Trespasses

The narrative moves back in time to the Troubles. On Ash Wednesday, a 24-year-old Cushla helps her brother, Eamonn, at their family’s pub. Eamonn irritably tells her to wipe the ashes off of her forehead because most of their patrons are Protestant. In addition to the regulars, Cushla sees a middle-aged man named Michael with dark eyes, formal clothes, and a deep voice. The local news shows footage of bombings and deaths. English troops have been stationed in the town since 1969. When Cushla gathers empty glasses from a group of soldiers, one of them gropes her. Eamonn doesn’t intervene, but Michael stands up for her. The soldiers leave, and Cushla tells her brother to spend some time with his children. After Eamonn leaves, Michael and Cushla introduce themselves. She teaches seven- and eight-year-old children at St. Dallan’s, and he is a barrister who loves to write and act. After Eamonn returns, Cushla and Michael leave the pub at the same time, and he makes sure that she gets home safely. Cushla’s mother, Gina, tells her daughter that the barrister’s name is Michael Agnew, that he is in his fifties, that his wife has an alcohol addiction, and that he has a teenaged son.

Cushla makes breakfast for her ailing mother and then drives to school, accidentally splashing a student named Davy McGeown en route. She tries to dry him off before class begins. At the insistence of Mr. Bradley, the headmaster, the students recount the news each morning, and their stories focus on the deadly conflict between the loyalists and the republicans. Davy hits a classmate for saying that he smells, and Cushla sends the boys to stand in opposite corners. Father Slattery enters her classroom and tells them a terrifying story of a Catholic girl who was attacked by a group of Protestant men. During the children’s recess, a fellow teacher named Gerry Devlin asks Cushla to go to a party with him. She agrees but regrets it almost immediately. The children are deeply unsettled by the priest’s story, and Cushla allows them to go home a few minutes early.

Because it’s raining, Cushla gives Davy a ride home. On the way, she stops by her house to change for her shift at the pub and finds her mother with a bottle of gin. After hauling her mother back to bed, Cushla takes Davy home. His older brother, Tommy, is bullied by Protestant high schoolers, but he angrily refuses Cushla’s offer of a ride. The McGeowns’ home is marked by graffiti using a derogatory term for Irish Catholics. Davy’s Protestant mother, Betty, is kind to Cushla, but Tommy is cold. Cushla decides to stay home because she is worried about her mother. When she calls Eamonn to explain her concerns, he is livid with her. After learning that Michael is at the pub, Cushla is angry as well.

On Saturday night, Gerry picks Cushla up for the party. Their route takes them to an army checkpoint, and the soldiers make Gerry get out of the car and stand under a dripping gutter before allowing them to be on their way. At the party, Cushla feels like an outsider because Gerry pays her little attention and she is the only person there who lives outside Belfast, where the fighting is much more severe than in her town. Cushla tells the others, “It’s not that great over our way either. My brother stands behind the bar every night afraid to open his mouth in case he offends somebody and ends up on a loyalist hit list” (36). Gerry’s friends are dismissive of the problems facing her and the rest of the people in her town, citing the way they are treated by British soldiers every day. Cushla goes upstairs, passes a bedroom where two of the guests are having sex, and feels “a lick of desire” (37).

On their second date, Gerry and Cushla attend a performance of Philadelphia, Here I Come!, where she bumps into Michael. Michael introduces her to a married couple named Penny and Jim. Gerry recognizes Michael and his friends, explaining that Penny is an artist, Jim is a historian, and Michael is a barrister who has “been outspoken against internment, defended a few of the civil rights crowd when nobody else would touch them” (40). At intermission, Michael strikes up a conversation with Cushla. She explains that her name comes from the Irish endearment “A chuisle mo chroí” (42), which means “the pulse of my heart” (42). Her father named her. He died about two years ago, and she misses him terribly. Michael was a friend of his, and his fond words for the man deeply move Cushla. Michael asks Cushla if she would be interested in teaching him and his friends Irish, but Gerry returns before she can answer.

Cushla works at the pub several nights a week in the hopes of seeing Michael, but he has only appeared in her daydreams since their chance encounter at the theater. One day, Cushla returns from a shopping trip in Belfast and goes to the pub. The place is untidy because Gina no longer cleans it, and Cushla takes the task on herself. Gina mingles with the customers but does little else, and Eamonn treats her like a nuisance. Michael enters the pub, and Cushla agrees to join him and his friends for one of their Irish conversation nights on Monday. Back home, Gina expresses her gladness that she can spend the evening with her daughter because Cushla has often been out lately. Cushla is stricken with guilt to see Gina’s eyes “shining, as if she was trying not to cry” (48), and she resolves to work fewer shifts at the pub so she can spend more time with her mother.

When Michael comes to pick her up on Monday night, Cushla tells Gina that she is going to see a movie with Gerry. Cushla feels self-conscious because of Michael’s posh accent and social status. This reminds her of how her mother came from a working-class background while her father was from a wealthy family. Michael, Cushla, Jim, Penny, and two other friends of Michael’s named Victor and Jane gather at Penny’s elegant home. Cushla tries to help the hostess with the preparations for dinner and accidentally burns herself. Michael notices and runs cold water over the burn as Cushla feels her “heart [...] clobbering in her chest” (55). After dinner, the guests practice their Irish. Victor snidely asks Cushla what the Irish word for “no” is, fully aware that there isn’t one.

Later that night, Michael drives Cushla home and gives her a well-loved book about the 1798 rebellion. He says that sectarianism is tied to industrialism and unjust economic practices. Cushla voices her skepticism that Catholics would be welcome to participate in labor reform efforts, but Michael answers that they have to stay hopeful. Michael gives her an endearingly clumsy kiss. He promises to see her when his complicated circumstances allow, and she agrees “because it was all he was offering” (60).