Bobby interrogates Jenny about her motivations

Bobby interrogates Jenny about her motivations

Literature--Twentieth Century--Sean O'Faolain--Lough Derg

As they drive towards Lough Derg, Bobby interrogates Jenny as to her motivations for wishing to visit Lough Derg this year of all years. She responds that it is a particularly Irish form of religious devotion and expression.

Sean O'Faolain, 1900-1991

The Lovers of the Lake', in The Collected Stories of Sean O'Faolain, Vol. 2, pp. 18-43, here p. 20

Constable and Company, London

1981

Citation for the purposes of criticism

Edited edition

English

Collection of short stories

DD_0234

54.616218, -7.876212

“’Jenny, would you mind telling me exactly what all this is about? I mean, why are you doing this fal-lal at this particular time?’

‘I always wanted to do the pilgrimage. So it naturally follows that I would do it sometime, doesn’t it?’

‘Perhaps. But why, for instance, this month and not last month?’

‘The island wasn’t open to pilgrims last month.’

‘Why didn’t you go last year instead of this year?’

‘You know we went to Austria last year.’

‘Why not the year before last?’

‘I don’t know. And stop bullying me. It is just the sort of thing that everybody wants to do sometime. It is a special sort of Irish thing, like Lourdes, or Fatima, or Lisieux. Everybody who knows about it feels drawn to it. If you were a practising Catholic you’d understand.’…”

Short stories