Public Life stories

Question 1

Ivy Day - question of wages

Answer 1

“Has he paid you yet?”

Question 2

Ivy Day - Tierney’s nickname

Answer 2

“Is it Tricky Dicky Tierney?”

Question 3

Ivy Day - yearning for the past

Answer 3

“God be with them times” Said the Old Man. There was some life in it then”

Question 4

Ivy Day - focus on money

Answer 4

“No money, boys”

Question 5

Ivy Day - priest description

Answer 5

“A person resembling a poor clergyman or a poor actor” “appearance of damp cheese”

Question 6

Ivy Day - priest’s voice

Answer 6

“discreet, indulgent, velvety voice”

Question 7

Ivy Day - mixing of clerical and monetary matters

Answer 7

“it was a little business matter”

Question 8

Ivy Day - stairs quote

Answer 8

“but the stairs is so dark. - No I can see …”

Question 9

Ivy Day - outcast priest

Answer 9

“he’s what you call a black sheep”

Question 10

Ivy Day - language of acceptance

Answer 10

“he’s not so bad after all”

Question 11

Ivy Day - parody of 3 gun salute for Parnell

Answer 11

“Pok!”

Question 12

Ivy Day - non commital language

Answer 12

“Hes in favour of whatever will benefit this country” “He doesn’t belong to any party”

Question 13

Ivy Day - death of ideals

Answer 13

“Parnell, said Mr Henchy, is dead”

Question 14

A Mother - marriage of Mrs Kearney

Answer 14

“Miss Devlin became Mrs Kearney out of spite”

Question 15

A Mother - description of Mrs K

Answer 15

“she was naturally pale and unbending in manner”

Question 16

A Mother - selling herself for marriage

Answer 16

“she was sent out to many houses where her playing and ivory manners were much admired”

Question 17

A Mother - marriage due to public opinion

Answer 17

“when…her friends began to loosen their tongues about her she silenced them by marrying Mr. Kearney”

Question 18

A Mother - objectification of her husband

Answer 18

“such a man would wear better than a romantic person”

Question 19

A Mother - Joyce satire of the Irish Revival

Answer 19

“When the Irish Revival began to be appreciable” “take advantage of her daughter’s name”

Question 20

A Mother - imbuing herself with importance

Answer 20

“Mrs Kearney helped him. She had tact” “and, thanks to her”

Question 21

A Mother - respect for her husband

Answer 21

“She respected her husband in the same way she respected the General Post Office, as something large secure and fixed”

Question 22

A Mother - value of her husband

Answer 22

“he appreciated his abstract value as a male”

Question 23

A Mother - money and public reputation

Answer 23

“The Committee had treated her scandalously” “she would make Dublin ring”

Question 24

A Mother - awareness of gender politics

Answer 24

“They thought they had only a girl to deal with”

Question 25

A Mother - similar description to Farrington

Answer 25

“her face was inundated with an angry colour” “haggard with rage”

Question 26

A Mother - public opinion has final say

Answer 26

“Mrs. Kearney’s conduct was condemned”

Question 27

A Mother - Daughter submissively obeying

Answer 27

“Kathleen followed her mother meekly”

Question 28

Grace - descent into Hell

Answer 28

“He lay curled up at the foot of the stairs down which he had fallen”

Question 29

Grace - vivid imagery of fall

Answer 29

“His clothes were smeared with the filth and ooze of the floor”

Question 30

Grace - loss of speech

Answer 30

“Sha, ‘s nothing”

Question 31

Grace - description of the wife

Answer 31

“She was an active practical woman”

Question 32

Grace - trap of domestic duty

Answer 32

“After three weeks she had found a wife’s life irksome, and when she was beginning to find it unbearable, she became a mother”

Question 33

Grace - language of acceptance

Answer 33

“There were worse husbands”

Question 34

Grace - practicality of faith

Answer 34

“She believed in the Sacred Heart as the most generally useful of all Catholic devotions”

Question 35

Grace - superstition around religion

Answer 35

“I bar the magical-lantern business”

Question 36

Grace - priest description

Answer 36

“A powerful looking figure … was observed to be struggling up the pulpit” “two-thirds of its bulk, crowned by a massive red face”

Question 37

Grace - simony, associating religion with temporal matters

Answer 37

“It was a text for business men and professional men” “he was their spiritual accountant”

Question 38

Grace - acceptance of sin

Answer 38

“But if, as might happen, there were some discrepancies, to admit the truth, to be frank and say like a man: - … I will set right my accountants”