The General Post Office, Dublin, is both a landmark in the family’s journey home and a site where Irish history is made tangible. During their passage through Dublin, Frank’s father asks the driver to stop so he can show Frank the statue of Cú Chulainn and explain its connection to the men who died in Easter Week.

Setting on the Family’s Journey

The family is travelling by motor car through Dublin after receiving help from a sergeant’s wife. Frank’s father sits smoking and drinking tea until the car arrives; then he asks the driver to take a route past the General Post Office. The stop is a brief detour on the way to the train for Limerick, but it gives the journey a historical and personal focus.

The Building and Its Marks

The driver initially mistakes the request for a desire to visit the post office for a stamp. He does not know who Cú Chulainn was, but agrees to stop and recalls having seen the building as a boy, when English guns fired from the River Liffey and nearly wrecked it. He points to the bullet holes on the front and says they should remain as reminders of English perfidy. The building thus carries visible traces of conflict into the family’s present-day passage through the city.

The Statue and Its Interpretation

Frank’s mother stays in the car while Frank, his father, and the driver go inside. The driver points out the statue, and Frank, who has long admired Cú Chulainn, is moved to see it at last: the figure is golden, with long hair bowed down and a large bird on his shoulder. The driver questions what the statue has to do with the men of 1916. Frank’s father answers by linking the hero’s last stand to the Easter Week dead: Cú Chulainn fought to the end, and his enemies approached only when a bird landed on him and drank his blood, confirming that he was dead.

Historical and Narrative Significance

The visit brings together two kinds of remembrance. The bullet holes recall the building’s damage during conflict, while the statue makes the father’s account of heroic death visible to his son. The driver’s skepticism keeps the memorial from becoming a simple affirmation: he questions the connection and observes that it is a sad day when a bird must tell Irishmen that a man is dead. The family must leave to catch the train, but the stop has joined Frank’s admiration for Cú Chulainn to his father’s account of the Rising and its dead.