Drumcondra is the destination of Maria’s Hallow Eve visit to Joe’s family, reached by tram from the city through a journey she plans down to the minute. The district brings her to a warm family gathering, but the route there also supplies a brief encounter with a stranger whose politeness Maria reads with gentle, rueful confidence.

Journey and Arrival

Maria calculates that the trip from Ballsbridge to the Pillar will take twenty minutes, the onward journey to Drumcondra another twenty, and buying the things a further twenty. With the women’s tea at six and her expected release before seven, she believes she will arrive before eight. The arithmetic makes her visit a small exercise in orderly anticipation: she imagines the children singing and hopes Joe will not come home drunk, since drink changes his manner.

Her purse, with silver clasps and the inscription A Present from Belfast, links the planned outing to an earlier family memory. Joe had given it to her five years before, after he and Alphy went to Belfast on a Whit-Monday trip. Carrying two half-crowns and some coppers, Maria expects to have five shillings left after paying the tram fare. Drumcondra is thus not merely a point on her route but the place where her practical preparations meet the affection and unease she brings to Joe’s household.

The Tram Encounter

On the Drumcondra tram, Maria expects to stand because the young men do not notice her; an elderly passenger makes room instead. He is stout, with a brown hard hat, a square red face, and a greyish moustache. She takes him for a colonel-like gentleman, and their conversation turns to Hallow Eve, rainy weather, and the bag she is carrying for the children. He remarks that youngsters should enjoy themselves while they are young, and Maria answers with demure nods and hems.

At Canal Bridge she thanks him and bows; he raises his hat and smiles. Walking along the terrace in the rain, she concludes that it is easy to recognize a gentleman, even when he has had a drop to drink. The encounter makes the journey briefly companionable, while Maria’s courteous interpretation of the man’s drinking echoes her earlier hope that Joe will not be drunk that evening.

Family Gathering and Significance

When Maria reaches Joe’s house, the welcome is immediate: everyone calls out to her, the children are in their Sunday clothes, and games are underway with two girls from next door. Joe has returned from business. Maria gives the bag of cakes to Alphy, the eldest boy, to divide, and Mrs Donnelly praises her for bringing such a large bag. The visit fulfils the anticipation that had organized the journey: Maria has brought a treat for the children and arrived among people glad to see her.

Drumcondra’s role in the episode is modest but structurally important. The tram ride delays the domestic reunion long enough to show Maria’s attentiveness to manners, money, time, and drink; the arrival then answers those preparations with a household that receives her as family. Her route from work to Joe’s home gives physical shape to the affection she feels for the people she once nursed, while the hope that the evening will remain free of drunkenness keeps that welcome shadowed by apprehension.