Malachy never manages to keep a job for very long and hardly ever brings home the money, on payday, instead he goes to the pub to fuel his increasing addiction. Malachy often takes himself off on long walks into the countryside and looks for work, but hardly ever seems to find it. It seems that in Malachy’s mind, the dole money goes to his family, and the money he earns doing a job goes towards a pint. This leaves Frank and the rest of his family sitting at home suffering from hunger, wondering where Malachy is. Angela, Frank’s mother Is aware of Malachy’s problem but is powerless to do anything about it, ‘Mam said you’re to bring home the money. You’re not to drink the pint.’
Frank is often sent out by his mother to find Malachy, when they are left at home waiting for him. He is made to trail every pub in Limerick, in the cold, until he finds his father, drunk, drinking the money that was needed for food. On one occasion when Frank is out looking for him on his own, he finds himself so hungry, due to lack of proper meals he steals left over fish and chips from a drunken man. Frank sees this as a sin and goes to confession straight away. He tells the priest what he has done and the priest asks why Frank can’t go home to get food from his mother, and frank replies with ‘because she sent me out looking for my father in the pubs father.’ Instead of, telling Frank he has done wrong and to repent his sins, instead he says ‘I hear the sins of the poor. I assign the penance.’ This is because even the priest feels sorry for Frank, and sympathises with him. It is also probably due to the fact that the priest feels a strong emotion of guilt, as at that time the priest were very well off compared to most of the population of Limerick.
Frank eventually finds his father, drunk in the streets. Frank feels mixed emotions towards him at this point. On one hand he looks up to his father, who tells him stories of ‘Cuchulain’ and ‘de Valera’ and Roosevelt’, but on the other he sees him as someone who always lets him down. Malachy is a good father to his children, in a way he generally cares and loves them, but it is due to his alcoholism that prevents him from showing this, and coping with his responsibilities as a parent. Although Frank loves his father, when he finds him, he feels great anger and hatred towards him, ‘all I can think of doing is running in and giving him a good kick on the leg and running out again.’ Frank shows great maturity at this point, as he decides its best to leave him there and ‘go home and tell my mother a lie that I never saw him couldn’t find him’. This is because by this point Frank has seen his father in this state often enough and knows there is no point in trying to reasons with him and take him home, and knowing that if he did take him home it would probably upset his mother more.
Although Malachy should be ashamed of himself for not being able to provide for his family, he is still a very proud man. It seems that Malachy clings on to his pride as he sees it as one of the only things he has left. He wants to be respected by people and his family, and always wears a collar and tie, although Angela tries to persuade him that he would be more likely to be hired if he looked like a working man. Angela terms Malachy’s need to look dignified the “Grand Manner.” People perceived him as thinking he was better than them.
Malachy’s pride could be seen as false pride, as he destroys any respect that he would have when he comes in night after night drunk, after spending all the money but still tries to preserve his own dignity. An example of his pride is when Malachy is disgusted that Frank had to carry the pig’s head home that they had for Christmas dinner. He considers carrying things through the streets undignified, and refuses to do it himself, but is quite happy to let Angela to do it this shows that Malachy’s first priority is to protect his own self-esteem. This also shows Malachy’s old fashion views towards women and the unfair gender roles, and how the women were meant to carry out jobs like this, and not even Frank is meant to help Angela.
When foremen refuse to hire Malachy because they are biased against Northerners, Malachy still refuses to feign a Limerick accent. Despite these things Frank never condemns his father, he just explains the facts, we never get franks real opinion of his father. Just as you are feeling anger towards Malachy he seems to redeem himself, and show a side of him that is very likeable. On Christmas day Malachy eats almost nothing so that his sons might fill their bellies, and he clearly adores his family despite his bad behaviour.
Despite all of this, Malachy and Frank seem to have a special bond, Frank was the first born, and Malachy used to always tell him stories. There is a defining moment in chapter 9, which seems to bring them closer together, and makes them both realise the love they share for one another. This occurs when Frank is in hospital, ad Malachy visits him,
‘he looks at me, steps away, stops, comes back, kisses me on the forehead for the first time in my life and I’m so happy I feel like floating out of the bed.’
Franks sheer elation at this point shows just how much that moment meant to him, and how this affection from his father was not normally shown. This may have been because, Frank came close to dying which made Malachy realise just how important his son was to him. It shows that Malachy would be a good father to the boys, if he wasn’t affected by a disease of being an alcoholic, and also If he let go of some of is pride, that stopped him from getting the best for his family.
