” Frank knew what his father deserved for making his mother unhappy and didn’t hesitate to ignore him when he’d done the ‘bad thing’.
As they couldn’t rely on Malachy, Frank knew it was his job to bring home the money himself and seemed to carry his family’s burdens on his shoulders.
“I want to bring home the shilling. I want to be a man.”
He knows his mother is having a hard time and tries his best to do all he can for her, “my mother wouldn’t have to be a beggar at the Redemptorist priests’ house.”
When Frank loses his job, he is so upset thinking he has become as useless as his father, “and I can’t stop crying now because this was my one chance to be a man and bring home the money the telegram boy never brought from my father.”
Throughout the book, Frank hints that he would have a different father if he could. Malachy makes Frank furious, especially when he disrespects Oliver’s coffin.
“I know that Eugene’s coffin because Oliver had one like it and I want to cry when I see the black pints on top of it.”
Frank has so much rage for his father when he can’t be found, and has been drinking, upsetting his mother, “O Jesus, I wish I had my strength and I’d search every pub in Limerick. I’d tear the mouth out of his head, so I would.” Frank is weak physically but strong emotionally and is extremely dedicated to his family and his beliefs unlike his father.
When Malachy was drunk, he would get all the boys out of bed in the middle of the night and make them line up like soldiers, making them swear to die for Ireland.
”Where are my troops? Where are my four warriors?”
These parts were quite comical but Frank got angry when he made his little brother Michael get up as well.
When Malachy moved to England, Frank was upset when he left but they became very distant after a couple of years. Frank probably knew he wouldn’t see him again but he didn’t care because he hadn’t sent his mother a penny.
Although Frank hated his father for many things, he still loved him. Malachy would get up in the morning with Frank and tell him stories about Cuchulain, “that’s my story. Dad can’t tell that story to Malachy or any other children down the hall,” and then they would sit drinking tea and eating bread.
“He finishes the story and lets me sip his tea. It’s bitter, but I’m happy there on his lap.”
Frank loved his mornings with his father as it was just the two of them and he had him all to himself.
“When you have your father to yourself by the fire in the morning you don’t need Cuchulain or the Angel on the Seventh Step or anything.”
When Frank thought about having a different father, he would think about their morning together and would decide he was happy with him as his father.
“He lights the fire and makes the tea and sings to himself or reads the paper to me in a whisper.”
Frank loved him the most when he brought home the wages from his job and made his mother, Angela, happy. She would sing a song, “Anyone could see why I wanted your kiss,” and they would all have a wonderful day. He loved to know that he would be able to wake up in the morning, and they would all have a big breakfast.
“In another week there’s a telegram money order for three pounds and we’re in heaven.”
Frank looked up to his father and wanted to be just like him, “dad says I’ll understand when I grow up. He tells me that all the time now and I want to be big like him so that I can understand everything.”
”Neighbours and other people that knew him would often tell him that he was very much like his father, ‘with the brown eyes and black hair and the ‘odd manner.’’ Frank thought of his dad as three different people, “the one in the morning with the paper,” and “the one at night with the stories and the prayers,” these were the two sides of his father he loved and idolised. The one his hated was “the one who does the bad thing and comes home with the smell of whiskey,” and wanted them all to die for Ireland.
Malachy loved and cared for his sons a lot. When Frank didn’t come home, he searched for him the whole night until he found him.
“Your father walked every street in Limerick looking for you.”
He ate little of his own food so that he could leave the rest of it for them, “he eats a small slice of the pig’s cheek and a leaf of cabbage and leaves the rest on his plate for Malachy and me,” even when Angela gave him an egg for his journey to England, he shared it around, “he slices the egg five ways and gives each of us a bit to put on our bread.”
Having put his family through overwhelming poverty, Malachy leaves to England to find more work. Frank is sad when he leaves and doesn’t want to lose his father, “I run down the hill and follow him as far as I can.” When he goes to visit him at the hospital, he is so happy to see 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.”
This is the first time Malachy actually embraces Frank and he feels wonderful. When Angela was angry at Frank or acted in a strange way, he would always wonder where his father was, “She’s not talking like my mother today. I want my father. Where is my father?”
Frank had a love-hate relationship with his father. However, the only time he despised and hated him was when he was under the influence of the drink. Malachy would use the money for his addiction but nothing else. If Malachy did not have a drinking problem, he would probably do anything for his children. When he wasn’t drunk, Malachy had so much love and care for his children and would give them anything. The books leaves the reader with a warm, affection their love for one another is and this impression leaves you to overlook the previous feelings you had for Malachy as an incompetent father.
Frank loved him so much and cherished the moments he spent with him. He looked up to him with much admiration. Frank loved spending time with him and idolised him. Frank only hated his father for keeping his mother and brothers in crippling hunger but loved him when he was sober, and trying to look after the family.
Word Count: 1499
