds to gather the essential resources needed for survival. Only young, and a girl of doe-eyed blue hues, her visage was often overlooked by the garda who sought the street urchin who had robbed a visiting commodore’s wife, for how could someone so sweet in appearance do such a thing!? Learning, however, that she could get away with anything, Aoife’s targets grew in number and her jobs would escalate to downright violence to get what she wanted. Escaping the glare of the garda and the soldiers who sought revenge on the street scum of Dublin, Aoife lived her childhood as a ghost, a shadow, a whisper in your ear. She was no one but everyone at the same time. That was, till she grew just a little older.

Roisín O’Kelly left her daughter for the last time in 1870, promising to return once her dues were done to safe the necks of the Belfast Boys up north. Two years had passed by the time the news arrived that Aoife’s wild mother had been sent to prison for the last time in Hannahstown — as was the case with many who had been arrested during a demonstration, all family members assumed that their loved ones had either ‘gone missing’ or were to be punished in some awful way that would ever alter their livelihoods. As such, Aoife was forced to face the truth of the matter; that she was no longer the daughter of the ever desirable Roisín, but an orphan. Desperate to make her ends meet, and to appear worthy of a space beneath the woman’s roofs, Aoife worked the street, exchanging her body as her mother had done in order to bank what she could with those she yearned to repay. But she kept growing, taller and stretched out than the rest of the kids who stopped around a megre five foot. Aoife wasn’t worth her space, so she left, till she found a place by the helm of the Donoghues.

Eager to play her part, Aoife’s mannerisms lost the soft belly nature of a girl’s as she transitioned to a creature with sharpened teeth and a venomous tongue. As the Greenstreet Gang begin that slow metamorphosis of creation, Aoife hitches her post to its meaning and acts the dreaded blade hand that some still fear to turn to, if only to avoid upsetting their God. Still, the daughter of persons who had grown to hate the English and the weight held around Ireland, Aoife knew what she had to do.

Having arrived on English shores everything she had once known was thrown aside. Brandishing a knife she modified to become serrated for severer strikes, Aoife remained by the Greenstreet Gang side, often mirroring their actions and particulars as she anchored her feet upon London soil. It took a while, and with her growing height and changing physique Aoife attracted a selection of men who all thought she would be willing to offer - but she was not. In fact, she was often caught trying to attack her pursuers with sharpened claws and gnashing teeth only to be stopped by a lone prostitute or one of Donoghue’s boys (the English ones who didn’t care for the Irish within).

In 1886 a man had tried to take advantage of her in the darkened alleyways of London, just off Five Acres where the rich would sometimes visit between their theatre trips. She had hoped to capture a wallet or a handsome man for entertainment, but had only been placed with a man worth far less than she would have imagined. His greedy paws seemed trained on Aoife who had not been in the mood, and without a second thought, she cut through his two thumbs to the wailing screams of a man suddenly regretting his dark desires. Furious and feral with her intent, Aoife barked that she would cut off his prized possession if she heard of him again before disappearing into the night. As rumour grew that the man in question was on the lookout for her, Aoife only sharpened her senses - though, in fact, remained in the belly of the Greenstreet Gang, guarding her precious home like a wolfhound taking care of a rare resource of food and shelter. No matter, if he came after her, she would be waiting.


TIMELINE

1865 Aoife is born in Dublin on Marrowbone Road,
1867 Her mother, Rosín O’Kelly, is arrested for prostitution and stealing, she is sent to Cork prison and Aoife is formally left in the care of her friends (other prostitutes and thieves)
1868 Her mother is released, she finally introduces Aoife to the man who is supposed to be her father (Fenian Uprising and known terrorist to the British forces). Rosín is known for acting as an assailant to the gang, and is soon found out. She passes Aoife off to a family who have less tangents to the gang before she is arrested for the second time
1869 Rosín O’Kelly is released after a year of ‘good behaviour’ , turning up to retrieve her daughter
1870 She moves in with the Donoghues after Rosín declares she’s off to Belfast to help the ‘boys’, Aoife is quickly taught how to pick pockets and to defend herself
1872 Rosín O’Kelly is arrested at the demonstration at Hannahstown, Belfast, whilst campaigning for the release of Fenian prisoners. She is never seen again, and assumed dead
1880 Aoife, at fifteen years, is pushed to take up jobs on the street in order to help the Donoghue’s plight. She trades her body for money and food and is rumoured to have killed a man in self-defense
1884 Moves with Sean Donoghue to London and helps in the killing of an old gang to assert their place
1887 Aoife does not help the relations between the English Black Powder Gang and the Greenstreet Gang., ,if anything she is known to rile them