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course, sailors. However, when she reaches the big city,
Edinburgh, she experiences some of the slackening of
normal constraints which Renton noticed in London.
Initially, she considers her relationship with her best
friend, Manda, “she just does all these really funny
things that make me smile and smile, och, those sort of
things make ya almost fall in love wi someone.” There
are echoes of Brian in ‘A Smart Cunt’ and his closeness
to Penman, but in this case the examination of same
sex friendship marks Fionnula’s first tentative step
towards identifying her developing sexuality. Later on,
she comments, “ah’ve always known, soon as I’m out
of Our Lady’s am away fro the Port an down here in a
jiffy.” One wonders if Fionnula, in her Wonderbra and
high heels, would find any more acceptance in the gay
scene than Denise.
The crucial moment for Fionnula comes when she
discovers that Kay has had a lesbian experience; that
she is not alone in her attraction to other women. However,
Kay’s experience was not entirely homosexual, in
that she ended up in menage à trois with a man and a
woman, and indeed became pregnant as a result of it.
On the one hand this is interesting as it acknowledges
that sexuality isn’t necessarily clear cut; both Kay and
Catriona could be described as bisexual. However, it
also serves to blunt the impact of what Kay has done.
The fact that a man was involved at all makes it less
radical (perhaps for a predominantly heterosexual read-
BUY Irvine Welsh books online from and
ership) than if she and Catriona had been alone together.
Kay herself says immediately, “Catriona isn’t lesbian!
Just that bit bi.” When Fionnula asks her how she feels
about it she isn’t terribly enthusiastic: “I was really
drunk that night and it just happened” and “It’s really
good, Kay says in a way that sounded to Fionnula as if
she might be talking about a bowl of soup or a drink.”
Nevertheless this perhaps does not reflect her attitude
so much as her narrative function at this stage – she is
there to provide an ‘out’ for Fionnula’s sexuality – and
she does at least treat it as a very normal activity.
The implication which is made by both Fionnula and
the narrator is that Kay can afford to experiment; she
lives outside the Port, she is middle class, she is not
a Soprano. Fionnula says, “you have a bit of space an
got away wi that scot-free but someone would be sure
an clipe on me.” She is painfully aware of the social
reaction she is likely to get. However this also results
in a pleasing irony; if anything Kay is a triple outsider,
and her friendship with Fionnula is the only reason she
is accepted by the Sopranos in the first place.
Fionnula’s reaction to Kay’s news is not simply one
of interest or relief that she is not alone. Already attracted
to Kay, it provokes strong sexual excitement,
“downwards Fionnula’s stomach dived and simultaneous
a jellyfish sting, right in her fanny, and up, in an
awful wonder came it’s warm spreadingness.” Warner
tends to acknowledge and depict female desire very ef-
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